Tetherball Configurations
Ground-pole-ball-pole can be fun if you shake the first pole to get the second one whipping around dangerously, but the ball at the joint gets torn apart pretty fast.
Ground-pole-ball-pole can be fun if you shake the first pole to get the second one whipping around dangerously, but the ball at the joint gets torn apart pretty fast.
Tetherball is a game for two players with the objective to wind a rope completely around a pole. The rope is attached (tethered) to the pole on one end and to a ball on the other end. The players try to wind the rope in opposite directions and do so by hitting the ball at the rope's loose end with their hands or with paddles. Randall has the usual configuration last with five stars, preceded by several humorously inane configurations with fewer stars:
Ground-rope-ball receives only one star because there is no way to keep "score". Megan holds the rope while looking at Cueball holding the ball. What to do...
Ground-pole-ball receives only one star because there is no way for anything to happen. The pole is fixed in place, and the ball is fixed in place at the top. Ponytail can be seen waving her hand at the ball at the top of the pole, but it's too tall and she can't even reach it. Hairbun has just given up.
Ground-rope-pole-ball is slightly better than the previous configurations and therefore receives two stars instead of one. The players have some way to keep score by seeing which way the rope is wound around the pole, but a player who is behind can reset the score by pushing the rope windings off of the pole. Also, twirling the rope in order to rack up point windings would be awkward—and possibly even dangerous to the other player, depending on how long the pole is. Lastly, the ball serves no purpose in this case. Ponytail holds the rope while White Hat holds the ball from which the pole goes up.
Ground-pole-rope-ball is the best and therefore receives five stars. Players can accumulate point windings by hitting the ball past the other player, and gravity and the pole's height prevent the player who is behind from unscrupulously resetting the score. This is the configuration that is used in real life. Back to Cueball and Megan, who are getting ready to play a regular game of Tetherball.
In the title text a fifth alternative is mentioned, where there is no rope, and instead a second pole rotates freely around a joint made out of a ball: Ground-pole-ball-pole is mentioned to be fun, because if you shake the pole stuck in the ground, the loose one connected via the ball could begin whipping around dangerously. Whether this is actually entertaining depends on whether you get hit by it... Again, You would not be able to keep score in the same way as regular tetherball, but you could count who got hit by the second loose pole first, or, for instance, the first to 10 hits. Alternatively, you could score a point by managing to make the free pole make a complete rotation without your opponent managing to change its direction. If the pole is not padded, or made of a soft material, this would likely be dangerous,[citation needed] or at least painful. Randall also remarks that the ball would probably get torn apart as it acts like a joint between the two poles. No rating is given, but, given that he calls it fun, at least 3 stars might be expected.