Timaru the New Zealand hub for the obscure sport of fistball
Timaru has become the unintentional New Zealand capital for a little known sport with German roots.
Fistball, because players make contact with the ball using their fists, is similar to volleyball according to Sam Kempf, one of six Timaru-based players in the NZ team preparing for the Pacific Championships in Geelong at Labour Weekend.
Kempf said there are few key differences from volleyball in that fistball is traditionally played outside on a much larger area with five-a-side instead of six like volleyball and the ball is allowed to bounce once.
Fistball was brought into NZ by Christchurch-based Blase Dowall. That’s when Kempf, who travelled to a Crusaders game in Christchurch in 2018, got roped into playing.
Staying with his sister and her host family, who were involved in Christchurch’s Fistball scene, he went “along and gave it a go”.
He kept travelling for weekend play, before being asked to join the NZ team in 2018. Playing at the Asia-Pacific Fistball Championships in Melbourne, NZ beat Australia for the first time by two points. They also played against teams from India and Samoan.
“It was amazing,” Kempf said.
Following this, he enticed his brother, Jesse Kempf and flatmate, Jaydon Phillips, into the game.
The trio then travelled to Switzerland in August 2019 for the Fistball World Champsionships as part of the NZ team which finished 11th out of the 19 teams.
Jesse Kempf described the championships as a “crazy experience”.
“It was great having a lot of people watching, that was new. We placed the highest out of the new countries.”
Now Timaru has become the sport’s base, supplying half of the 12-strong NZ squad.
“I enjoy it because of the people, my family and friends are playing it at the moment down here,” Jesse said.
“I enjoy that its quite dynamic, it’s a big field, so you’re having to sprint in one direction and dive to get a ball.
“It’s similar to volleyball which I’ve played most of my life.”
The team is currently training for the 2022 Pacific Fistball Championships in Geelong to be held Labour Weekend with Timaru players being Connor Bradley, Josh Cameron, Bill Nifia, Jaydon Phillips, Jesse and Sam Kempf.
The remaining squad members are from Auckland, Wellington, Hamilton, Picton, Christchurch and Southbridge (Canterbury).
Dowall says NZ’s fistball origins are “a funny old story” as he was introduced to the sport in 2016 as a way to tick off a bucket list item.
“I remember thinking that one thing I always wanted to do was have the chance to represent my country in sport.
“I’ve played a lot of sport, and I’m winding down the end of a predominately basketball career, it was really midlife sporting crisis.”
Dowall was scrolling through a list of lesser known sports when he discovered fistball.
“I came across fistball, and it surprised me because I follow so many different sports, but I’d never heard about it.”
Dowall, a teacher, got some colleagues, friends and partners of friends together to start learning how to play the game.
“We had to teach ourselves through YouTube clips and working the sport out ourselves, and we didn’t have any gear.
“We played outside on much bigger fields, we didn’t have any fistballs so we used volleyballs and ropes for a line, it was all pretty basic.
“It started off for a bit fun and to tick off a potential bucket list box for a lot of people, but what surprised us was how much we generally enjoyed it.”
Dowall said the next big goal was for the sport to gain Olympic recognition.
“Hopefully one day we’ll see the sport played at the Olympic level.”
Before that the Kempfs are hoping for a fistball league in South Canterbury in the near future.
“It’s got heaps of room for growth in Timaru,” Jesse said.