news blog

The allure of national competition and arrival of a high-quality portable court has sparked a mini renaissance for the sport of bocce ball in New York’s Hudson Valley.

The growth in participation and rising skill level in Hudson Valley’s Special Olympics program saw two of the valley’s bocce athletes and their unified partners selected to represent New York State at the Special Olympics USA Games in Minnesota, alongside four bocce athletes from Long Island.

Certified Hudson Valley bocce coach Paige Peloso said training on the same portable courts used at the Games had made a “world of difference”, leading to top four finishes in the unified teams, male singles, unified doubles and unified mixed doubles bocce categories.

Portable courts from Packaworld set the scene for one of the United States’ best attended and highest profile bocce competitions last week when they were used to host the bocce event at the Special Olympics USA National Games.

More than 3,000 athletes, 11,500 coaches and volunteers and 75,000 fans descended on Minneapolis for the national games, which featured 16 different sports for individuals with intellectual disabilities, as well as unified partners.

The bocce event, hosted at the University of Minnesota’s Larson Performance Centre, saw more than 200 athletes vie for glory across singles, doubles, teams and unified categories.

Bocce ball is on the rise across Southern California as new inflatable courts help the state's Special Olympics athletes enjoy the sport they love in more locations.

There are now dozens of Packabocce courts in use from San Luis Obispo to Los Angeles, in Special Olympics Southern California community and school programs – making it easier than ever for athletes to hone their bocce skills in professional playing conditions.

The recent Ventura County Bocce Competition at Rancho Campana High School provided more than 250 athletes from 40 teams the chance to compete on 11 portable courts, featuring both traditional and unified bocce formats.

New portable courts are supporting an explosion in bocce ball popularity in Puerto Rico, with scores of athletes taking part in the latest round of the island’s national Special Olympics tournament and a new unified bocce carnival for students.

Between them, the Special Olympics National Bocce Tournament event in Cataño and Adapted Sport Carnival in Caguas engaged hundreds of Special Olympics athletes, unified partners, families, volunteers and supporters.

Both events took place on new portable bocce ball courts from Packaworld, allowing for easy court transportation to venues and providing an eye-catching and wheelchair-accessible stage for participants.

Most people are happy playing sport at their local park, gym, or pool, but for some that's just not exciting enough. 

From coral reefs to cruise ships and from Germany's beaches to Central Europe's largest lake, sport has a habit of popping up in the most unexpected places – aided by portable equipment that makes it all possible.

Packaworld’s inflatable courts and goals have supported some seriously unique places to play sport around the world. That's why we've put our heads together to come up with this selection of five of our favourites. 

Read on, and perhaps gain some inspiration for the next indoor or outdoor location you plan to transform using our portable sports equipment.

If you've seen people rolling or throwing balls in a park or courtyard and wondered which game they might be playing, you're not alone.

The world of ball-wrangling sports can be confusing, with titles like pétanque, boules, bowls and bocce chucked around and used interchangeably – though sometimes not accurately.

In this helpful guide we seek to  untangle the terminology, remove some of the mystery and explore what makes each of them unique (or not as the case may be!).

After reading this, you'll be sure to know your boules from your bowls, and your pallino from your jack and cochonett.

If you’ve ever delved into the history of bocce ball, you’ll know that even the sport’s biggest fans are prone to heated debates about where it all started.

Perhaps its creation stems from an ingrained impulse to target an object, honed through millennia of hunting animals to provide food for the tribe, or maybe humans are just hardwired to love challenging games of skill that involve socialising.

Whatever the idea was behind the game’s original format, it has remained perennially popular ever since.

The story of bocce ball’s development takes us on a journey of more than 7,000 years, from polished rocks thrown in the shadows of Egyptian pyramids to resin balls used on portable inflatable courts for international Special Olympics competitions.

Bocce ball has become a star addition to the activity schedule at the Westminster Lakeland continuing care retirement community in Florida, after the purchase of a portable bocce court hit a sporting sweet spot with its winning blend of social connection and gentle exercise.

Bob Slavkovsky, a resident at Westminster Lakeland, said the inaugural bocce ball competition he helped organize in October drew in dozens of enthusiastic players who are now raring to keep rolling on a regular basis.

“We had a great turnout for a party to celebrate the opening of our bocce court, and we’ve set it up for a whole weekend every month in our activity center.

“People here love bocce and one individual has come up with a wonderful chart to keep score of the games.”