Originating in Ireland, the two main Gaelic games are Hurling and Gaelic Football. Camogie is the highly popular female version of hurling and there is a growing amount of Ladies Gaelic Football being played. In Hurling and Gaelic Football, the scoring system is the same. The target is a set of H posts like in rugby but with a net on the bottom section like in soccer. Players on two teams of fifteen must put the ball over the bar for a point or in the net for three points. There are other games promoted by the governing body, the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA,) but they are more recreational in nature. These are Handball, Rounders and Road Bowling. Gaelic Football Gaelic football is played by men or women in teams of fifteen or thirteen players with a maximum of 5 substitutions permitted during a 60 or 70 minute game. The ball may be carried for up to four paces and then bounced or released to the toe, kicked, or struck with the open hand or fist, in any direction. When played by men, it may not be picked directly from the ground. Scoring is through "H" style goalposts with one point awarded for a score over the crossbar, and a goal worth three points awarded for a score under the crossbar. Physical contact is allowed, shoulder to shoulder, but no direct body tackling is permitted. There is one Men's Football team here in Atlanta and about 45 - 55 Men's Football clubs affiliated to the NACB. The rules for Women's Football differ only slightly from Men's Football. No deliberate physical contact is permitted in Women's Football and the ball may be picked directly off the ground. Most other rules are the same as in the Men's game. There are two Woman's Football teams here in Atlanta and about 20 - 30 Women's Football clubs affiliated to the NACB. Hurling Hurling is a game similar to hockey, in that it is played with a small ball and a curved wooden stick. It is Europe's oldest field game. When the Celts came to Ireland as the last ice age was receding, they brought with them a unique culture, their own language, music, script and unique pastimes. One of these pastimes was a game now called hurling. It features in Irish folklore to illustrate the deeds of heroic mystical figures and it is chronicled as a distinct Irish pastime for at least 2,000 years. The stick, or "hurley" (called camán in Irish) is curved outwards at the end, to provide the striking surface. The ball or "sliothar" is similar in size to a hockey ball but has raised ridges. Hurling is played on a pitch approximately 137m long and 82m wide. The goalposts are the same shape as on a rugby pitch, with the crossbar lower than a rugby one and slightly higher than a soccer one. You may strike the ball on the ground, or in the air. Unlike hockey, you may pick up the ball with your hurley and carry it for not more than four steps in the hand. After those steps you may bounce the ball on the hurley and back to the hand, but you are forbidden to catch the ball more than twice. To get around this, one of the skills is running with the ball balanced on the hurley To score, you put the ball over the crossbar with the hurley or under the crossbar and into the net by the hurley for a goal, the latter being the equivalent of three points. Each team consists of fifteen players, lining out as follows: 1 goalkeeper, three full-backs, three half-backs, two midfielders, three half-forwards and three full-forwards. The actual line out on the playing field is as follows: A game is played over two halves of 30 minutes (at club level) or 35 minutes (at inter-county level). Players wear a jersey with their team colors and number on the back. Both teams must have different color jerseys. The goalkeepers' jerseys must not be similar to the jersey of any other player. Referees normally tog out in black jerseys, socks and togs. Goalkeepers may not be physically challenged whilst inside their own small parallelogram, but players may harass them into playing a bad pass, or block an attempted pass. Teams are allowed a maximum of three substitutes in a game. Players may switch positions on the field of play as much as they wish but this is usually on the instructions of team officials. Officials for a game comprise of a referee, two linesmen (to indicate when the ball leaves the field of play at the side and to mark '65'' free kicks and 4 umpires (to signal scores, assist the referee in controlling the games, and to assist linesmen in positioning ''65' frees). A goal is signaled by raising a green flag, placed to the left of the goal. A point is signaled by raising a white flag, placed to the right of goal. A '45'/'65' is signaled by the umpire raising his/her outside arm. A 'square ball', when a player scores having arrived in the 'square' prior to receiving the ball, is signaled by pointing at the small parallelogram.   There is one Men's Hurling team here in Atlanta and about 15 - 25 Hurling clubs affiliated to the NACB. Camogie is an Irish field game similar to hurling but played by women, and is one of the fastest field games in the world for women. The basic rules of the game are the same as for Hurling. There are no Woman's teams here in Atlanta but there are about 6 - 12 Camogie clubs affiliated to the NACB in 2002. Handball is played by two individuals or two pairs using their hands to strike a ball against a forecourt wall. It can be played by women or men on courts of one, three or four walls. Rounders is a game with many similarities to Baseball.