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Football, soccer, basketball, baseball—these mainstream sports attract the most interest. However, there is more to sports than just hitting a ball with a stick or throwing something at someone...

The Nine Most Unusual Popular Sports in the World

by Thomas [HUMOR]

78

31419 reads

Humor

November 14, 2008


Football, soccer, basketball, baseball—these mainstream sports attract the most interest. However, there is more to sports than just hitting a ball with a stick or throwing something at someone.

Here's just a few of the most unusual popular sports...

 

1. Extreme Ironing

ExtremeIroning2 by you.

http://www.goextremeironing.com/

I don't know about you, but I hate ironing. It's so boring. For all you adrenaline junkies out there, there is a way to get your blood pumping while you iron. It's called extreme ironing.

All you have to do is find the craziest way to iron your clothes. If that means ironing across a canyon or while jumping off a cliff, then so be it. As it says on goextremeironing.com, "...we just don't put our lives in danger we risk our laundry to."

Think you can iron your shirt while parachuting?

 

2. Wife Carrying

wife-carrying-400x300 by you.

Husbands, have no fear. There is a sport which you and your wife can do together—wife carrying.

Originally began in Finland as a joke, the sport has become a sport that attracts many. It seems to becoming very popular in the United States with at least three major competitions a year.

 

3. Shin Kicking

rdg_shin_kicking2_bs_853 by you.

Any sport, mainstream or not, can be considered useless. However, there is one sport that is absolutely useless but fun: shin kicking.

The point of this sport is to kick your opponent so hard with your shin, that they will fall down or you can throw them down. Talk about ruthlessness. I don't recommend wearing steel-tipped boots, unless you really want to hurt someone.

 

4. Chess Boxing

sdgdasg by you.

http://www.chessboxing.com/

According to Wikipedia, chess boxing is "a hybrid sport which combines the sport of boxing with games of chess." Sounds simple enough. Get a guy in checkmate, then go beat him to a pulp and repeat.

This sport is mostly popular in Europe, but it is gaining world-wide recognition. The sport gains its inspiration from a graphic novel called, Froid Équateur.

Author Poll

Which unusual sport would you want to do?

  • extreme ironing
  • wife carrying
  • shin kicking
  • chess boxing
  • zorbing
  • buzkashi
  • cheese rolling
  • catfish grabbling
  • cell phone toss
vote to see results
Author Poll Results

Which unusual sport would you want to do?

  • extreme ironing

    8.0%

  • wife carrying

    13.9%

  • shin kicking

    6.2%

  • chess boxing

    10.3%

  • zorbing

    36.3%

  • buzkashi

    5.0%

  • cheese rolling

    8.9%

  • catfish grabbling

    3.2%

  • cell phone toss

    8.2%
  • Total votes: 438
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78 comments Last one added 16 days ago — Leave a Comment

  1. Yoosof Farah 7 months ago

    lol great article thomas. there really are some unusual sports out there. i like the idea of extreme ironing, it sounds quite fun. although i have to say my favourite sport of all-time is orang-utan boxing. apparently it's most popular in thailand. did you ever go to see an orang-utan boxing match thomas?

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    • Thomas 7 months ago

      lol, can't say that I have. I've seen elephants play football. Monkeys wrestle. but never an orangutan box. i must check it out now.

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  2. Joe G 7 months ago

    Toyota Aygo football, as played by the gents from Top Gear.

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  3. Nikhil Nadipelli 7 months ago

    hey in INDIA .. we have lots of amazing sports.... hen fight... 5 stones... book cricket... handstand fights( where guys do hand stand and fight eachother.. kickin others legs and ass...... sometimes we have headstand vs handstand)

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  4. Jesse Jones 7 months ago

    LOL, thats pretty funny dude.

    jess
    www.anonymize.us.tc

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  5. Michelle Alves 7 months ago

    Haha great work Thomas :) Welcome Back too!

    Shin Kicking sounds fun!

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  6. Isaac Barrow 7 months ago

    lmao cheese rolling.

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  7. Steve McStevie 7 months ago

    Thank goodness you split this up onto two pages! Combined, all the bandwidth of loading those 10 images would have slowed my internet to a crawl, and not to mention it would make the scroll bar unnervingly small to have so much on one page. And its so user friendly, you know? I'm glad you're so concerned about our viewing experience and not about something as lowbrow as fluffing page views or anything. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE INCREDIBLE TWO PAGE TOP 10 LIST FORMAT WE ALL LOVE!1

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  8. Michael Griffin 7 months ago

    haha, this is golden!

    Nice to have you back mate.

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  9. T.J. Morrill 7 months ago

    In Alaska there's an annual bathtub race where people have to race down a hill in a tub full of soapy water.

    Toe wrestling is one I've heard of.

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  10. Patrick Michael 7 months ago

    I've spent many a day researching the whole Catfish thing.

    Its preferred name is Catfish Noodling. Thought that would be a welcomed addition.

    And thought its not an unusual sport, it is an Olympic one, Fencing should be on this list. It keeps athletes in superior shape and is great for bodies.

    Something everyone should try.

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    • Thomas 7 months ago

      i consider fencing a real sport, so i didnt put it up there. i was looking for really strange sports.

      and have you actually done the whole catfish thing? it sounds fun.

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    • Patrick Michael 7 months ago

      I fenced for ten years, before the traveling and equipment became too expensive. So I hear you in the real sport catergory.

      And no I haven't been catfishing. It sounds like loads of fun, but it also sounds dangerous. Whenever I've seen it on TV, including Dirty Jobs and Man vs Wild on discovery channel, they always say other things, like snapping turtles could be in the same spots as Catfish.

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    • Thomas 7 months ago

      yea i heard that too. and plus dont u have to worry about the other person too?

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    • Patrick Michael 7 months ago

      yea, its basically a team sport.

      And I enjoy having both of my hands.

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    • Thomas 7 months ago

      haha, me to.

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  11. Lisa Horne 7 months ago

    Chess boxing..love it. They can't be called nerds anymore! This was great! Shin kicking sounds way too painful, but chess boxing is one I would try. Good stuff Thomas. Go Navy!

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    • Thomas 7 months ago

      is the Navy game on? I almost went but my friend ran out of tickets...damnit.

      Yea, that guy looks tough. Glad you liked it.

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  12. Shy Love 7 months ago

    I'm not attracted to ruthless sports. I prefer to have a ruth over my head!!

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  13. Thomas 7 months ago

    Damn...over 10,000 reads?! Is that right? Wow.

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  14. Eric Gomez 7 months ago

    Blitzball? Anyone? No? Great stuff, Thomas.

    Reminded me of this:

    http://www.cracked.com/article_15209_10-most-insane-sports-in-world.html

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  15. Jared Leatzow 7 months ago

    POD

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  1. Maire Ofeire 7 months ago

    Bog snorkling.... basically snorkling in a bog, classy eh?

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  2. Michael Griffin 7 months ago

    I did cheese rolling once, last year, spent nine weeks in hospital...nuff said really haha!

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  3. Susie Lehto 7 months ago

    This is different!

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  4. Kara Martin 7 months ago

    Thomas...this is freaking hilarious, I loved it!!!

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  5. Shane H. 7 months ago

    well, i would love to do that extreme ironing. sounds awesome. lol

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  6. Tommy 7 months ago

    Lol that's hilarious.

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  7. Matt Eichel 7 months ago

    Awesome read Thomas. I've only heard about chess boxing, but the rest are hilarious! Have you tried any of those yourself?

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  8. Joe G 7 months ago

    I can't believe I forgot about my favorite sport of all-time...shotgun golf, invented by the late, great Hunter S. Thompson and Bill Murray.

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  9. Yama Hazheer 7 months ago

    Nice to see buzkashi here. My parents said they used to go watch matches back in Afghanistan haha.

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  10. Henry Gula 7 months ago

    Hahaha, very funny article!
    Wife-carrying? that looks...intriguing...

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  11. Henry Gula 7 months ago

    Maybe someday. haha

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  12. Henry Gula 7 months ago

    Maybe someday. haha

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  13. Henry Gula 7 months ago

    Yeah, that would probably be a prerequisite of that particular sport...

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  14. Tony Bishop 7 months ago

    soccer's pretty weird :)

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  15. Tori Willis 7 months ago

    HAHAHA this is great. I think the one I'd actually want to do is Zorbing. Even the name sounds awesome. Where did you possibly find all these? AMAZING job!!

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  1. L.J. Burgess 7 months ago

    Punkin' Chunkin...

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  2. Tomer Talmy 7 months ago

    Nice article man. Very intersting and informational.

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  3. Alexeiv Goodenov 7 months ago

    AHAHAHA

    Chessboxing sounds interesting.

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  4. Jeremy Kaufman 2 months ago

    Chess boxing is an incredible sport. It combines the game that requires the most pure intelligence and the game that requires the most pure strength and athletic ability. It is almost taylor- designed to be a future Olympic sport, because the winner of its tournament can essentially be crowned the most well- rounded individual on Earth. So yea, its pretty cool.

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  5. Ashraf Hammad about 1 month ago

    I really have to try shin kicking one of these days, or chess boxing.

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  6. Jake D'Agostino 17 days ago

    haha nice job thomas. these sports sound interesting, especially zorbing. thanks for informing us about these very unusual sports

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  7. Dylan Reichert 16 days ago

    Haha i watched Extreme Ironing on spike a few weeks ago lol

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