Alex Carson
American Sports
The most popular sports in America are baseball, basketball, football, hockey, tennis, and golf. Some athletes excel in these sports and make millions doing it. These sports require strength, stamina, and skill. Other sports around the world require a lot more. Here are some outrageous sports around the world that make Americans look like benchwarmers.
The Inuit One-Foot High Kick
The Inuit one-foot-high-kick is a very difficult sport. The object is to kick a suspended ball with one foot. To be successful, you need to land on the same foot. If you think this sounds easy, understand that the ball is hanging over seven feet in the air.
Flaming Puck Unicycle
A Canadian man named Darrin Bedford is the man who created this sport, and he believes that fire makes everything more intense. The game plays the same way as hockey, except players are on a unicycle, and the puck is on fire.
Pesapallo
Pesapallo is Finland’s version of baseball, but it plays a bit differently. In this version, the pitcher throws the ball vertically, rather than horizontally. This gives the batter a chance to influence the power behind the hit and a better direction of where the ball will land. It makes American baseball look easy.
Sipa
Sipa is a sport in the Philippines. You can play this game with a ball, a bean bag, or anything else that you like. As long as you keep the object off the ground using only your feet, you are golden.
Sepak Takraw
Many people have played volleyball, and think that it is pretty easy. These people have never played Sepak Takraw. This game plays in Southeast Asia, and it is similar to volleyball, except you don’t hit the ball with your hands, you hit it with your feet. To be good at this sport, you need to be able to kick really high, and you must be agile.
Broomball
Broomball is a sport similar to ice hockey, but it is less violent. The ball plays with a ball instead of a puck. Instead of a stick, you use a broom. You don’t even need to know how to skate because even though the game is playing on the ice, you wear your sneakers.
Underwater Rugby
Rugby and underwater rugby are very different. Underwater rugby plays at the bottom of a pool, making it much harder to play. The object is to get the salt-water-filled goal into the other team’s goal. Try it; you will see that the water makes it much more difficult.
Burro Racing
Burro racing sounds like something from the past, but it is common in Colorado. Instead of riding the burros, the racers run next to them for the entire distance. In some cases, it can be up to 29 miles.
Ice Yachting
Ice yachting is a very intense sport. The bottom of the ship is propelled by sharp skates, and you race across a frozen lake. It is like regular yachting on steroids.
Carrera de Cintas
Carrera de Cintas is played in Costa Rica, and it is a community event. To play this game, you need to be accurate. The players race on horseback or bicycles and push a peg through a small loop that’s hanging from a wire.
Dragon Boating
Dragon boating uses paddles, not rows. If you have ever tried to paddle a boat, you know how difficult this can be. It is a Chinese sport that originated over 2,000 years ago.
Pallone col Bracciale
If you are going to play this game, you need a strong arm and a sharp eye. It is like tennis, but you don’t use a racket. Instead, you wear a spiked gauntlet to send the ball soaring. For a while, it was one of the most popular sports in Italy.
Estonia
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to swing all the way around on a swing set? In Estonia, this is an extreme sport. It is called kiiking, and it takes a lot of timing and momentum.
Gaffelhangen
Gaffelhangen is played in a small part of the Netherlands, and it is very popular. The object of the game it to hang from a pitchfork for longer than your competitors. It sounds pretty strange, and they even have championships.
Chess Boxing
Chess boxing is played in the Netherlands, and it takes strength and smarts. The competitors box for five, 3-minute rounds. In between each round, you sit down and play chess. You can either win by knockout or checkmate.
Shin Kicking
Of all the sports on this list, this one is the most bizarre. Thousands of people gather to watch the competitors kick each other in the shins while wearing a white coat. The first one to succumb to the pain is the loser.
Air Guitar Contest
Air guitar contests have been popular in Finland since 1996. Contestants are required to rock out to a song of their choice for the first round. For the second, they need to rock out to a song that the judges choose. The best part about this contest is that you don’t even need to know how to play the guitar.
The Battle Of Oranges
This is a tradition in a small town in Italy called Ivrea. The participants split up into two teams, and they spend the day smashing each other with 500,000 oranges. It is a crazy tradition that went dates back to the 12th century. Nobody wins, but it is a lot of fun.
Cheese Rolling
Cheese rolling is an old tradition in England. Participants stand at the top of a steep hill, and a wheel of cheese is rolled down the hill. The first person who catches the cheese is the winner. It requires a lot of falling and colliding with other players. On the day of the cheese rolling competition, the hospitals are full of people with sprained ankles.
