What is an odd or out-of-the-ordinary sport you know of?

15

Sometimes you need to get household chores done... even if you're thousands of feet up in the air 😆

3

7

Hooverball! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hooverball

It's a lot of fun to play! super egg behavior from like 20 years ago before I knew; I was in the US Hoover-ball National championship games and while my own male team didn't win the women's team that did win was down a lady and when they asked if a male would play with them I was super delighted to and confused why I was the only volunteer!? I was the worst one on both the teams I played with but they were super nice anyway.

So I'm a legit hoover-ball national champ! But only by dumb luck.

6

Sounds like a workout!

3

Also, this: https://fmworldcup.com/microsoft-excel-world-championship/

I'm good at Excel, but not THIS good! Lol.

5

Beer Stein Holding

https://www.ussteinholding.com/info/what-is-beer-steinholding-faqs

4

Goalball

It's designed for athletes with vision impairment. Non- blind athletes are blindfolded. Game consists of 2 goals and players pass balls around trying to score in their goal. The balls have bells in them to help track the balls.

It's pretty fun!

4

Calvinball.

It's never even the same game twice.

3

Cyclocross. You ride a bike similar to a road bike (but with better brakes and knobby tires) until you encounter an obstacle you can't just bunny hop over. You hop off the bike, pick it up and jump the obstacle and then continue riding. It's the bicycle version of a steeplechase race in mud and it's hilarious.

3

I used to work with Gideon. Doing the human version and a couple Olympics if you look him up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IA3CxLWAaQA

3

Looks fun and expensive but I would try it if I could.

3
- It's less than typical motorsports in cost. I worked with Gideon because the chain of bike shops I worked for sponsored him. Olympic athletes are usually from well off families that could afford to help them get to events and stuff, but most athletes are very poor. No one does it for money. At the Olympics level, that is your whole life. Everything you eat, when you sleep, and every aspect of life revolves around the training routine. You have no real free time. You can't eat what you want or when you want. Even going riding with friends you can't ride at a level others may want or show off at all because it isn't part of training. Most athletes can only do it for so long because they can't have relationships or careers. Their entire life is on hold until they decide to close that chapter and move on.
  
  Velodromes are rare, and indoor velodrome's are even more so. I just happen to be near to Los Angeles where the only indoor velodrome in North America is located, thus how I know Gideon.
  
  On a velodrome you ride the original bicycle. It is fixed gear with no shifting transmission, and no freewheel coasting mechanism. The chain is directly connected to the cog on the rear wheel. If you pedal backwards from a stop, you go backwards. There are also no brakes. Your legs pressing backwards or resisting rotation will slow you down. All bikes were like that in the beginning during the 18th century.
  
  Events like what Gideon was racing are actually where motorcycles were invented. They were made for pace bikes because velodrome racing was huge from 1880-1920. The first sports celebrities were cyclists. The first international African American celebrity was Major Taylor.
  
  Velodromes started with events paced with multi person tandems and got as high as 5 and 6 man tandems before the first steam motorcycles began being used. It didn't take long before the pace bikes started racing too. This lead to a new massive sport called board track racing. This is where brands like Indian and Harley Davidson became famous. The earliest Indians and Harley's still had bicycle frames and crank pedals.
  
  Anyways board track racing was super dangerous. The bikes used drip oil systems and had no transmission, while motors were nearly 1000cc. Accidents were common and you can only imagine the horrific injuries from splintering wood planking. There was a major accident that killed two or three dozen spectators and ended the sport for good in the USA.
  
  Your post link seems to be a mix between the board track and velodrome and likely has roots back to this era of history.
  
  3

Broomball.

Let's take Ice Hockey, remove the ice skate, and replace hockey sticks with brooms.

3

Ice Cross: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZXqPRvXdu4

It's unique because it's the only sport with ice ramps.

2

Vintage Baseball https://richmondsunsetnews.com/2024/10/03/playing-like-its-1886-gg-parks-vintage-baseball-throwback/

Fielders wear thin gloves with separated fingers, teammates give each other nicknames, and use vintage vocabulary, and exhibit sportsmanlike behavior towards teammates and their opponents.

2

Sportsmanlike behaviour in the modern age?

That IS weird! 🤣

2

Okay so the specifics of the actual game played here are far less unusual than the other examples given, but I think it belongs: international rules football. I'm going to have no choice but to refer to what I would normally call "football" without a qualifier as soccer here, so don't let any instances of British English trip you up.

Ireland and Australian both have local ball games, Gaelic football and Australian rules football, that are popular in that country but not big anywhere else. Neither is developed from the other, but they have a lot of distinctive commonalities: you can carry the ball, but only a limited distance before you must bounce, kick, or pass it; you're allowed more contact than soccer, but less than rugby or American football; there are two ways to score, an easy low-point option and a difficult high-point one; and they are played on very large pitches compared to those sports. Both games are very fast-moving and free-flowing, eschewing the structures of rugby or American football for something more like soccer. Both are good fun to watch, I recommend them if you enjoy other kinds of football.

Back in the 60s, an Australian and an Irishman living in Australia had the idea to get an Aussie rules team together and do a tour to Ireland, plus the UK and US where there were big Irish communities. They played Gaelic rules with modification to accomodate the Australian players.

Fast forward to the 80s and someone reckons this should be a proper thing, so international rules are developed - a proper hybrid of the two that attempts to be as fair as it can to players of both sports. The goals are a combination of both sports' goals, the ball is round and the pitch is rectangular like in Gaelic but the tackling and kick-catching rules are Australian. And then once every couple of years, Ireland and Australia play a game against each other.

Of course, both sides play their own game the rest of the time. So it's a sport that is almost nobody plays except for international tours between Ireland and Australia.

2

Paintball, specifically Speedball.

Yes, the general public plays it for birthday parties and what-not, but I'm talking about the professional side. Inflatable bunkers, walking the trigger, call outs, the occasional bonus ball/fight. Really gets the adrenaline pumping!

2

I have seen that on TV at one point. Possibly ESPN2, idk.

1

Paintballing - I can personally confirm that this hurts a ton! It's fun but I've gotten bruises from it...

Cold water swimming - can be daunting at first, I've participated in it a few times and you do get used to it over time though!

1

Underwater Football. https://www.underwaterfootball.com/main.html

Originally started (late 60s) to get SCUBA students more time snorkelling and and getting comfortable with having a mask flood and learning how to clear it.

1

This is "Single-Bamboo Drifting" (独竹漂), a traditional sport of the Miao peoples in Guizhou.

You stand on a broad bamboo trunk and steer/propel with a thin bamboo stick. Often combining it with complicated dance. It requires a lot more balance than I could ever have managed at any point in my life.

1