Tamburello: The fast-rising racket sport you've never heard of
ACouple that set up Tamburello in Oxford are heading to the World Cup next month. Jason Littlefield and Jasmine Bosenick, who met at a Tamburello tournament, set up the sport to be played in Oxford back in 2014.
With low participation levels across the sport, there’s something about it's niche nature that can lure people in to play.
“We just wanted the opportunity to keep playing and bring more people into the sport, so we just decided to get more people involved in our local area,” said Jason.
The sport originally from France and Italy, played with a tambourine bat and softer tennis ball, is another alternative racket sport to your typical tennis and padel.
"It's super super addictive and once you start you don't want to stop" Jasmine Bosenick
"It's such a fast paced sport there is nothing like it" Jason Littlefield
The history and rules of the sport
Tamburello derives from real tennis in France and then further communities started to play through northern Italy.
The sport was originally played outside with teams of people against the wall of a castle called Tamburello a Muro. Since the modernisation, there are now various different versions of the game being played across the world, with it now being an indoor and outdoor game.
When it’s played outside, there is no longer a wall involved, similar to a real tennis game. It is just out in the open with five against five players and no net. The most popular version is indoors and is a very fast game and more spectator friendly. There is no net, just a raised line running through the middle of the court, and if you hit that line, it is out.
Jason Littlefield hitting the Tamburello ball to win the point [Photo credit: Jasmine Bosenick]
Jason Littlefield hitting the Tamburello ball to win the point [Photo credit: Jasmine Bosenick]
Another difference between Tamburello and tennis, is there are three people on either side of the court in the indoor version, rather than two.
The rules very similarly follow tennis with the classic 15-30-40 scoring system, however if the game gets to deuce, it’s a sudden death point, no advantage is played.
Tamburello is one long set that is the best of 25 games, meaning it’s practically the first team to get to 13 games. Your team will firstly serve and then swap after every game, but you will only change ends and have a small break after every three games.
How Jason and Jasmine got into the sport
Speaking to Jason and Jasmine, who met at a Tamburello tournament over 10 years ago, they have stayed passionate about the sport for many years and are still hoping to get even more people involved.
Jasmine said, “I was introduced to it through a friend of mine who I met at school. I bumped into her after not seeing her for years and she said, 'Jaz why don’t you come to Italy next week and play', and the rest is quite literally history.”
“I literally went to one week of practise and then straight in,” said Jasmine.
Jason was studying sports science at Brunel University and one of his friends on the course played a form of the game called Tambourelli, which was a version of Tamburello more like Badminton.
“It was freshers week and we got chatting and he said I play this crazy sport do you want to play and I said yes,” said Jason.
Jason and his friend ended up setting the Tamburello society up at Brunel and they had 50 members playing every week at the University.
Jason said, “We ended up getting teams together to go to our first tournament, probably playing about a month before my first tournament, around 18 years ago now.”
Sport transferability
You may think if you are from a racket sport background that you could easily take up Tamburello and be good at it, but that’s not necessarily the case.
Jasmine said, “Tennis is helpful in the way that you have good hand eye coordination, however the problem with tennis players is they are purists, they don’t like to do any sport that would mess up their tennis technique.”
Knowing this about tennis players, Jasmine believed that footballers are the best sportsman that transfer across to Tamburello.
“I think it’s the team aspect but also the agility, footballers are very good at just pivoting and moving.”
Tamburello is an intense team sport, meaning to play and enjoy it you need to have the team first mentality and want to work closely alongside other players.
The Women's team of three ready to return the oppositions serve [Photo Credit: Jasmine Bosenick]
The Women's team of three ready to return the oppositions serve [Photo Credit: Jasmine Bosenick]
The art of 'diving'
In and amongst the many skills you need as a Tamburello player, the main thing to learn and perfect is your diving.
In Tamburello a player may have to dive on the floor like dives in volleyball and goalkeepers do in football. This is to keep the ball up and return it back to your opponent to keep the point going.
Jason said, “not only do you have to dive without injuring yourself, but you also need to get back up very quickly because quite often a dive in Tamburello will save you the point not win you the point."
“You have to get back up again as your opponents will be hitting it straight back at you.”
Diving is one of those skills that won’t come naturally to everyone it has to be learnt and perfected so that no injuries happen mid-match, especially if you have no substitutions.
The GB team's Jasmine Bosenick competing against Italy in the European Cup [Photo Credit: Oxford Mail]
The GB team's Jasmine Bosenick competing against Italy in the European Cup [Photo Credit: Oxford Mail]
The Tamburello World Cup 2026 in Rome
Jason and Jasmine are heading to the Tamburello World Cup in Rome next month, marking the fourth World Cup that has been held. The competition is made up of 19 nations this year with 11 from Europe, two from The Americas, one from Asia and five from Africa. Normally around 15 of these nations play in the men's competition and around 12 in the ladies' competition.
It will be no surprise that France and Italy are the best and favourites for the World Cup and those two teams will have support staff and the maximum amount of substitutes allowed on their Rostas.
“With teams like England we don’t have substitutes, in the men's or the women’s this year so we have to be very careful about injuries and pacing ourselves knowing we have to put more effort in and play more matches,” said Jason.
These big teams like France and Italy will bring the full number of players so that they can play the less experienced people in the typically easier matches, and the very best players in the world to play those close nail-biting games.
Tamburello backhand [Photo Credit: Jasmine Bosenick]
Tamburello backhand [Photo Credit: Jasmine Bosenick]
Logo for the World Championships/Cup in Rome 2026 [Photo Credit: Federtamburellofficial]
Logo for the World Championships/Cup in Rome 2026 [Photo Credit: Federtamburellofficial]
Why everyone should give it a go
The game is such a fun and fast paced sport that needs to be given more exposure than it currently has.
Jasmine said, “It’s super addictive, it’s kind of like padel, you just get into it and you’re playing and your like woah this is fun but the thing that always sells it is going to really nice locations Barcelona, Rome, you name it.”
“I don’t think there’s many sports these days where you can just come in and represent your country.”
The overall message from Tamburello is the genuine love people that play it have for the game.
Jason said, “The sport is genuinely an awesome sport, it’s so much fun to play and it’s also brilliant to watch.”
If anyone is interested in giving Tamburello a go, then you can contact Jason here: Jlittlefield@hotmail.com
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