An explanation of Danish culture – Roundball

We were taught this game during my Introduction week at DTU, in order to explain a bit about Danish culture.

Roundball is like baseball, except:

• the bases are closer
• you hit a tennis ball
• you hit with a huge paddle
• the ‘pitcher’ lightly tosses the ball to the hitter. He cannot strike you out. After three attempts, you are allowed to walk to first base.
• there can be more than one person per base, so you don’t have to run if someone hits poorly.
• you are ‘out’ if someone catches the ball, or if your ball first lands in the out-of bounds area (a ‘foul’ ball), or if you are off-base when the pitcher has the ball.

The secret to the game (that everyone knows) is to aim your ball so that it lands in-bounds but rolls as far as possible out-of-bounds (where no catchers can stand before you hit). Then, you can run around a few bases, before anyone can get to the ball.

After the ball is hit, and returned to the pitcher, the discussions begin:

• did the ball land out-of-bounds?
• was anyone off-base when the ball was returned to the pitcher?
• how many people crossed 4th base?
• how many ‘outs’ does your team now have?
• what is the new score?

This is the real demonstration of Danish culture, as the score of the game is reached by consensus between both teams.