Loboton Singles Rules

Loboton is normally played with three players on each team.

All players start with 3 balls except for the initial feeder that has 4 balls.

The player with 4 balls starts with a friendly feed and plays a point against a player on the other team.

When the point is over the losing player comes off the court and his teammate immediately feeds the next ball and plays a point against the winning player of the first point. After the first point mean feeds are allowed. 

The feeder must feed the ball from behind the baseline and inside the doubles lines.

The feed cannot be overhead motion or a drop shot. 

There are no lets in this game, all balls are to be played.

The team that runs out of tennis balls first loses the game.

 

Loboton Doubles Rules

Loboton can be played with either 4 or 6 people on a team (2 or 3 doubles teams)

All players start with 2 balls except for the initial feeder that has 3 balls.

The player with 3 balls starts with a friendly feed and plays a point against a player on the other team.

When the point is over the losing player comes off the court and his teammate immediately feeds the next ball and plays a point against the winning player of the first point. After the first point mean feeds are allowed. 

The feeder must feed the ball from behind the baseline and inside the doubles lines.

The feed cannot be overhead motion or a drop shot.

If the feeding team accidentally feeds two balls at the same time, they lose both balls and the point.

There are no lets in this game, all balls are to be played.

The team that runs out of tennis balls first loses the game.

 

Loboton Doubles (3v3) Rules

This version of doubles loboton is played with 3 people on each side. 

There are 8 balls in each loboton ball holder (or hopper) on each side. One player has a neutral ball for the first feed.

Two players are in and one person is waiting on the sidelines. The player with the neutral ball starts with a friendly feed and plays a point against the doubles team on the other side.

When the point is over the player who missed the ball/lost the point for the team comes off the court and the teammate waiting on the sideline immediately feeds the next ball and plays a point against the winning team of the first point. After the first point mean feeds are allowed. 

The feeder must feed the ball from behind the baseline and inside the doubles lines.

 

The only requirement to start playing loboton is to be able to bounce/hit a ball into the court most of the time (3/5).  A lot of players can do this with no training or practice.

The most important shot in Loboton is the forehand followed by the backhand.  The forehand is important because that’s the shot you start the point with. 

Here is a video on how to bounce hit a forehand like a pro

The next skill is to be able to see the ball coming, move to where the ball is going to be and hit it back. The best way to do this is to play a lot of LOBOTON.

Here are 2 videos on how to hit forehands and backhands like a pro.