KnockerBall is football, soccer and pinball ... but you are the pinball

I was sprinting full force directly at her.

Step by step, gaining momentum, power and might.

The little slice of evil in my head was shouting silently: "Just wait. You're about to be plowed over, knocked on your big bubble rear."

But, as I crashed into Natalie Wichern, she didn't budge. I, on the other hand, bounced off like a pinball and landed backward. The last thing I saw before falling onto my own bubble rear was a smirk on Wichern's face.

This, my friends, is called KnockerBall, a contact sports trend sweeping the nation. And it's made its way to Indianapolis, thanks to KnockerBall Indianapolis, a new business co-owned by Chris Cox and Chris Costa.

The gist is simple: Get inside a big plastic ball and charge your opponents. Videos of people doing it have gone viral on YouTube. Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton is really into it and, not so strangely, really good at it. You may have even seen it at halftime shows of sporting events and thought, "Wow. That looks pretty cool."

Now you can try it yourself. KnockerBall Indianapolis will let people don a bubble and crash during several days of the Indiana State Fair, which opens Friday. It also is running two fall KnockerBall leagues that start in September.

But before any of you dare to strap yourself inside a $250 bubble, I recruited three players — Wichern, a setter for the University of Indianapolis volleyball team, Hannah Bauer, a right side hitter, and her brother Jack Bauer, a sophomore at Roncalli High School — and tried the game out.

In a nutshell, KnockerBall is a mix of football, soccer and pinball. But you are the pinball.

Sometimes called bubble soccer, bubble ball or knocker soccer, there are endless games that can be played, all involving collision.

We, along with Cox, tried out three of them — last person standing, bowling and soccer — at Grand Park in Westfield Tuesday morning, looking just about as goofy, kooky and dopey as five people can look.

It's hard not to look funny when your body is inside a gigantic bubble and you're running awkwardly around, getting slammed into by other bubble people and then bouncing onto the ground.

It's even harder to not look like a one-woman comedy act as you writhe around on the grass trying to maneuver yourself back up to standing position.

It took me so long the first time that Cox intervened.

"It's going to be easiest if you roll onto your stomach and stand up from there," he said. "It's hard,isn't it? The hardest part would be getting up."

Hardest part physically, maybe. But mentally, there's definite fear the first time you see a humongous running bubble headed your way.

"I thought I was going to hurt myself," said Hannah Bauer. "But when you fall, nothing happens. It's totally safe."

The key, we soon found, to not getting knocked over every single time is to stay low and aim your torso forward with the bubble.

Also, don't protest too much.

"The more you fight it, the harder it is," Wichern said.

All of us were shocked at what a workout the sport is. As I drove away, it felt like I'd been through an arms weightlifting class. You hold the bubble up with handles, helping to support it and keep your balance.

"You get really hot," said Jack Bauer. "But it's really fun."

"I'm dripping sweat," Wichern said after about 20 minutes on the field. "But it's so dang cool. I feel like my friends are going to be so jealous."

I feel safe in saying that her friends will be more jealous than my friends.

As Cox said, if you're a 20-something-year-old, this is a dream sport.

"It's a crazy, whacky ball you can put on so you can knock the (crud) out of each other," said Costa.

So crazy and whacky that after it happens, you bounce right back up and go out again.

For the record, I, eventually, after 10 more knockouts by Wichern, wiped the smirk right off her face.

Me, the human bowling ball, 1. Wichern, the pin, 0.

Follow Star reporter Dana Benbow on Twitter: @DanaBenbow.

Try out KnockerBall

Where: Indiana State Fair, Celebration Park next to the covered bridge.

When: Aug. 8, 9, 11, 15 and 16. Other possible fair dates are in the works.

Cost: $8 for five minutes of play

Waiver: To save time, go to knockerballindianapolis.com and click on the "Sign our waiver" tab at the bottom of the page.

Join a KnockerBall League

Monday nights at The SportZone, 6601 Coffman Rd., starting in September.

Friday nights at Grand Park, 711 E. 191st St, Westfield, starting in September.

Info for both leagues will posted at knockerballindianapolis.com.

KnockerBall Indianapolis Games

Spartacus: Two teams face off against each other and the goal is to put every other player of the opposing team down on the ground. Once a player touches the ground with their ball, they are eliminated and must return to their side. At the end of each round (five rounds in total), the winning team earns the amount of points equal to the number of players they have remaining after all the opposing team are eliminated (two left standing equals two points). Whichever team has the most points after all 5 rounds is declared the winning team.

King/Queen of the Circle: There are no alliances or teams. It's every woman, man, teen, child for themselves. All players gather together and the object is to eliminate all your opponents by evicting them from a designated circle or play area similar to sumo. Once a player is knocked out of the circle, they cannot return to the game. The player that remains inside the circle after all eliminations becomes the king or queen.

Last Person Standing: Again, there are no teams. The game begins and once a player is knocked down in the area of play, he or she is eliminated. Last player standing wins.

Protect the General: Two teams choose a General (who wears a designated shirt) on their own team and then the teams face off. As soon as the whistle is blown, the two teams compete with the object of putting down the general of the opposing team. All players can hit the ground and get up without being eliminated from the game, except the general.

Red Rover: One person stands in the middle of the field/court and everyone lines up on one side. When the person yells "Red Rover, Come Over" everyone attempts to run over to the other side without being knocked over by the person in the middle. If someone is knocked down, they join the original person in the middle and help them put people down during the next round. This process repeats until there is only one person remaining and they are the winner.

Knocker Soccer: Rules piggy-back off traditional soccer but you kick off the game and after each score with a "dodge-ball style" sprint for the ball in the center. Teams of three or four face off with or without a goalie to score goals and knock down the competition.