Aepgirl
If it’s an Italian invention, why is it called a Swiss ball?
Remarkably given its popular name, the Swiss Ball is actually an Italian creation. In the early 1960s, Aquilino Cosani, an Italian plastics manufacturer created what he termed the ‘Pezzi Ball’, a large inflatable ball whose sole purpose was to aid in gymnastic exercise.
Unbeknownst to Cosani at the time, his ‘Pezzi Ball’ would have much wider applications than gymnastics. Within a decade of his creation, Cosani’s invention was being used by physical therapists across Europe for a range of different applications from cerebral palsy to spinal injuries. Particularly influential in the growth of the Swiss Ball during this period were English physical therapists Dr. Elseth Kong and Mary Quentin who, inspired by the Bobath method of stroke/neuro-developmental rehabilitation, developed pediatric neurological rehab programs using ‘Pezzi’ Balls.
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Okay okay okay…But how did the ‘Pezzi’ Ball become the Swiss Ball?
Well we have the Americans to thank for that. Following two decades of application in Europe, it was time for the ‘Pezzi’ Ball to make its way to the United States of America. In the 1980s, a number of American physical therapists visited Europe, specifically Switzerland, in the hope of examining and learning European methods of rehabilitation. Among the vast number of approaches used, those using the ‘Pezzi Ball’ caught the eye of a number of the travelling physical therapists. So impressed were these physical therapists that they brought the ‘Pezzi Ball’ back to the United States to use in their practices. In honour of their journey, they renamed the ‘Pezzi’ Ball the Swiss Ball.
