Panna

Yesterday, I had an opportunity to present a bit about Flow and fun and junk and stuff to some professors and students at the Studiolab of the University of Delft in the Netherlands. I was talking, naturally, about competition, and, of course, about Junkyard Sports and the connections between.

Someone asked me if I knew about Panna. I didn't. I've seen it played, apparently, a lot. All over that large green expanse called "Museumplein" - you know, the one in front of the Stedelijk Museum. It's that soccer-like thing that people do, usually without an actual soccer goal around, kinda kicking the ball at each other and bouncing it on various bodily extremities.

Turns out that Nike, of course, has a major Panna-like campaign.

But I didn't really understand the competition-junkyard connection until I came across this blog - "When people think of football (not soccer) they think of a field of green grass with white stripes. Or maybe a dusty pitch in the barrios of Brazil. But there is one kind of terrain that has always stayed in the shadows. The city squares. There, many great players started their career, from Johan Cruijff to Edgar Davids. The game they play there has now got an official name; Panna. Panna is slang for playing the ball through your opponents' legs. This is the most humiliating way of passing your opponent. Panna is all about skills and tricks. Streetplayers traditionally have a very good technique. Because the ground is perfectly flat, you can have great control over the ball. In street football, there are no clubs. You play with whoever is there. This means it's about you and your reputation. And you get that reputation through showing off. The guy with the best tricks gets the most respect. And the really good ones develop their own tricks. That's why this game is fun to watch."

Played in the street. Competitive, but informal. Play with whomever. Yup. Most junkyardly in deed.