The server holds the ball in her hand and, striking it with her racket, endeavors to send the ball winding around the pole, but as the ball approaches the other player or opponent, the opponent tries to stop the progress of the ball with her racket and send the ball back to wind around the pole in the opposite direction. As the ball returns toward the first player, a second time she endeavors to strike it and wind the string her way around the pole. In this manner the ball is kept going back and forth between the two players until one player succeeds in winding the entire string and ball above the red band; this wins the game, and the girl winning the greatest number of games out of eleven wins the set.
While playing the game the ball may be struck but once at a time, no player being allowed to have two or more trials during one turn.
The turns shall alternate between the two players.
If a player fails to send the ball into her opponent’s court on its way around the pole, the failure is called a fault, and the player making the fault loses her turn. The lost turn goes to the opponent, who then stands on the cross in her own court and has a free strike at the ball.
If a player strikes the ball more than once during one turn, she is guilty of a fault, and loses her next turn. If a player over-steps the boundary of her own court in any way, she is guilty of a fault and loses a turn. When the string winds around the handle of the racket, or winds about the tether pole below the red band, the player so winding the string commits a fault and loses a turn.
All faults give the opponent a free hit from the cross on her own court.
When grown-up girls and boys play tether-ball, the pole must stand nine feet high when erected. The red band on the pole must be six feet above the ground. The circle on the ground around the pole must be three feet in diameter. The straight line dividing the courts must extend ten feet outward from each side of the pole, making the entire length twenty feet. The ball must hang, when at rest, two and one-half feet from the ground.
This game may be played by sides, of equal numbers.