Long live the minimalism, the unusual, the creative marginality in contrast to maximalism, the drugs of the poor, the ultra millionaire stars of ‘luxury’ sports who kick goal kicks, put the ball in the basket … etcetera. Fortunately, there are those who enjoy themselves with little, almost nothing and are equally happy
Of course, football, basketball and volleyball, tennis, skiing, cycling, cars and motorcycles, baseball, cricket, swimming and related, athletics, queen of all sports, belong to the most widespread and practiced range of disciplines in the world, but … but if you consider yourself unconventional and creative, if you are interested in amaze, tell yourself that you are a regular visitor to one of the unusual, mostly unknown ‘sports’ that investigative journalism has tracked down. Premise, is throwing snowballs on the list? Experts say yes and relate the historical or legendary origins of the oddities lined up below: in Finland it is ‘normal’ an annual obstacle course with the added difficulty of having to overcome them with the wife on the shoulders, astride or upside down. . The winner is rewarded with as much beer as his kind lady weighs. Do you know the Sepak Takraw? No? It is a kind of volleyball that forbids the use of hands. To keep the ball flying, feet and knees are used, as well as the chin. Three players per team. Now let’s talk about Hornussen, a Swiss sport of ancient origin: the hitter throws a puck into the air with a whiplash. The opponents must try to push him back with big signs, the ‘schindels. Afghanistan also has its own national ‘game-sport’, Buzkashi. Target? On horseback, at speed, you have to hit a (poor!) Goat up to push it into the opposing team’s goal. No rules, there is only a code of honor to be respected. The Animal Welfare Agency is said to know nothing about Buzkashi, which is practiced by wealthy Afghans. This does not happen in the Sahara, but in Australia where two major camel races take place, the Camel Cup and the Boulia Desert Sands. Speed 65 km in sprints and an average of 40 in one hour. Corollaries of the two events: beauty contests and betting. Spain, Bossaball or a mixture of soccer, athletics, volleyball and Brazilian capoeira. From an inflatable trampoline an attacker throws the ball, opponents from another trampoline must return it to the sender with a maximum of 5 touches. It is said that they have a lot of fun. GB, Yorkshire. Invented by miners, known as ‘put a ferret in your pants’, Ferret-legging consists of tucking one of the living animals into your pants and keeping it as long as possible. The record: 5 hours and 30. We move to Pakistan, Japan, Iran, Bangladesh for the mix of wrestling and ‘flag stealing’ which gives rise to Kabaddi, a contact sport with no breath taking back to your own field. Again: the aforementioned Capoeira, or ‘The war dance’, martial art of Brazil, brings together dance, music and acrobatics. It originated in the 19th century, practiced by African slaves. Today it can be enjoyed as a fighting scene in films and television series. The Yukigassen deserves a final mention, recommended for those who are familiar with freezing temperatures, even though it was born in Japan. In short, it’s a real snowball fight between two teams of seven players, protected by helmets. Whoever is hit is eliminated.
We post-war kids? We played ‘saittella’, or soccer, but the field was the distance between two manhole entrances (the doors), facing each other and the ball was made from rounded fragments of perforated bricks. The more organized ventured into the race of the ‘carruocioli’, a very poor copy of the bob, in wood with ball bearings as wheels. A third ‘sport’ at no cost was ‘bat and pitch’ (I don’t swear on the accuracy of ‘pitch’), that is, street baseball. It consisted of hitting a small wooden log with a stick on the fly.
