Most of the ritual significance for the Maya ballgame comes from the K'iche' Maya Pop Vuj, the book of counsel, that outlines important myths surrounding the hero twins Jun Ajpu (First Blowgun) and Ixbalanque (She of the Jaguar pelt). According to the Pop Vuj the father of the hero twins and his brother were ballplayers and played the ball game with the lords of the underworld or Xibalbaj. Jun Jun Ajpu (first first blowgun) and his brother lost the game and were decapitated. However, the lords of death hung the head of Jun Jun Ajpu in a calabash tree that grew in the ballcourt. All were commanded not to go near the tree, yet X'quiq (blood woman) went near to the tree because she heard the voice of Jun Jun Ajpu call her. The decapitated head of vanquished ballplayer spit in the hand of blood woman, thereby inpregnating her. When she returned to the lords of death they demanded that her heart be cut out because she was pregnant. She fled to the world above and escaped the messengers of Xibalbaj, two owls. She found refuge in the house of Jun Jun Ajpu's mother. She later gave birth to the hero twins and they became important ballplayers as well as hunters of small birds. They went to the underworld and tricked the gods of death, who had decapitated their father. This is how they tricked them. They played ball with them, after they had lost one game and Ixbalanque had lost his head. In the second game the lords of death used Ixbalanque's decapitated head as the ball, and Jun Ajpu had a rabbit bounce off the court so that the lords of death could chase him and he could recover his brother's head and resurrect him. They then won the game and defeated the lords of death. They wore their father's regalia in the game.
The ball game has been further associated with death and rebirth. Karl Taube has outlined the role of the ballgame in the myths of creation, especially in the regeneration of corn and of mankind as beings made of corn. The courts in the Classic period were most likely flooded with water and indeed in several Mesoamerican archaeological sites, such as Tula, Chichen Itza, and el Tajin, drainage portals can be easily detected. Indeed, in the classic period Maya glyphs the metaphorical phrase "to enter the water" is associated with death by decapitation and is probably connected to losing in the ball game. There were probably ritual dances connected to the ball game and it is in these that we see the feathers, backracks, headdresses, and other regalia associated with ritual. I highly doubt that the ball game was played with ritual regalia such as headdresses and backracks and that the pads, the yoke, and the axe were all part of the protective gear worn by the players in the actual matches.