The Mayan name for the traditional ballgame was pitz.
Pitz is the name recorded for the ballgame in Classical Maya. The wider Mesoamerican game was played across cultures for centuries, generally with a solid rubber ball that players struck with their hips, although rules and equipment varied by region and period. Ballcourts served not only as sporting venues but also as important ceremonial and political spaces.
The Popol Vuh gives the game a mythic role: the Hero Twins play against the Lords of the Underworld, turning the ballcourt into a setting for tests, sacrifice, death, and renewal. Pitz is often confused with pok-ta-pok, but that popular term comes from a modern interpretation of a Yucatec Maya word and was popularized in the twentieth century. Tlachtli and ōllamalīztli are Classical Nahuatl terms associated with the Aztec sphere, not the Classical Maya name. The game’s religious associations also varied; it was not simply an ancient version of modern recreational sport.