We all know about the classic sports: football, basketball, baseball, and soccer. But we see so much of these common pastimes, and I for one am tired of it. I’m curious about what other sports are out there that no one is talking about, and I’m sure some of you are too. I’ve investigated three new sports that I think have a lot of promise in being one of our new favorites to watch.
Octopush is a clever twist on a sport we all know: ice hockey. Instead of skating around and hitting the puck on ice, octopush players swim along the bottom of a pool and hit the puck across the submerged floor. Six players compete on each side, using their short sticks (only around a foot long!) to push the puck along into the opponent’s goal. The trickiest part of the game is that the players need to return to the surface for breath. All of the players wear scuba gear, but that still requires them to return within a foot of the surface before they come back down to the game space. This makes for a fun game of hockey with the added strategy of planning your gasps of air.
If you like your sports a little stranger, you’ll love the Egg Throwing World Championships held every year in Swaton, England. There are five different eggy events to take part in at this festival in late June, including an egg relay, an egg trebuchet building contest, and Russian egg roulette, where competitors are faced with five hard-boiled eggs and one raw egg. Athletes take turns smashing eggs on their foreheads, and the first to smash the raw egg loses. This tradition goes all the way back to 1322, when monks in the town threw eggs over the flooded river to reach the villagers to encourage them to come to church. This fun pastime stuck, and the championships have paid annual homage to those monks since 1994.
For an incredibly painful but exhilarating experience, look no further than shin kicking at the Cotswold Olympicks. Shin kicking is another sport that is a part of a bigger celebration in England. The Cotswold Olympicks have been held for over 400 years in Gloucester, and they include other games such as Tug of War and King of the Hill. Shin kicking is sort of like wrestling, just with lots of, well, kicking shins. Competitors stuff their stockings with straw and pack it tight to protect from blows, and then grapple the other competitor, kicking their shins and trying to take them to the ground. The first to be thrown to the ground is the loser. This is a game of pain tolerance, strength, and the amount of insanity necessary to willingly put yourself in a situation where your shins will get destroyed. Not for the faint of heart.
If you know where to look, it’s clear that you’ll never get bored of sports. With new games being created every year, there is always something new to entertain us. Next time you are bored with your friends, try out one of these games or something completely new. You never know, it could become your new favorite.