Sports Beyond Football and Basketball
Even though talks have progressed in the recent weeks, the prospect of the National Football League holding an entire season doesn’t look very promising. It could still happen but it would most likely be an abbreviated season. This is depressing to the millions of NFL fans across the globe, but, there is a bright spot to the whole ordeal.
The typical NFL Sunday does take a large chunk of time. The average fan sits around for a few hours on weekend when they really could be out experiencing some adrenaline pumping action of their own.
Editor’s disclaimer: These are high risk activities, and we don’t recommend trying any of them without the proper supervision of professionals.
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1. Agressive Inline
Rollerblading isn’t just for the guy in your neighborhood in the John Stockton shorts. It has evolved over the years into an adrenaline pumping sport. Aggressive inline skating developed as an organized sport in the early 1990s. The Aggressive Skaters Association (ASA) was formed by a number of aggressive inline skaters to develop rules governing competitions and equipment. The sport was included in the first X Games in 1995 and included vertical ramp and street event competitions. Inline skating tricks are very much like those done on a skateboard, and even the surfaces on which both perform are similar. There are three types of inline skating: street, park and vert. Street is a freestyle form using common things found on the street (steps, handrails, benches) to perform tricks. Park is done in a skate park and vert (short for vertical) is performed on a half pipe. If you decide to give inline skating a shot, remember that their are different types of skates made purposely for this type of sport. Don’t attempt any tricks with the pair you got on your twelfth birthday. -
2. Bossaball
Volleyball is a great sport but tends to get repetitive in play. Gymnastics demands great body control, concentration and years of training. The trampoline, well, the trampoline isn’t really a sport but it’s a hell of a lot of fun. If only parts of those three athletic endeavors could be combined to create a super sport. Your wish is granted. Bossaball combines elements of volleyball, football, gymnastics and capoeira (itself a combo of martial arts and music) and is played on an inflatable court featuring a trampoline on each side of the net. The inflatable court allows for a wide range of techniques, team strategies and insane moves. Much like standard volleyballs, the goal of Bossaball is for each team to ground the ball on the opponent's side of the field. Unlike volleyball, each team is allowed a maximum of six ball touches within its own field. Any body part can be used to play the ball. Players can touch the ball once with their hands or double touch it with their feet and/or head (soccer touch). -
3. Zorbing
Remember Jake Gyllenhal in his Academy Award nominated performance for Bubble Boy? Just kidding, that movie was terrible, but it might have had some influence on the spread and popularity of Zorbing. Zorbing is rolling down hill (or sometimes just on a flat plain) in a giant, transparent plastic orb. You can ride solo or with a few friends. It’s the closest you’ll get to being a hamster without having to eat all the awful food. There are Zorbing facilities across the world and even a few in the United States (currently Tennessee and Massachusetts).
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