10 Unusual Sports

Let’s get this one out of the way. Fans of Harry Potter may be annoyed with the labeling of this sport as “unusual,” but think about it. In the books and, later, the films, Quidditch is a magical game that takes place in the air. Players fly around on brooms and try to accumulate the most points by throwing a ball, called the Quaffle, into a hoop or catching a flying ball, called the Golden Snitch. All the while, additional balls, called Bludgers, are flying through the air and threatening to knock players off their brooms. Admittedly, Quidditch in all its glory is really cool. Now imagine playing that sport without magic. The game is no longer in the skies but on the ground. Players hold a (non-magical) broom between their legs and do many of the same things as players do in the books and films. Whether or not this sport is fun, it certainly is unusual.

Regball, or rugball, is a brutal Russian sport that combines basketball, wrestling, and rugby. The game is seven versus seven unless a foul occurs, creating a hockeylike power play. As in basketball, the players have a ball that they try to shoot through a hoop. But nobody will be yelling “that’s a travel” while watching this sport, because there is no need to dribble. Players also wrestle each other during the game, and very little is not allowed. There are no free throws. Wrestling and takedowns are part of the game. Former Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov enjoys playing this sport, which may give you some idea of the kind of warrior who participates.

The Red Bull Soapbox Race hosts several races around the world. Handcrafted vehicles are pushed down a hill, and contestants have to navigate their vehicles through a course containing various obstacles. Not all contestants are engineers, so the vehicles are prone to crashes, toppling, or breaking apart to the entertainment of spectators. Contestants are judged for their soapbox’s creativity, a pre-race performance, and their race time. Therefore, speed is not everything, and creativity plays a massive role. Contestants often design their vehicles based on themes from pop culture or history. Of course, the contestants dress up to look the part too.

Another kind of racing you don’t see every day is the Cooper’s Hill cheese rolling race near Gloucester in England. This is a game that is often hilarious for spectators and painful for participants. A tradition at least 200 years old, participants race down a very steep and uneven hill, chasing after a round of Double Gloucester cheese that can weigh up to nine pounds and can travel some 70 miles per hour. Whoever gets to the bottom first wins the cheese. As you can probably imagine, participants are not on their feet for a great part of the race. Instead, they are leaping and tumbling down the hill at pretty high speeds. Rugby players wait at the bottom of the hill to stop participants’ momentum. The race results in a significant amount of injuries. It’s debatable whether the award is worth it.

Maybe you’ve heard of ice hockey and field hockey, but what about underwater hockey? This unusual sport is a six versus six, without goaltenders, and takes place in a pool. The sport utilizes a weighted puck that remains at the bottom of the pool. As this is a variation on hockey, players use a small one-handed stick to push the puck toward the goal. Players wear fins for mobility, masks to see underwater, and thick latex gloves to protect the hands from the pool bottom. You may assume that they wear oxygen tanks to breathe underwater—but you would be wrong. Instead, players have to hold their breath underwater and therefore have to periodically return to the surface to breathe. This gives the sport an interesting team aspect, as players have to anticipate when a teammate or opposing puck-carrier is going to return to the surface and leave the puck behind. This must be a difficult spectator sport, as it is already hard enough to see underwater.

Canal jumping, or fierljeppen, originated and is popular in the Netherlands. The sport takes place at a location with a muddy canal. Players try to jump as far as possible from one side of the canal to the other without getting wet and muddy. In the canal there is a pole with a flat round bottom that can swing when weight is applied. The pole is typically 12.5 meters long. Contestants get a running start before jumping onto the pole. As the pole is swinging toward the other side of the canal (if it does at all, depending on the weight applied or momentum), contestants try to climb as high as they can on the pole before dismounting safely to the other side. Contestants who fail will get wet and muddy.

Ear pull is a traditional Inuit game that is entirely about pain endurance. Competitors face each other with their legs connected. A string about two feet long is then looped around the ears (left to right or right to left) of both contestants. Then the contestants do what the name of the game implies: they pull. They pull until one contestant gives in to the pain and the string becomes separated from their ear. Ear pull can cause damage to the ear, and bleeding is common. Ear pull would fall into the category of a game that some would not like to try, but your mileage may vary!

Death diving, or Dødsing, is a Norwegian diving sport that sees some nasty belly flops and people landing on their backs. This sport is pure entertainment but is not one for the fainthearted. In death diving, contestants jump from a board about 10 meters high and attempt to hold a pose for as long as possible before entering the water in a tucked position. People tend to get creative with this as they perform various flips and other tricks.

Bossaball is an unusual sport that combines volleyball with football (soccer), gymnastics, and capoeira. The sport is played on an inflatable court with a net in the center. There is a small trampoline on either side of the net. Teams get five touches to get the ball over the net. There are different scoring zones, with more points awarded when the ball is scored in the opponent’s trampoline. There are also different ways to play the ball: volleyball-style and football-style. It can be played volleyball-style with the hands or football-style with any other body part. Players who use football-style to control or score the ball can utilize a double touch that counts as one touch. Scoring with football-style also awards more points. The emphasis on football-style means that players constantly go for acrobatic moves, such as overhead and scorpion kicks. A big part of this sport is music, which creates a fun atmosphere during the games.

Bo-taoshi is a Japanese sport that is somewhat similar to capture-the-flag. Bo-taoshi translates roughly to “bring pole down,” which is the goal of the game. There are varying rules among different schools and institutions, so what follows are general rules. This game is extremely hectic, as it is traditionally 150 versus 150 with each team consisting of 75 attackers and 75 defenders. The defenders take a formation around a tall wooden pole, which is held vertically. A defender usually stands on top of the pole to provide it with extra protection against attackers. If attackers can bring the pole down 35 degrees from the vertical position, that team wins. How do attackers get to a pole surrounded by 75 people? In a variety of ways. Once the game starts, attackers charge toward the opponents’ pole in waves. Some hit the defensive wall, while others use their backs as springboards to propel their teammates over the wall and closer to the pole. Bo-toashi is extremely violent, as players attack and defend the pole by wrestling, kicking, and punching. Injuries are very common. Cadets at Japan’s National Defense Academy take part in this game, setting a high bar for toughness. To top it off, the whole thing typically takes 90 seconds to two minutes before a draw is declared.