7 of the World’s Weirdest Sports to Try: Chessboxing, Quidditch, and More

Tired of playing the same sport over and over again? Here are 7 strange sports to try and need a kick, though you are strongly warned to do so at your own discretion.
7 of the World’s Weirdest Sports to Try: Chessboxing, Quidditch, and More
7/10/2014
Updated:
7/10/2014

Tired of playing the same sport over and over again?

Here are 7 strange sports to try if you need a kick, though you are strongly warned to do so at your own discretion.

Extreme Ironing

How to play: It’s basically what it sounds like. You iron, but in extreme, remote locations. In competition, you are judged on how well you iron in a variety of extreme environments.

In the video, you can see the ironing taking place while hanging off the cliff of a waterfall, attached to the side of a moving bus, and on a canoe.

 

Chessboxing

How to play: Chessboxing is exactly what it sounds like; it is chess and boxing. A game is 11 rounds, with alternating chess and boxing rounds(chess is first).

You can win through the boxing portion by knockout, or through the chess portion by checkmating your opponent.

In the chess section, the players are each given a total of 12 minutes to make their moves.

Come to think of it, couldn’t you follow the lead of chessboxing and combine any two sports? For instance ‘basketballsoccer’, where players alternate between 10 minute rounds of basketball and soccer.

Though there really are no two sports that combine brain and braun as perfectly as ‘chessboxing’ does.

 

Underwater Rugby

How to play: Another sport that is self explanatory by its name. While underwater, two teams compete to score a ball into an metal bucket serving as the opponent’s goal. And like in rugby, you prevent this by tackling the opposition.

And this is not the only sport in the underwater series. You can also check out underwater hockey and underwater football.

 

Cheese Rolling

How to play: At the annual Cooper’s Hill Cheese - Rolling and Wake event shown above, contestants gather on the top of a very steep hill as an approximately 8 lb hunk of cheese is thrown down the hill.

The first to chase down the cheese then wins the title and the cheese.

The cheese supposedly can travel up to speeds of 30 miles an hour, according to topendsports.

Needless to say, at such speeds, injuries are very prevalent; the participants really are as crazy as they look.

 

Extreme Pillow Fighting

How to play: Everything knew and loved a good pillow fight as a kid. You do the same thing in organized pillow fighting(bludgeon your opponent with a pillow), except now you are “fighting for real.” 

 

Shin Kicking

How to Play: Shin-kicking is like wrestling, but with shin-kicking being the specialized move.  

In shin-kicking, two contestants hold each others collars, and you lose either if you fall to the ground, or give up on account of shin pain.

According to bbc, in earlier versions of the sport, contestants were said to have trained by striking their shin with hammers.

 

Quidditch 

The famous sport played by wizards in Harry Potter now has a ’muggle'(everyday person) version.

How to play: For all you non-wizards, the video explains it pretty well.

  • Firstly, no one is able to replicate the ‘Potter version’ and fly on a broom. Instead, players run on the ground, but must keep a broom between their legs at all times.
  • The chasers take the main ball - the quaffle, and throw it through the hoops to score points.
  • The beater’s job is to hit the chasers with bludgeons, which would cause the chaser be out of play for a short period of time.
  • The keepers are goalies.
  • The seeker’s job is to catch the snitch, often a swift human dressed in yellow, and get the tennis ball from the snitch’s shoes without touching the snitch runner. Of course, this differs from wizard-quidditch, where the snitch is a flying golden ball. In both cases, the game ends when the snitch is caught.