It is said that sports help build the character of a person which makes it necessary for all of us to play and take part in some sporting activity. Without a doubt, we get to know about limited number of sports only which are played in our country or in neighboring nations. There are many other sports that are getting a lot of attention nowadays for being strange and unique yet very entertaining.
Here we have brought 15 strangest sports ever played on the Earth. Some of them are becoming popular and there is an increase in their fan base.
This sport is a mix of volleyball and football and it is gaining popularity in Southeast Asia. The players use their legs, head, knees and chest to hit the ball and send it to the other court. Softwood is used to make the ball and as per the International Sepaktakraw Federation, nearly 100 teams from all over the world take part in the competitions organized by them.
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In this game, two teams fight with each other for gaining the control of a pole. While the defenders will try to keep the pole straight, the attackers will make an attempt to topple it. The attackers use their teammates and players of other team as stepping stones to get on the top of the pole while the defenders try their best to stop them.
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This can be called one of the most inhuman sports played in the 17th and 18th century by some European aristocrats. Mostly, it was played in the parties in which long strips of canvas were laid out in the courtyard; one person stands on one side of the canvas while on the other, the second person stands. Then the foxes and small animals were released on the courtyard and as they cross the strip, they were tossed in the air by yanking the strip. Those who tossed the animal highest were the winner, animals used in this game were fox mainly but other small animals such as hares, badgers and wildcats were also used.
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Remember the sport which was shown in the Harry Potter series in which the players fly in the air with the help of their broomsticks? A land version has been invented by sports lovers; it is played on the hockey field and has been named as Muggle Quidditch. The game was first played in US colleges but now it is becoming more popular and spreading in other states too.
This sport has been gaining popularity since 1970 and the good thing is that the participation is increasing every year in the World Toe Wrestling Championship. The players have three seconds to pin down the toe of their opponents. They play alternately with both the feet and best of three rounds are counted.
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This sport searches for the smartest and most powerful person as it not only tests the power and stamina of a person but also tests his brain. There are 11 alternating rounds of chess and boxing of three minutes each and the fan base of this sport is limited to India, Germany, UK and Russia.
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This sporting event is conducted annually in Gloucester, England, and it is known as Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling & Wake. The 9-pound cheese wheel is rolled from the top of the steep hill and the participants run after it. Whoever reaches the bottom of the hill first is the one who wins the cheese. The game seems to be a little easy but many get injured due to the hill’s steepness.
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This is one of the most absurd sports in which people take clothes and ironing boards to a risky place and iron the clothes. As per the Extreme Ironing Bureau, extreme ironing is a sport which provides the thrill of extreme outdoor activity with the contentment of ironing a shirt.
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It started in Port Lincoln’s small fishing community in South Australia where local fishermen used to toss fish vigorously onto trucks. Later, this became a method of spicing up a local festival. An individual who throws fish weighing 20 pounds the farthest away emerges as the winner. Presently some changes have been introduced in the game and it has become little cleaner as rubber fish is used in place of real fish.
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Bored of regular kayaking? Why don’t you try giant pumpkin kayaking? It is at the Lake Pesaquid of Nova Scotia that the most famous giant pumpkin race is conducted annually. The distance covered in this race is almost half a mile and the pumpkins are decorated by participants in a beautiful manner.
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It is a pretty famous sport in which the husband carries his wife on the back and crosses hurdles to win the race. It was originated in Finland but now it has become very popular in Australia, Germany, Great Britain, Estonia, Ireland and the United States. The teams from these countries make sure that they leave no stone unturned in winning the World Wife Carrying World Championship.
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Now, this is a sport in which someone can get hit badly. It started in the 17th century in England and in this game, two candidates try to hit each other as hard as possible on the shin until one of them falls on the ground. The Cotswold Olympic Games are held every year on the Dover’s Hill near Chipping Campden and Shin-Kicking World Championship is also a part of the event.
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This game is said to very popular in the 1960s when World Octopus Wrestling Championships were organized. In this sport, divers go into the ocean and bring an octopus on the surface. The diver who came with the biggest octopus was declared as the winner and the octopus was either eaten, left in the ocean or given to a local aquarium. However, now it is not possible to play this game as since 1976, it is illegal in America to capture or harass an octopus.
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This blood-sport was popular in the Victorian era in England and in this game, a bull was made to fight with other animals, mainly a dog. The dog was needed to bite on the bull’s snout and hold on to it to be declared as the winner. Ferocious and small dogs were needed for this sport which led to the creation of breeds such as bulldog and pit bulls.
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This game was created in 2012 in California. The match was played between two teams comprising of four players each and they used to try throwing a big ball in each other’s goal post to score points. What took this sport to the extreme level was the availability of stun gun with each player while playing. The creators said that the current flowing in the stun gun does no harm as it can only make the player drop the ball. However, the game never connected with the people and became history by 2015.
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