"Gate Ball In Hawaii" "Say What?"

"Gate Ball?"... Who would ever think this was a sport. I too wondered myself, until I had the opportunity to observe the sport at Ala Moana Beach Park this morning. I met with Mr. Stanley Kitamura (photo below), President of the Hawaii Aloha Gate Ball Association and who is also the Hawaii Ground Golf Association Director. Mr. Kitamura related they have been playing this sport for the past 6 years and all of his players are retirees, ages ranging from 70-89 years old. They play every Sunday and Thursday between the hours of 7:30am to 11:00am just Koko Head (east) of the Ala Moana tennis courts.

This is what I learned about the game. Gate Ball is a mallet sport similar to croquette. It is a non-contact, fast-paced, highly-skilled team game, which can be played by anyone regardless of age or gender. It originated in Japan (1947) and is now played by more than 8 million people in over 15 countries worldwide.

Gate Ball is played on a rectangular court 20-25 meters long and 15-20 meters wide. Courts are generally grass, but can also be clay, gravel or concrete. Each court has three gates and a goal pole. The game is played by two teams (red and white) which consist of five players each. Each player has a numbered ball corresponding to their playing order. The odd-numbered balls are red and the even-numbered balls are white. Teams score one point for each ball hit through a gate and two points for hitting the goal pole. A game of Gate Ball lasts for 30 minutes. The winner is the team that has the most points at the end of the game.

The above members are left to right, #1 Stanley Sato, #2 Stanley Kitamura, #3 Kenneth Hosaka, #4 Dorothy Sato, #5 Kay Terao, #6 Masako Kozuma, #7 Margaret Fox, and #8 Yoshikane Shizuo. I would like to thank Mr. Stanley Kitamura and his members for their time, and for sharing the sport of Gate Ball with me. Much Mahalo! More photos click here