What is "totem tennis"

n. A form of tetherball.

Totem tennis, tether tennis, or swingball is a game usually played informally. It has a pole, called the totem, with a tennis or sponge ball on a string attached to it. The pole is either driven into soft ground or anchored with a heavy base. Players use racquets to hit the ball around the pole.

Tether tennis has been known since early 1900s.

The British company Mookie Toys claims that in 1993 it acquired the global rights for the Swingball brand, the product sold since 1974.

In Mookie Toys Swingball, there is a helical coil of wire at the top of the pole and the competitors hit the ball in opposite directions to make it go up or down the coil, the winner being the person who gets the ball to their end of the coil, top or bottom.

Other commercial swingball toys have a rotating component to attach the string, so that it does not wrap around the pole.

The mother of British tennis star Andy Murray asserts that part of Andy's success may be attributed to swingball he used to play at their home in Scotland in early childhood.