Important information for both bocce veterans and newcomers.
Bocce Basics . . . Skip this section if you played Turbo Bocce before.
If you don’t know anything about bocce at all, watch this video . . . if you know how to play bocce don’t bother.
Now that you know what basic bocce ball is, you can learn about what makes Turbo Bocce so special.
Turbo Bocce is unique in a lot of ways, but the four most important ways are, (1) the starting box, (2) the turbo round, (3) individual statistics, (4) the bounty stystem:
(1) Everybody stands on a mat, or a “starting box” when they throw. When you win the point you get to choose where to place the mat and where to throw the target ball, called a pallino. You can throw it anywhere so long as you throw it longer than five feet and shorter than fifty feet.
(2) Turbo Bocce is named after the turbo round, which is our way of making the game a little faster and more exciting by avoiding all the boring measuring. If two balls are tied, instead of pulling out a measuring tape and painstakingly determining which is closer, we have the two players who threw the tied balls, re-throw a sudden death round, and whoever is closer wins the point.
One addendum to the turbo round rule, if you are really sure your ball is in, you get a challenge. When you challenge we get the measuring tape and determine who is closer. If your ball is closer you get to challenge again. If yours is not, you lose your challenges for the day.
(3) Turbo Bocce keeps four main statistics that you can win medals for, and follow for bragging rights.
Points – which is self explanatory
Bocces – when the other team is in for a point and you knock them out
Ace – when your ball is touching the pallino
Debocce – when you are in for a point and you accidentally knock your own ball out
(4) Every time you play bocce with us you have a chance to win money. We do this by choosing two teams at random (and in secret) to be the “bounty team.” If you happen to play the bounty team, and you beat them two games out of three, you win money. If you lose, the money gets put back into the pot so that the prize is bigger next week. So be on the lookout, you might just get a tap on the shoulder telling you that if you win you get some cold hard cash!
If you want to learn more about the nuts and bolts of Turbo Bocce read this article on Turbo Bocce’s top 10 innovations.
Choosing a Name . . . skip this section if you already know your team’s name.
Click HERE to read a whole bunch of possible bocce team names. You can pick one if you want, or maybe just use it as inspiration to think up your own name.
Rules to the game . . .
Its probably a good idea to look over all our rules, and you can do that HERE. The newest rules are in bold.
Other Turbo Bocce changes . . .
The Bounty teams will now be chosen at random based on what score book they are using. One of the two teams playing with the winning scorecard will go home with the prize.
The scorecards are now set up to track a new statistic! Turbo round wins. This is done with a mind towards the future when we might someday start fantasy bocce. Think about if you’d want to get involved. I’ll be doing informal polling on the subject all year.
There are now multiple nights when you are allowed to make-up games. Monday at Upper Onondaga Park in Strathmore, Tuesday at Sharkey’s, and Wednesday at Sharkey’s.
