10 Extremely Unusual Sports You've

Probably Never Heard of

Chess Boxing
Even with NBA players still on strike, with fall
officially here, there's no shortage of sports
starting up, from pee-wee leagues all the way
up to the pros.
But there are also other athletic forms of
competition that gain little notice every year
despite a dedicated following. Here we explore
some sports that you've likely never heard of
(and should probably never attempt).
We begin with chess and boxing, together at
last in a sport whose name is as unlikely as the
combination itself: chess boxing. So the name
may not be original, but chess boxing is a
singular sport that demands brains and brawn
like no other athletic competition. Popular in Germany and the United Kingdom, the game is
played with alternating rounds of chess and boxing. Competitors
can win by winning the chess game, by knocking out an opponent
or by judges' decision at the end.

Seepak Takraw
From the looks of this photo, you might think sepak takraw, a
sport native to Southeast Asia, is almost a kind of karate
volleyball. And you wouldn't be far off.
Played with a ball made of dried palm leaves, sepak takraw is popular in Asia and even started
to make inroads in North America in the late-1980s and 1990s. Sepak takraw even has a lot in
common with similar team sports more familiar to Western audiences.
Like soccer, players pass around a ball using anything but their arms. The game is played on a
court about the same size as a badminton
court. Two teams of three players gather on
each side of a net, trying to keep the ball in
play. The rules for scoring are similar to that
of volleyball.
Underwater Hockey
Given the hard hits and frequent fights so
common in ice hockey, it's difficult to believe
that anyone could imagine a more potentially
hazardous version of the sport. But with the
added element of a potential drowning, underwater hockey makes frozen-water hockey look
like child's play.
The rules of liquid-water hockey are similar to that of it solid-state counterpart. The difference:
Players use wooden or plastic sticks about the size of a banana to push around a metal puck
around the floor of a pool.
The action is especially exciting for spectators, who
can only really see ripples on the surface from the
action below.
Dog Dancing
Dog dancing may be more art than sport. But however
you classify what could be one of the surest signs yet of
the apocalypse, dog dancing, also known as canine
freestyle, combines coaching, discipline and dance.
Although it may seem like an amateur pastime, dog
dancing is actually a competitive sport with contests
held in the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan
and other countries with pet owners who have too much time
on their hands.
Street Luge
Street luge is a sport that combines the safety concerns of the
luge (одиночные сани) with the gentleness of pavement.
Participants lie on what is essentially an enlarged skateboard
designed to hold the human frame. Gravity does the rest of the
work.
Quidditch
The pastime of the
wizarding world of the "Harry Potter" series,
quidditch combines magic, athleticism, and a touch of
violence. Given the sheer impossibility of the sport,
you'd think there wouldn't be a real-life equivalent --
and you'd be wrong.
There are enthusiastic fans of the series who just
wouldn't let reality or the laws of physics stand in
their way. And so, these ambitious muggles created
their own version of quidditch that might not have all
the magic of the dramatic version but certainly isn't lacking for passion.
Founded at Middlebury College in Vermont, the International Quidditch Association has grown
in just a few short years to include hundreds of teams with a presence on nearly every
continent. The game has the same rules and scoring system as the quidditch from the series,
with one big difference: no flying.

Redneck Games
You sure won't find a chess board -- or anything resembling a board game -- at the annual
Summer Redneck Games in East Dublin, Ga. Instead, you'll find the kinds of athletic events
that could only come out of Dixie, including toilet seat
tossing (мытье унитазов), seed spitting (плевание
семечек), and mud belly flops (pictured here).
Competitors at the Summer Redneck Games may not get
all the attention or the money or the endorsement deals
with Nike. As a matter of fact, many of them probably
don't even have shoes. But there's no doubt it takes a
special kind of
athlete to take
home glory at the
Summer Redneck Games.
Wife Carrying
Eukonkanto, a sport of Finnish origin, is a simpler than
its name implies. Its English translation -- "wife
carrying" -- is right on the money, however.
Male competitors race across an obstacle course while
carrying a female teammate, who grabs onto her
partners neck and back while hanging upside-down.
Glory isn't the only prize. For those fortunate enough to take home top honors at the Wife
Carrying World Championships in Sonkajärvi, Finland, the winning team earns the wife's
weight in beer.
Wood Chopping
Chopping wood may seem like a tireless chore.
But at the now retired Great Outdoor Games,
there's a lot more to the timber events than that.
From log rolling to tree topping to the hot saw and
more, the Great Outdoor Games turned
lumberjacks ( лесорубов) into competitive
athletes. Each of the timber events was either a
race, as was the case with the team relay
(командная эстафета) or speed climbing, or an
endurance event, like logrolling.

Buzkashi
Played on horseback, the traditional Central Asian sport known as buzkashi may appear to be
an eastern variant on polo. But there is one critical difference: Instead of playing with wooden
mallets (деревянный молот, колотушка) and a ball, participants use the carcass of a cow or
goat.
Each team consists of 10 players, five of which are in play at any given time. Players score by
dragging a carcass across the opposing
team's goal line. Given the fact that the
game is played with dead animals, it
should come as no surprise that the
participants can play rough when
competing against one another.

Glossary:
pee-wee league
brawn [brɔːn] – мускулы; мускульная
сила; плоть
ripples – волны, всплески
log rolling – перекатка бревен
tree topping – обрезка верхушки
дерева
hot saw – пила для горячей резки
endurance [ɪn'djuər(ə)ns ] – выносливость, способность переносить что-то
carcass ['kɑːkəs] – туша (животного)