The Mayan’s played a ball game that’s like a sport that we play today. The sport basketball incorporates some of the qualities that the Mayan sport had. Such as passing to your team mates and shooting into a basket on the wall. The game is played by hitting a rubber ball into a hole on the wall. You try to hit the rubber ball anywhere on your body except your hands. You pass to your other team mates to get to the hole so that you can shot. This game included a ball. This ball was made out of a liquid called latex that came out of the rubber tree. To make this latex bouncy they added the juice from a morning glory. The ball was used in many different ways such as hitting any part of your body or going through the hole. The ball can go out of bounds. There were many different uniform apparels that you used. Some of the uniform pieces were called hacha’s it is a stone accessory worn on the ballplayers yoke which is stone that you wear on your waist. If you didn’t wear the uniform then most likely you would kill yourself from hitting your body with the heavy rubber ball. The court is in the shape of the capital letter I. It provides end zones so the ball can go out of bounds. There are two walls on either side of the middle of the capital I. Those walls are used to make the ball not go out of bounds and to hold the hole on the wall.
Losing this game will be the last thing the captain of the losing team does. When losing the captain of that team would be sacrificed by cutting off their head. However if you’re won then you would be praised with riches and gratitude from the crowd and from the King and gods. The ball game was made to show the cities power and wealth. When making the ball they would have a special religious ritual. Some people say that the ball was sometimes the losing’s team’s captain’s head which above is a human sacrifice. The ballplayers would wear some of the clothing items in ceremonies before and after the game. Some ball players would wear green jade which is a very precious rock that the Mayan’s used as a sign of wealth. Some people would wear bird headdresses and the color green which also showed wealth. The court was a place to show other cities that their city was not as powerful and wealthy as theirs. Also the benches showed carvings of many of the human sacrifice from of the previous games. Ceremonies were held in the court before and after the game. The Mayan used this as a way to kill war captives. While showing other cities that the Maya was powerful and rich.