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.