The finals of a revived 3,000-year-old ball game have been played in the Mexican city of Teotihuacan Organisers have been trying to bring back the game, known as Ullamaliztli in Mexico, because of its ancient cultural and religious significance. The game was played across Central America before being banned by the Spanish conquistadors. ... According to ancient texts the ball game was seen as a struggle between light and darkness and provided the energy to keep humanity going. ... Today the game is played by teams of seven players, who knock a heavy solid rubber ball up and down a narrow pitch, using their hips rather than their feet. Giant ball courts can still be seen in ruins across the region. In ancient times losers of the game were often sacrificed to the Gods. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-39612317
Toured some of these courts on a trip last year. The courts I saw had even higher walls and were more vertical making it even more difficult. They used this apparently to train for war in terms of conditioning. It would take an incredible amount of skill and strength.
