Battle Court (WJAL Jai Alai) — Glossary & Code Reference

The game

Jai alai played as doubles (2v2) or singles (1v1) at the World Jai Alai League "Battle Court". Matches are best of 3 sets; a set is first to 6 points. Players catch the ball in a cesta and throw it against the front wall.

Court positions (doubles)

• F — Frontcourt (FC): plays near the front wall; serves every point; takes more kill shots; uses forehand/backhand/costado.
• B — Backcourt (BC): covers the back wall and rebotes; mostly backhand; does not serve.

Throw sides (the side column)

• F — Forehand, B — Backhand
• C — Costado: side-arm throw taken off the side wall area (almost exclusively frontcourters)
• S — Serve

Placements (the placement column and shot-stat prefixes)

Non-kill rally placements:

• I — Inside: any ball that is not outside or split placement (the default ball)
• O — Outside: thrown distinctly to the outside without touching the side wall, NOT intended as a kill shot
• M — Middle: ball to the middle attempting to split the players or to change the next throw's angle/decision, NOT intended as a kill shot

Kill-shot placements (intent to end the point):

• F — Filo: outside ball like O, but THROWN AS A KILL SHOT
• S — Splitter: middle ball like M, but THROWN AS A KILL SHOT
• T — Two-wall: thrown outside off a two-wall, cutting out sharply
• H — Three-wall: plays two walls, cuts out sharply off the rebote
• D — Dejada (drop): soft drop meant to bounce twice quickly
• C — Cortada: cut shot angled into the side-front corner

⚠️ placement='C' (Cortada kill shot) and side='C' (Costado throw side) are unrelated concepts that share a letter.

In shot-stat columns the placement codes map to prefixes: T→two_wall, S→splitter, F→filo, D→dejada, H→three_wall, C→cortada.

Catch detail (charting)

• A — Air: ball caught (or tipped) in the air
• B — Bounce: ball played off the bounce (harder)
• R suffix: ball played off the rebote (back wall)

Serves

Every point starts with a frontcourter serve (FS). Serve outcome codes:

• O — Overserve: serve too long (fault)
• U — Underserve: serve too short (fault)
• M — Missed serve: serve meant to hit the side wall before the bounce so the receiving FC can't pick it, dragging the receiving BC into the middle/outside
• I — Illegal serve A first-serve fault forces a second serve; a second fault is a DOUBLEFAULT. An ace is an unreachable serve the opponent never touches. In serve stats: faults counts BOTH serves of a double fault (so a double fault adds 2 to faults).

Point outcomes (result / detailed_result / catch_result)

• WINNER: kill shot succeeds — opponent never touches the ball
• TIP: ball contacts the cesta but isn't caught — point to the thrower
• TIP OFF KILL SHOT (detailed_result): the tipped ball was a kill attempt
• MISSED REBOTE (detailed_result): receiving player failed a back-wall ball
• OUT: the throw lands out of the court, or hits the thrower's own teammate, or enhanced interference — point to the opponent
• PAD: throw hits the pad / never reaches the front wall — point to opponent
• SCREEN: throw hits the overhead screen — point to opponent
• DOUBLEFAULT: two consecutive serve faults — point to receiver
• CHULA: ball lands in the crack between back wall and floor and never comes out for a rebote — automatic winner
• ENINT — Enhanced interference: interference on a throw/catch that awards the point to the team interfered with (ordinary interference replays the point)
• catch (throw-level): opponent caught it; rally continues
• fault (throw-level): first-serve fault; second serve follows

Rebote

A ball played off the BACK wall. rebote_stats measure the CATCHER (did they handle the back-wall ball); player_rebote_creation style analysis measures the THROWER (does their throw force rebotes). In the throw-level tables, rebote = TRUE on a row means that row's player received the incoming ball off the back wall.

Court position (throw-level analysis)

Where a player is on the court when they throw is inferred from the PLACEMENT OF THE OPPONENT'S PREVIOUS THROW (the ball they just received):

Example: "Inaki's two-walls from the outside" = Inaki rows with placement 'T' whose previous-row placement was O, T, or H. Computed with LAG(placement) OVER (PARTITION BY date, match, "set", point ORDER BY throw). The throw_situations tool does this automatically.

Per-throw outcomes (throw-level tables)

For a throw row N: won the point (a "kill" when it's a kill-shot placement, "not returned" generally) ⟺ its catch_result is WINNER/CHULA OR next_catch_result is TIP. Returned ⟺ next_catch_result IN (catch, WINNER, CHULA, OUT, PAD, SCREEN) — the opponent handled the ball, whatever happened afterwards. Thrown away ⟺ own catch_result is OUT/PAD/SCREEN.

Teams & ranks

Franchises: Chargers, Cyclones, Devils, Fireballs, Renegades, Warriors. Ranks: 1 = elite … 6 = bottom, for players and teams (team ranks can be fractional, e.g. 2.5). Lower number = better.

Seasons

Fall 2024 (Sep-Dec 2024) · Winter 2025 (Jan-Apr 2025) · Fall 2025 (Sep-Dec 2025) · Spring 2026 (Jan-May 2026). Singles tracked from Winter 2025 onward.

Rank gradients worth knowing

• Rebote %: rank 1 ≈ .890 → rank 6 ≈ .702 (biggest skill separator)
• Total catch rate: .967 → .901
• Out-of-play (error) rate: .030 → .055
• Kill rate: ~flat .30-.33 across ranks (weaker shooters face weaker defenders)