PLAY BALL!

Enjoy These 10 Weird And Unique Sports From Around The World!

Credit: Austris Augusts

Like every single aspect of this modern, ever-changing world, the realm of sports has gradually but radically changed over time. Gone are the days of leather gridiron helmets, basketball peach baskets, or those heavy, wooden bats swung by Babe Ruth. However, while the way they are played might change, the excitement and determination that fueled these sports over the centuries still remain the same.

We have gathered 10 of the most unique, eccentric, and down-right weird sports and competitions from all around the world. Some are new, some are old, but they all share the same grit and thrill that makes the sports you know and love great. Who knows? You might end up with a new favorite after this list.

Credit: Johann Walter Bantz

In a very similar fashion to the visionary that made the first peanut butter and jelly sandwich, chessboxing is the result of combining two sports that shouldn’t go well together, but oddly enough they do. A chessboxing match consists of alternating three-minute rounds of chess and boxing, starting and ending with chess. Victory might be achieved through knock-out in boxing or checkmate in chess.

The origins of chessboxing are disputed, but most fans agree that it was first conceived by French comic book artist Enki Bilal in a 1992 comic. Inspired by this, Dutch performance artist Iepe Rubingh held the first chessboxing event in Berlin in 2003 and went on to become the first world chessboxing champion that same year.

Credit: Mia Anderson

Some dogs love water. Anyone who has seen a golden retriever galloping happily through a beach can attest to this. What you might not know is that man’s best friend has been riding waves alongside surfers for almost 100 years. As its name implies, dog surfing is a sport practiced by dogs trained to ride a surfboard or a bodyboard, either alone or with a human. The first documented instances can be traced back to California and Hawaii in the 1920s, and in 1944, the image of a surfing dog named Rusty was published in National Geographic magazine. More recently, the Loews Coronado Bay Resort in California has held since 2006 the largest dog surfing competition in the United States.

Credit: Kristof Zerbe

It might be a little misleading to consider hobbyhorsing a sport. Since it involves riding a toy horse through several obstacles that simulate those used in real riding competitions, a more accurate description might be that of a childish pastime or, well, a hobby. Having said that, it should be noted that Finland, hobbyhorsing’s country of origin, holds several regional competitions as well as an annual national championship. It is particularly popular with girls and young women between the ages of 12 and 18 years.

Credit: Jason Abdilla

Every year, the city of Hayward, Wisconsin, receives over 100 lumberjacks, loggers, and sawyers eager to prove the steel of their axes in the Lumberjack World Championship. Participants compete in 21 events, including a 60-foot speed climb, logrolling (keeping balance on a spinning log floating on water), and chopping down timber. Over $50,000 is awarded in prize money to the winners of the different events, and the lumberjack that scored the most points is crowned as the Tony Wise All-Around Champion, named after the founder of the championship.

Credit: Clark Tai

In 2017, two former military pool instructors, Prime Hall and Don Tran, founded the Underwater Torpedo League. In this new sport they created, teams of five players try to get ahold of a rubber torpedo and place it on the other team’s goal on the other side of the pool. In the few years since its creation, Underwater Torpedo has taken social media by storm and resulted in a national tournament known as the "Aqua Bowl."

Credit: Alejandro Alas

That little piggy might have gone to the market, but this one became a wrestling machine. Toe Wrestling was created in the 70s by a group of friends drinking in a pub in Staffordshire, England. Similarly to arm wrestling, toe wrestling involves two players locking their toes and then trying to pin their rival’s foot. Since 1994, the annual World Toe Wrestling Championship has been held in the English county of Derbyshire.

Credit: Shwa Hall

Here’s a bit of advice for all happy couples thinking about tying the knot this year: You might want to add the line "I promise to carry my spouse through the Finnish countryside in an annual competition" to your vows. Trust us, this might come in handy if you ever decide to join the Wife Carrying World Championship, held every year in Sonkajärvi, Finland, since 1992.

The wife-carrying contest (known as eukonkanto in Finland) is a race in which husbands carry their wives through several obstacles. The male contestants might carry their wives in a classic piggy-back, a fireman’s carry (over the shoulder), or on what’s known as an Estonian carry, with the wife held upside-down on the back, with her legs over the neck and shoulders of her husband. The winners of the Sonkajärvi World Championship are traditionally awarded the wife’s weight in beer.

Credit: Immo Wegmann

The most widely accepted origin for this sport tells the story of Phil Shaw, a resident of Leicester, England, who, in 1997, came back home after a long day of work only to find a pile of clothes that needed to be ironed. Being an avid rock climber, Shaw decided to combine both activities by carrying his ironing board all the way up a rock climbing wall. And on that date, extreme ironing was born: after that first rock climbing wall, thousands of enthusiasts carried their ironing boards up mountains, skyscrapers, and canyons. Some have even ironed their clothes while parachuting or bungee jumping.

Credit: Unsplash

Those endless hours mowing the lawn under your dad’s unyielding gaze might have finally paid off. In lawnmower racing competitions, participants race in modified lawnmowers through a closed circuit. While the lawnmowers keep their original engines, the blades are obviously removed for safety. Several U.S. states hold their own races, but perhaps the most well-known is the Twelve Mile 500, held every year on Independence Day in Twelve Mile, Indiana.

Credit: Markus Spiske

You might know this traditional Scottish sport as it has been portrayed in several forms of media. The Caber toss is normally practiced in the Scottish Highland games, and it consists of throwing the titular caber (a large, wooden pole that weighs between 90 and 150 pounds) so that it falls on its other end. The distance thrown is not important, but rather that it falls away from the thrower. When it comes to scoring, the straightest toss wins the most points, with the "12 o'clock" position (directly opposite from the thrower) being awarded the maximum score.

ARE YOU GUILTY OF ANY OF THESE?

12 Most Common English Spelling Mistakes

Credit: Jakob

Depending on the context, spelling mistakes can be almost unnoticeable, or they can be catastrophic - changing the whole meaning of intended words or sentences.

Even when spell-check is automatized on most devices and computers, it is easy to overlook common mistakes if you let your guard down. Unfortunately, in the business world, bad spelling is never a good look.

According to recent surveys, almost half of hiring managers and recruiters automatically ignore a candidate’s resume if they detect spelling errors in it. And for many others, spelling and grammar mistakes can be one of the biggest deal breakers in a job hunt. So, whether you are looking for a job or just looking to improve your English skills, here’s a list of the most common English spelling mistakes:

Credit: Marten Bjork

Think of carbon copy (‘cc’) and M&Ms: this one is spelled with two sets of double letters.

Credit: Marco Biondi

For whatever reason, many people find this word hard to spell correctly. Remember that there is only one set of double p’s in this case.

Credit: Greg Rosenke

Luckily for you, if you tend to get these two confused, the spelling with an ‘e’ is also right! The only issue is that the spelling with an extra ‘e’ is the preferred British spelling.

Credit: Roman Bozhko

This one is mildly understandable since most English words tend to end with -er instead of -ar. But there's a good reason for this divergence from standards since the word calendar comes from shortening the Latin word kalendarium****.

Credit: krakenimages

Think of your favorite football league, and you’ll be in the clear! Just don’t forget the double ‘l’.

Credit: Towfiqu barbhuiya

Being a loan word from French it’s easy to understand that so many Americans fail to spell this one correctly since it doesn’t follow general English spelling rules. As with most cases, just try to memorize it, it will be easier than conceiving mnemonic devices just for one word.

Credit: Eric Heininger

More people than you would guess get the spelling of this seemingly easy word wrong. The past tense of ‘lead’ is ‘led’, not to be confused with the heavy mineral lead.

Credit: Glenn Carstens-Peters

Double letters are a harsh mistress, and you might never be completely sure about where - and when - to put them. Again, memorizing the spelling of these kinds of words might just be your best bet.

Credit: José Martín Ramírez Carrasco

According to the Oxford Dictionary, this is the most commonly misspelled word in the English language. Apparently, it is because it sort of violates a general rule where words ending in -ic tend to be expanded with an -ally, like in ‘logically’. The major exception to this case is the word ‘public’, confusing thousands of English speakers - and learners - in the process.

Credit: Elaine Casap

This one also is on the Oxford Dictionary’s top 10 charts of most consistently misspelled words. But come on! The English language doesn’t deserve this, people. There’s a very memorizable rule about this specific case that goes I before E, except after C. See? It’s not that hard really.

Credit: Zac Durant

If you want to be successful, you better learn how to spell success right first! However, this one is hard, with two sets of double letters in the middle but neither at the beginning nor the end of the word.

Credit: Nikhil Mitra

Don’t withhold the double ‘h’s, no matter how hard it looks. Remember that this is a sort of Lego word, assembled from two complete but smaller words: ‘with’ and ‘hold’.

So… found anything of use here? Everyone makes mistakes, you know. English can be a complicated language, and there’s nothing to be ashamed of!

If our article helped you improve your writing, why not check out our blog? We love to delve deep into subjects related to language and the fun etymologies behind many English words.