Well, I’m sad to say this is going to be my last post :(. It was definitely interesting seeing all of the exotic sports, some of which friends from different parts of the world have heard of (for example, my roommate from Taiwan new all about Bataoshi). But, for our last sport, we take a trip to Australia, the land of animals and insects that will kill you in an instant. It actually sort of surprises me we haven’t seen anything from Australia yet, but nonetheless here it comes.

Goanna pulling is a crazy intense Australian sport. Today, it’s broken into a ton of categories for an annual festival, but traditionally there’s only one event. It takes place on top of Goanna mountain in Australia, and it’s most resemblant of a 1 versus 1 game of tug of war. Except both people are on all fours, pulling a rope thing tied around their necks.

http://www.sportsjokecafe.com/sports-joke-1778

The game originated in Wooli, Australia in 1985. The Goanna event started as a normal event with the normal version of tug of war as a celebration for a separate rugby event. The details seem to get a little sketchy from source to source, but it seems as though a drunken challenge led to an event that turned out to be a tradition for the next 30 years. Today, the games are held a few miles above Wooli, along the Wooli river.

So, as I said before, the game is just like tug of war. The contestants start by being on their hands and knees, approximately 5 feet apart, and have a figure 8 loop wrapped around each of their heads. Then, the games got the same rules as tug of war. Whoever can pull the other person to the line in which they themselves started at wins. There are generally three weightclasses: heavyweight, middleweight, and lightweight.

I just want to note that there are other normal events at the Goanna pulling festival. There is normal team oriented tug of war, log cutting, and children’s games. Also, there is a sort of flea market that people can buy all sorts of items.

http://www.woolihotelmotel.com.au/wooli-goanna-pulling-championships-2013/

So, again this was the last post under Passion. I definitely learned a lot about all types of different sports. But, I also learned a lot about others’ cultures as well, as you can see them in the sports and the reasonings behind the sports.

Source: http://goannapulling.com.au/main.html

Only two more weeks of blogging yet, and we just hit the LARPing. Well, sort of. Jugger’s a game based on a 1989 movie (The Salute of the Jugger or The Blood of Heroes), and uses foam weapons, but no on dresses like a medieval knight or anything.

In the movie, the game was played with steel weapons and was incredibly brutal, many being seriously injured or killed. But, obviously to prevent as many deaths or near death experiences as possible, they substituted with the still completely dangerous foam weapons. The game mostly started in Germany, but spread to much of Europe and the United States. Today, Australia (where the movie was filmed) is the main arena for the sport, although it is also played internationally.

The objective of the game is to take a foam ball covered in nylon (often in the shape of a dog skull, as seen in the movie) to a stake on the opposing team’s side and mounting it on top. If a player is tagged (hit with the weapon, equivalent to a wound in the movie) they are deemed out and have to kneel for the remainder of the run. There are two runs per game, which are marked by either a score limit (usually 1) or a time limit. The game is played with 5 players per team. One of those players is deemed the Qwik, and is the only one who can mount the ball on the stake. The other 4 players choose foam weapons to defend the qwik, ranging from a chain on a ball, to a two handed spear, to a one handed spear and shield. Generally, head/neck/hand hits don’t count.

It’s really an interesting sport to watch. It’s almost as if it’s a giant gym class sport, except that gym class is worldwide and the students playing are grown men and they actually want to play it. But whatever, I’d give it a shot if it were around here. Anyway, here’s the link to the video if you want to watch. The dude with the ball and chain goes hard, but he gets hit a lot.

Source: http://www.jugger.org.au/index.php/what-is-jugger

For this week’s blog, I found another large team sport with no rules. From what I gathered, it’s pretty similar to Royal Shrovetide football – it’s played annually, it involves a whole city, and it takes place in England. What England’s obsession is with city-wide sports battles is we’ll probably never know.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/HaxeyHoodLogo(AdamWheewall).png

While although the Haxey Hood is a very simple sport, it has the most elaborate and story-like history – partially because it is a story. The whole sport is based off of a legend, which was obviously prone to major embellishment. Otherwise, it’s actually a pretty interesting origin story.

Haxey Hood supposedly originated when Lady de Mowbray, the wife an isle landowner. She was riding towards her husband John, who was in the town of Haxey, when a gust of wind blew her hood off hof her head. A bunch of nearby farmers scrambled for the hood, but the one that caught it was too shy to give it back, so he gave it to another farmer. The Lady thanked the farmer who returned the hood, dubbing him “Lord of the Hood” while the farmer who caught the hat was dubbed “The Fool.” However, the Lady was so flattered by the chase for her hood, she donated 13 acres of land to the farmers, so long that they reenacted the chase for the hood every year for her. Thus, a sport was born.

The Fool
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/HaxeyHoodSmokingTheFool(RichardCroft)Jan2007.jpg

Presently, the people of Haxey have many traditions related to the original legend. Two to four ale houses are chosen for the event, the winner having to give free drinks for the night. The Fool, presumably the one who first caught the hood the prior year, has to give a speech at noon the following year. Immediately after, he is suspended over a fire and swung back and forth til he can no longer breathe, and is cut loose into the fire, having to make a swift escape. People, especially those following the legend like the Fool, wear ridiculous clothing. The Lord, presumably the one who delivered the hood the prior year, is the judge of the event, and 11 Boggins, presumably those on the winning team, are chosen to enforce the rules.

The Fool and The Lord
http://www2.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/Phil+Coggan+Locals+Participate+Annual+Haxey+a3GNLZN7_8El.jpg

So now down to the game itself. The hood is thrown up in the center of the city, and a large rugby type skirmish soon follows. The one who catches the hood is the Fool the following year. The rules are pretty simple. To win, you try to bring the hood to the bar of your choice, and the charity of the winning bar is donated all money raised. Once you have the hood, you cannot run with it or throw it. You have to pass it on to people on your team, just as the Fool passed the hood to the Lord in the legend. The winning barkeep gives free drinks for the winning team and the roleplayers for the night, and gets to display the hood for the entire year.

Obviously, I’m sure you’re wondering what’s meant by ‘the hood.’ Well, it’s pretty much just a leather tube. Why it’s called a hood and how the Lady wore something similar to it is beyond me.

http://joobili.com/img/20110205/jb1296920514977R1263285402xl.jpg

But, while although the game bears striking resemblance to Royal Shrovetide football, I really like how it sticks to a legend, and there’s a reason in the story for every aspect of the game. With THON being a huge event at Penn State, I think it’d be awesome to see something like this incorporated to the fraternities or sororities for their THON donations rather than local bars.

Source: http://www.topendsports.com/sport/unusual/haxey-hood.htm

Today’s strange sport comes all the way from Switzerland; I’m not exactly sure why the Europeans have so many cool sports, but I think the U.S. needs to step its game up. The name of the game is Hornussen, a betting man’s game that somehow originated to ward off spirits. Either way, it’s pretty interesting, and it still stands as proof that I still know nothing of Swiss or European culture.

http://ww2.studentslife101.com/

Like I said before, the game allegedly originated to ward off ancient spirits. Apparently, the 16th century Swiss thought that if you hit burning logs from the mountain to the valley, you expel evil spirits. It was invented by single farmers, as it pitted strength against one another. It even allegedly was used to settle disputes between villages, rather than war. Today, there is a three-yearly Hornussen festival, and the game is also played yearly at the Alpine festival. The game is a team sport meant for all ages, and it doesn’t really have a set team structure.

The game is played on a really large field (the source doesn’t give an exact number for dimensions). The objective is to intercept a small wooden disc called a Nouss after the battling team hits it as far as possible from a ramp, kind of similar to golf. The defending team does this by using these huge wooden shields on a stick, called a catching board. The team with the most interceptions wins. Typically two turns are played, with each team attacking once in each turn. In each turn, during one team’s attack, each player on the team hits the Nouss twice (but has three attempts). There is no set team size, as I said there’s not a set team structure before. Most games consist of two bouts, and last about three to four hours. In addition to one team winning a game, some leagues have an individual winner on each team, which is the person who scores most points and interceptions.

http://www.energy.ch/typo3temp/pics/e237d2b2a7.jpg

I was a little vague when it came to the Nouss, and that’s because it’s not the easiest thing to explain. It’s this wooden disk, kind of similar to a hockey puck. Although it used to be made from goat horn, it’s primarily made out of wood today. The Nouss has been hit up to 190 mph, 1000 feet in length, and 160 to 230 feet in altitude.

http://www.schulen-signau.ch/projekte/hornussen/bilder/hornussen_index_seite.jpg

So, I said before that this was a betting man’s game. Even in friendly matches, it’s pretty much a requirement to make a bet on the match, which could range from a beer or two after the game to large amounts of money. However, the typical bet is about 50 to 100 francs, which is roughly equivalent to the same amount in US dollars. Furthermore, it’s not uncommon for teammates to bet against one another as to who’d score more points. However, it’s not a requirement as it is between teams.

Source:

http://www.myswitzerland.com/en-us/hornussen-where-the-nouss-flies-from-the-ramp-and-into-the-playing-field.html

So as you probably guessed, I’ve never heard of any of these sports before I wrote about them; found them searching the Internet. One thing that kept coming up over and over was chess boxing. I thought it was probably dumb or uninteresting so I continually skipped over it. Being that it came up once more, I decided to use it. So let’s take a closer look at the battle of brains and brawn.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YpNGqweDQgo/UHavVGnX1XI/AAAAAAAAOC0/lNLqWvk8-gc/s1600/chessboxing.jpg

The history of chessboxing is very debated. Some say it was a comic artist who decided to take a joke to a whole new level, and some say it was a couple of dudes in a gym who decided it’d be fun. Either way, chessboxing is actually a pretty popular sport, especially since it’s the only sport on the list to be part of a Wu-Tang clan’s ‘song’ (Da Mystery of Chessboxing). But through a series of fortunate events for the sport it became internationally recognized as the World Chessboxing Association (WCBA), headquartered in London, UK. So let’s skip the boring stuff and go right to how the sport works.

http://www.cameracrewgermany.com/uploads/2012/11/chess-Boxing-6.jpg

Most of the rules stated by the WCBA website pertain only to chess. I’m not sure how international chess is played, but I’m sure the rules are quite similar in that you have to move the piece you firs touched, you cannot stall, and so on. Chess is an intricate game in itself, so I’m not going to get into the details. But, if you don’t know how to play and want to get an idea, click here. So other than the specifics on chess, here’s how the sport works in its entirety. There’s a total of 11 rounds, 6 rounds of chess, with an intermission of boxing (5 rounds total). Every round lasts three minutes, and there’s one minute between each round. A player may win by knockout or technical knockout (TKO) during the boxing rounds. During the chess rounds, a player may win by checkmate or disqualification (going over time limit, breaking rules, etc.). If no checkmate or knockout occurs, then the bout is decided by judge points, just like a normal boxing match. Should the judge points be tied (which has yet to happen in the WCBA), the winner is black by default (I guess since he moves second).

https://bmj2k.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/chessboxing.jpg?w=490

So overall the point is that if you can mentally stand a game of chess after you’ve had your head beaten in, you’re tougher than most.

Source:

http://worldchessboxing.com

This week’s blog is brought to you live from Spain. Ok, maybe not live. And maybe I’m not in Spain. But that’s besides the point. The point is that the Spanish came up with yet another strange moshpit of sports all in one, which has come to be known as bossaball.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/Bossaball-wiki-3.jpg

So the history of bossaball is pretty recent. It was invented by Filip Eyckmans, a Belgian who was living in Spain. So evidently Filip traveled the globe, and he gathered the iconic sports of many different cultures (Spanish football, beach volleyball, Brazilian capoeira (which is another strange martial art sport that I don’t understand), and gymnastics). Oh, and one more thing, the referees are also designated deejays. Yeah, turns out good old Filip was a Renaissance man, being a tennis/soccer playing deejay. Since then bossaball has become a pretty big beach sport in Europe, mostly near Spain and Netherlands.

http://outrageoussports.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/bossaball-koninkrijksspelen-19.jpg

The rules of bossaball are mostly the same as beach volleyball. The court is actually a giant inflatable bouncy beach volleyball court, and scoring, in principle, is the same way — with one team fouling or driving the ball to the ground. But, while in volleyball you get one point per foul or drive, in bossaball you can get a lot more. The trampoline on our inflatable bouncy castle is the only region where the player could really move (but they’re still capable of reaching all ends of the court). So, if a player drives the ball with his or her hands in the opponent’s zone, it’s one point; on the trampoline, it’s three points by hand. The coolest thing about bossaball are called the soccer touches, where, as you can guess, the player scores by kicking the ball. Usually they do a backflip and kick it since you have the most control. A score with a soccer touch is three points, and a score in the trampoline is five. Teams are of four to five, with only one person being allowed on the trampoline, while the others are on the surrounding mat area.

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/4Q0Nugp6wU8/maxresdefault.jpg

Lastly, one of the key elements of Bossaball is music, obviously speaking since the referees are also required to be deejays. The name for the sport is actually derived from Bossa Nova, which is a samba-influenced Brazilian music. So, naturally, the referees (or deejays) are called samba referees.

Source: http://bossaballsports.com/index.html

Have you ever wanted to play tag with your friends, but they wanted to wrestle instead? No? Me either, but evidently the Indians did. Kabaddi is actually a mixture between the ancient Greek spectacle of wrestling and the childhood game of tag. And to top it off, there’s normally someone not breathing at any given time.

http://www.indiansports.in/Images/News/kab.jpg

Sounds crazy right? But I’ll get to the rules in a second. First, let’s talk about the crazed origins of the game. Apparantly, the game originates in pre-historic India. However, the modern gae arose around 1930. Not so long after, there was a regulated league for the sport, called the All India Kabaddi Federation. The AFKI went on to tour most of eastern Asia and eventually came to be called the Asian Kabaddi Federation in 1978. Now, an international league tours through most of Asia, and becomes more popular every year.

http://freshzene.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Kabaddi-World-Cup1.jpg

So now back to the basics. How exactly do you play wrestle-tag? There’s two teams of 12 (7 per team with 5 substitutions) playing on a ‘court’ about half the size of an NBA basketball court. The game is played in two halves of 20 minutes, in which each team is a ‘raider’ in one half. One raider crosses the half-way mark into opponent territory. As soon as he crosses the middle line, he is not allowed to breather; to make sure of it, he is forced to repeatedly chant ‘Kabaddi’. The raider then has 30 seconds to successfully tag one of the defenders and get back across the center line to his side, all-the-while chanting Kabaddi. The catch is that once the raider tags, the tagged defender can chase him down and wrestle him to the ground until the 30 seconds is up or until the raider is forced to breathe, whichever comes first. If the raider gets back to the line, the raiders score a point and the tagged player is out. If not, the raider is out and the defenders score a point. There’s also some complex rule about bonus points, but you could read more into that if you want to at the link below. At any point if a payer steps out of bounds, they are out and the opposing team scores a point.

https://live3rdworldkabaddicup2012.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/4th-world-kabaddi-cup-2013-photographs-sangrur6.jpg

So, although this sport isn’t necessarily as tough as Botaoshi, it’s definitely more popular and more organized.Who knows, maybe in a few years America will decide to become involved in the man-child sport.

Source: http://prokabaddi.com/history/rules.play.php

Soccer is the most popular sport on the face of the Earth, so the fact that there’s so many weird variations of it isn’t all that surprising. If you haven’t already read my first post, I talked about Royal Shrovetide Football, in which the entire city of Ashbourne, England participates in a 3 mile long match of soccer. So, jumping to the other side of the world, Indonesia has a unique version of soccer called Sepak Bola Api. The games played exactly the same way as traditional soccer with one huge exception — the ball is a coconut set on fire.

http://www.quoidenews.fr/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Sepak-Bola-Api.png

Ok, yes, this sounds crazy and painful.. mostly because it is. In Indonesia, Sepak Bola Api (which translates to flaming football goes). As Indonesia consists mainly of Muslims, Sepak Bola Api is a Ramadan tradition in many areas. Ramadan is a huge spiritual holiday in Islamic faith, and, as you might expect, participants have to undergo a spiritual cleansing beforehand. They fast for 21 days (only eating when the Sun is down), recite their Ramadan prayers, avoid foods cooked with fire and the elements of life (interpret that as you will), and undergo a full day and night without food or sleep. According to Islamic faith, these measures will allow the participant to become impervious to the flames.

http://cdn.klimg.com/bola.net/library/p/bola-api1.jpg

The rules of the game are the same as traditional soccer, except all participants must be barefoot. So, a quick run-through of the rules: 11 vs 11; only the keepers can use their hands, while all others can use their feet, body, and head (although probably not advised with a flaming ball); minimal physical contact allowed.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_7khFYLXj-ks/TDlcnp4eqQI/AAAAAAAAAEU/gy4nckr6uig/s1600/bola+api2.JPG

As you’d expect, a normal soccer ball couldn’t remain on fire for 90 minutes. So, the Indonesians create a ball similar in size made of coconut shells. The stringy outer-coating of the coconut is shaved with a carving knife, and a hole is punctured to drain all liquids. Then, the ball is soaked in a kerosene mixture for a length of time (some sources claim one week, while others say 30 minutes is sufficient). To prevent the players from sustaining any injuries or burns, their feet are soaked in a nonflammable herb and spice mixture, and they partake in the flame invulnerability rituals beforehand.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eRkDoqe291M/UINMZUHqVPI/AAAAAAAAGFo/kj-py1_CGso/s1600/sepak+bola+api_6.jpg

This is most likely not the last soccer adaptation we’ll see throughout this blog. There were a lot of other candidates, but this one seemed to stand out at the moment (I wonder why). Personally, I think FIFA should try a match of this to see the turnout. I’m not so sure stars like Ronaldo would be top tier anymore.

Source – http://www.odditycentral.com/videos/in-indonesia-football-is-played-with-a-ball-of-fire.html

Ok, so I knew this blog was going to bring me to some crazy sports, but I didn’t really expect this one. If you think football, hockey, or rugby are tough sports, this one may actually make them look like non-contact sports. The game is called bataoshi, and is actually played in Japanese high schools during physical education.

The defending team in white nearly losing to the attacking team in red.

So the game is relatively simple. There are two teams of 75, in which one team is designated as the defenders, and the other team is the attackers. For the defenders, one person stands atop a roughly 9ft wooden pole with a handle on the top. He’s somewhat similar to a goalkeeper in soccer or hockey. The objective is for the attacking team to knock him off and pull the pole down to a 30 degree angle in 2 minutes and 30 seconds. Other than that, the sport has absolutely no rules whatsoever. Players can punch, kick, throw or grab one another. Essentially you do whatever you could to either protect or knock down the pole. And we thought American sports cause concussions.

Just like the rules, the history of the sport is pretty brief and simple. The game was allegedly invented 1954-55. All the rules (or lack thereof) were completely the same, except then the attacking team only had to pull the pole 45 degrees. The rule was amended to lowering it to 30 degrees in 1973. Originally the game was designed for Japanese military cadets, but it has expanded since.

In case you couldn’t tell from the video, the defending team (white) loses because the pole was toppled to 30 degrees by the attacking team (blue). They all raise their hands at the end so the officials know no skirmishes were still ongoing after regulation time.

Although this blog was brief because of the lack of rules, regulations, and history surrounding the spectacle, I couldn’t help but throw it anyway. I mean, 75 people viciously mauling each other over a wooden stick is pretty intense. Although I’m only two blogs in, this sport may be the capstone of the weirdest and most uncommon sports ever.

Source: http://www.odditycentral.com/funny/japanese-botaoshi-arguably-the-craziest-sport-ever.html

If you read my last post, I said how I’m going to be discussing very odd, uncommon, and exotic sports. What I found for this week is called, as the title depicts, Ashbourne Royal Shrovetide football. So this ‘sport’ occurs annually in city called Ashbourne in England. Although it has football (soccer) in the title, the only similarity it bears is the ball itself. I think you’ll find this just as interesting as I did.

Most of the documentation surrounding the origins of the sport were lost in fire. However, the game dates back as early as the 1600’s, and has only ever been cancelled twice in history (1968, 2001) due to disease outbreak. The game survived through both World Wars at requests of the soldiers, for tradition.

So, the game is relatively simplistic. Anyone born north of the Henmore River, which passes through town, is placed on the team called Up’ards, and anyone born south of the river is placed on the team Down’ards. The game is played throughout the entire city, and thousands of people participate. The goals are large brick structure called plinths located 3 miles apart. The ball is tossed up at a plinth directly in the middle of the city. The ‘hug’, or the crowd that participates, attempts to carry the ball to the opposing goal, and bounce it off the plinth 3 times in order to score.

The Prince of Wales tosses the ball at the center plinth to start the match.

As you could predict, this game takes all day, and scoring is relatively low. At 2pm, the national anthem is sung, traditional songs of the game are sung, and the ball is tossed up from the center plinth into the hug. If a team were to score before 5pm, the ball could be retossed from the center plinth. The game stops officially at 10pm, and if no team scored, neither team wins and the ball is given to the person who tossed it up at 2pm.

The ball is tossed along the hug.

The rules in the game are relatively minimal. Obviously, all local laws apply, which includes trespassing. The ball could be taken onto your own property, but not someone else’s. Churchyards, memorials, and building sites are off-limits. You cannot intentionally hurt another player, and the ball cannot be transported via motor vehicle. Finally, the ball cannot be hidden in a backpack or any other type of bag. A score is only counted if one team bounces the ball off the plinth three times.

The Up’ards score at the opposing plinth, shortly before 5pm.

The goal scorer is carried back through the streets to the center plinth.

The Down’ards score late at night to tie the game.

Although the ball looks similar, the center is actually made of cork, and the surrounding material is rubber.  Essentially, it’s harder and heavier than your average soccer ball. It was designed this way so it could float on water and be carried across the river. The ball is painted before every game, and the keeper of the ball gets to choose if they want it repainted after the game. Whoever scores the winning goal gets to keep the ball,except in the case that no team scores. If no team scores, the person who tossed it up at the center plinth keeps it.

This is one of the weirdest games I’ve ever seen, but I think it’s really cool at the same time. The game offers a way to be civic for the entire city, and offers insight into tradition and sportsmanship.

*All photos used were from the 2003 match and were obtained from the site below,

All info was also obtained from the site below.

http://f2-preview.agilityhoster.com/shrovetide.net/index.htm