Shuffleboard History | Shuffleboard Court & Equipment

Shuffleboard is one of the remarkable sports in terms of ease, interest, and comfort of playing. It can be played both indoors as well as outdoor.

Played both singles as well as doubles; this game comes with different variations and names.

The shuffleboard is the oldest historical sport with well-defined rules, objectives & equipment like; table, surface court, pucks, etc.

Scroll on for an interesting read.

Shuffleboard History, Equipment & Skills for Playing

This game came to life in 15th century England. It has certainly taken a while to catch on, but since it became established on concrete courts in the whole of America, its popularity has spread across other continents.

It has an international governing body, ISA (International Shuffleboard Association), which was formed in 1979 in Florida.

Shuffleboard courts come in medium to large sizes. The mini court can be set up in minutes on any hard, flat surface, indoors or outdoors.

It’s perfect for club or garden, and it’s an ideal game with family and friends on a bumpy surface. It is recommended to use a vinyl under-manned to level things out.

Large court size is a great option for leisure centers or community halls. Unroll the courts, place a piece of tape at each end, and you have a fast full-length playing surface.

Shuffleboard is fun from the minute you start playing, and the rules take no time at all to learn.

Start with four desks on each side and the minus ten off zone and take alternate shots.

Always push the disks with the cue in direct contact and take care not to put your foot over the kitchen line. Any desks not reaching the second landline (foul-line) should be removed.

A good player combines attack and defense, aiming to put desks into the scoring areas while knocking their opponents’ disks off the court or into the 10-off zone at the back of the grid.

Again, all you need is a firm flat surface. The court can be assembled or dismantled in around 30 minutes.

Shuffleboard has proved itself the perfect sport for all ages in America and many other countries around the world. The shuffleboard revolution is just starting here.

The object of the Game

The primary object of the game is to achieve more points than your opponents when the game gets over.

For doing so, players have to hold a stick-like paddle, also known as a tang or cue (one tang for one player), and attempt to move the pucks (biscuits/discs) towards the numerical scoring area that lies on the other side of the court.

Simply push the biscuits towards the scoring zone with an appropriate force so that they should either knock off your opponent’s pucks or cross his pucks to get more scores.

Remember, the pucks should not cross the defined lines and go off the court, nor they lag behind the scoring lines.

Equipment of Shuffleboard

Shuffleboard requires sticks like paddles or tangs, round pucks, biscuits or disks, surface court, or table court.

Let’s have a thorough look at the shuffleboard equipment.

1. Shuffleboard paddles, sticks, cues, or tangs

(6ft. 3inches maximum length)

The surface shuffleboard needs a stick-like paddle with half round mouth to propel the pucks from starting zone to the scoring zone.

The scoring zone lies on the other side of the court. However, table shuffleboard is played by the bare hands of the players.

2. Shuffleboard Pucks, Disks, or Biscuits

There are different pucks for Surface and Table Shuffleboard. Surface shuffleboard disks are larger in size than that of table shuffleboard.

Normally each player possesses 4 pucks. These pucks should be in two different colors, preferably red, black, yellow, and blue.

3. Shuffleboard Surface Court

These courts come in two sizes; the shorter one has a 30-foot-long play area, while the deluxe version is a full 40 feet with a six feet approach area at each end.

This is the defined length for international competition. Unlike the concrete courts, these plastic versions can be played on immediately after rainfall and requires zero maintenance.

This is the ideal surface for resorts, holiday parks, and for serious club players to hone their skills. Court has two shapes.  One is for the surface, and the other is for the table shuffleboard.

a. Surface Court

You can behold triangles at either end of the court. These triangles show different scoring zones. The triangles are similar when looked at from the opposite side. Scoring starts in the inverse direction.

First comes 10; the maximum points at the tip, then 8 points, and then points.

The last two boxes are divided into a right and a left zone. These two boxes are the base of the triangle, which is further known as ten off. This base of the triangle is the penalty area.

b. Shuffleboard Table Court

A table court is different from a surface court. It is placed on a table and is smaller in size and dimension. Table court has two areas with the same numbers on each side.

The numbers are 1,2, and 3. These numbers show the points of the players.

In addition to these numbers, there are lines that represent the area of these numbers. You can see a separate line before the scoring zone.

This line is known as the landline or foul line. Every puck, during its journey from starting zone to the scoring zone, has to cross this line.

If any puck lags behind this line, it is simply removed from the court.

Conclusion

As discussed, shuffleboard is the game of curiosity and insight. Played by all alike, young as well as old, shuffleboard game is really a spice of sports enthusiasts.