Category Sports

What is an unusual sport?

Ever played pillow fights at home? Did you know that pillow fight is indeed a profesional sport? Let’s learn about some of the unique and unusual sports.

ZORBING

A highly adventurous sport zorbing has the participants roll inside a zorb on a slope or a levelled surface. The participants fit themselves inside the inflatable bubble or a zorb ball and have only one task at hand- that is to reach the finish line as fast as possible. The sport uses two kinds of orbs viz a hamessed orb or a non-hamessed one. While the former has a smaller in-built capacity for one or two riders at a time, the latter can carry three to four riders at a time.

CYCLE BALL

Here is another hybrid sport, where you cycle and play football. This cycling game has two opposing teams on bicycles trying to trap and navigate the ball into the goal post using just the wheels of the cycle. Cycle ball is played indoors.

CHESS BOXING

Chess is a sport that requires mental agility, while boxing tests your physical strength. Now imagine blending these two. Chess boxing is a hybrid sport that combines chess and boxing. The sport has players alternating between one round of each discipline until one of them wins in either discipline. So you either win by knockout in the boxing rounds or by checkmate in the chess rounds.

WIFE CARRYING

A sport that originated in Finland, wife carrying involves male competitors racing, with each canying a female teammate. The first wife carrying event was held in Finland in 1992. Here, the teammates are not required to be legally married. The goal is to carry the teammate through a special obstacle track. There are no restrictions on how the female teammate is carried. Piggyback and fireman's carry (over the shoulder) are the most common. The team will be penalised if the teammate is dropped.

CHEESE ROLLING

An annual race held at Cooper's Hill, near Brockworth, Gloucester, England, cheese rolling competition has the participants hurtling down a steep incline after a cheese wheel. Traditionally the cheese is made from Gloucester cattle, an endangered breed. The event is said to be based on an old tradition that dates back some 600 years. The nine-pound double cheese wheel is set in motion from the top of the incline of Cooper's Hill and the participants charge after it, sometimes rolling down and tumbling down. The sport is also one of the dangerous ones as accidents are bound to happen as the participants move down the steep gradient of the hill. The person who crosses the finish line wins. The prize is the cheese wheel.

PILLOW FIGHTING

Pillow fights are not just a fun activity you indulge in with your siblings or cousins, it's become a professional sport now. This new combat sport moved into the boxing ring in 2022, as the first-ever professional "Pillow Fighting Championship (PFC)" was held. As many as 16 men and eight women having backgrounds in mixed martial arts and boxing took part in the first edition of the showdown. As per the rules pillows made of foam are used in the combat. Here two competitors stand six feet apart and try to hit the opponent over the head as many times as possible. The pillows need to be swung single-handedly with the fights comprising only three 90-second rounds.

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Why is promoting fair play important?

Use of banned substances and doping to enhance performance to gain an edge over rivals. Employing tools like a sandpaper to rub on a cricket ball to make its swing more pronounced, thereby making batting more difficult. Accepting money for spot-fixing or even fixing the outcome of a game. If you think about what links all these different things, it is the fact that these are all forms of cheating prevalent in sports, even at the elite level.

The mentality of winning at all costs through your own performance is a good one to have, both individually and as a team. But when that same mentality pushes you to the brink and makes you adopt malpractices, then it is definitely wrong.

Even though there are checks and balances already in place in most elite sports, this hasn’t been enough. Be it bans that prevent participation for a fixed number of years or even a lifetime, it still hasn’t proven to be foolproof.

The allure of winning at the greatest of stages is one that might push even the best-intentioned to wrongdoings. It is therefore important to educate from a very young age on the importance of playing clean, regardless of what sport it is.

The reputation of professional cycling as a sport was battered when the repeated doping offences of U.S. cyclist Lance Armstrong, once considered an icon in the sport, was proved beyond doubt. Here, a 30-foot effigy of the disgraced American cyclist burns during Bonfire Night celebrations in Edenbridge, south east England in November 2012.

Most elite athletes grow up spending countless hours in their chosen field, losing out on other standard rounded education that most of us undergo. This does come at a cost at times, as implications of a wrong move might not be fully understood before it is done. Apart from ruining their own reputation, that of the sport in which they are involved also takes a huge beating when an individual or a team resorts to cheating to gain an advantage.

What we can do is to keep driving at the message that victory is worthy only if it is attained in the right way. By playing it clean, irrespective of the level at which you are playing the sport, you display gamesmanship that is often remembered, even if in a losing cause. Victories are important, yes. But only when it is attained without bending the rules.

Nurture the young stars

Despite our burgeoning reputation as a powerhouse in a number of sports, India as a country is still lacking and lagging in many others. While the lack of skill might be a reason, it doesn’t paint the complete picture.

It is hard to accept that for a country of our size and population, we do not have enough competing at the highest level in many sports. We can make progress in this if we are able to identify talent at a young age and groom them.

In India, there is sometimes a strong emphasis on education, even if it is at the cost of other skills. Without the right backing, many youngsters talented in sports and arts have had to stick to academics. Within sports too, the focus has been in a few select ones, like cricket.

By widening our view as a society, we can make steady improvement. If you are good in a sport and wish to pursue it, you are bound to do better if you feel encouraged to do it. When this goes along with the financial and infrastructural backing of the government and the corporates, then chances are that a new star will be born!

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What can we do to bring about CHANGE in the way we promote sports and encourage leisure activities?

Quite a lot, actually. From changing the way we foster sports to tweaking the ways in which we perceive our sportspersons, there are many things that we can work on, right from the time we are at school. Here are five such aspects that we can change, along with activities to make you dwell further on these subjects….

There’s more than one sport

Ask anyone who their favourite sports star is and chances are that the answer will be a cricketer. For a country of over a billion, our perspective seems to be rather limited when it comes to sport, as most of us take to just cricket.

From badminton to tennis, hockey to football, athletics and many others, India has a presence in a wide range of sports other than cricket. What’s more, we have even had great performances in recent times in a number of these sports.

While backing our cricketers and following the sport religiously does no harm, it shouldn’t come at the cost of other sportsperson losing out on our backing. Fans play a central part in performances and the support that we can offer might even enhance how they fare on the day.

It is important to go out and show the support, filling the stadiums and pouring messages of love and support online. While we are already getting better at it and giving more and more attention to those playing other sports, there’s plenty of room for improvement.

If we start doing this, then there will be more takers for other sports as well. And when that happens, we might stop looking at whether we have got on the medals tally at the Olympics, and rather look at where exactly we are on the table.

Win or lose, back your stars

We live in an age when there are extremes of emotions all the time. We celebrate our stars and even hero-worship them when they produce favourable results. When these very stars are at the receiving end of heavy defeats, we rubbish them and question their intent.

Even though this has been something that has been around almost all the time, it is now more vitriolic in the virtual world, where everyone’s opinions can easily be amplified. Not even in public offices is the public scrutiny so harsh at times, making the position of sportspersons really difficult at times.

While many stars say that they are inside their own bubble and aren’t affected by stringent criticism that is sometimes endless, it is our responsibility as fans to indulge in our following in a more effective manner. There is no need to go overboard with our praise, nor is it necessary to tarnish reputations when our country’s representatives fail at the first hurdles.

Brewing hate does a lot of harm, not just for the one at the receiving end, but to the sport as a whole. It is important to remember that those representing a country are the finest in their sport in their nation and they would likely want to win, as much if not more, than the fans following the sport.

It might be easy to forget that in the end, elite athletes and sportspersons are also humans. Even though many high-profile sportspersons have voluntarily come out with their mental health issues in recent years, fans continue to associate their stars with superhuman performance all the time. While this creates a lot of euphoria, it also pushes fans to unruly behaviour when their expectations aren’t met.

As fans, it is necessary that we change our perspectives and back our stars throughout, regardless of the results. We all want the team we support and the individual representing our country to win all the time. But we also know that there can be only one winner in any tournament as opposed to many losers. It is therefore pivotal that we back our stars during their setbacks, as much as we cherish their wins like our own.

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What was the journey of hockey player Dhyan Chand?

Born on August 29, 1905, in Allahabad to Sharadha Singh and Sameshwar Singh – a soldier in the British Indian Army, Dhyan Singh was drawn towards hockey at a very early age. Like his father, he too enrolled himself in the army at the age of 16 and continued to play his favourite sport there.

At the Mexico Olympics, when Bob Beaman jumped beyond 29 feet; the world record at that time being a few inches above 26 feet, the field judges went on to change the measuring tape to ensure that they were using the right measurement. Beamon’s ‘Leap to Infinity’ was attributed later to the low gravitational pull at the altitude at which the jump was taken. Legend has it that something similar happened with Dhyan Chand after a match in the Netherlands where his hockey stick was changed as people thought that he had some sort of a magnet in his stick that made the ball stick to it. In fact, it was a great tribute to his dribbling talent.

To summarize Dhyan Chand’s achievements, he played a major role in India winning gold medals in three successive Olympic Games; in 1928 (Amsterdam), 1932 (Los Angeles) and 1936 (Berlin) and scored 570 goals in his career which span from 1926 to 1949, during which he played 185 matches. The number of goals would exceed a thousand if his domestic matches were included in his total score. He indeed deserved titles like ‘The Wizard’ and ‘The Magician’. It is a result of his exceptional career that India’s highest sports award in any sportsperson’s lifetime achievements is named after this great sportsman as ‘Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award’.

Dhyan Singh was born on 29 August 1905 in Allahabad, which at that time was a part of the United Province of Agra and Oudh, and is named now as Prayagraj in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Dhyan’s father, Sameshwar Singh, was a part of the British Indian Army and his frequent transfers affected the study of his three sons; Mool, Dhyan and Roop, till the family settled finally in Jhansi, another district in the state of Uttar Pradesh.

Dhyan Chand hardly played any hockey till he was recruited as a sepoy in the 1st Brahman Regiment of the British Indian Army, in 1922, as a seventeen-year-old teenager. The Regiment was reorganised later as the 1st Punjab Regiment. Once Dhyan Chand joined the army, he started participating in various Regimental and Army games and hockey was one of them. Young Dhyan Singh was seen practising hockey even under the moonlight, which earned him the nickname of ‘Chand’ (the Moon), a name that stuck with him till the very end.

When an Army team was sent to New Zealand, Dhyan Chand was a member of that team. The team performed exceptionally well and Dhyan Chand started getting recognition as an attacking forward. In 1925, the Indian Hockey Federation started selections for forming an Indian hockey team for the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics; five Province teams were formed for the players to demonstrate their hockey skills. The teams played again in 1927 before the Indian team for the Olympics was finalised. Incidentally, before leaving for the Olympics, the team played against a Bombay team and lost. Obviously, not much was expected from the team who lost to their home team.

However, what happened thereafter was totally unexpected. The Indian team played a few matches in England, winning all of them and also all its pre-Olympic matches. In its pool matches in the Olympics, the Indian team beat Austria, Belgium, Denmark and Switzerland convincingly and despite some of its players indisposed and even an unfit Dhyan Chand taking field, the Indian team won the final match against the home team with Dhyan Chand scoring two out of three goals. The Indian team not only won the gold medal, but what was even more remarkable was that none of the teams could score even a single goal against India. Dhyan Chand scored 14 out of 29 goals scored by the Indian team in five matches.

The Indian Army did not relieve Dhyan Chand for the 1932 Olympic trials but the IHF selected him without any trial. This time, his younger brother Roop Singh was also in the Indian team and once again the Indian team routed all teams to win the gold medal. In the finals, India defeated the host team with a record margin of 24-1. Of the 35 goals scored by the Indian team during the Games, the two brothers had a combined tally of 25 goals.

In 1936, the Army refused to relieve Dhyan Chand once again for the trials and once again the IHF included him in the final team and as the proposed captain refused to participate, this time Dhyan Chand was called upon to lead the Indian team. In a pre-Olympic match, India suffered a defeat against Germany but when it mattered, India defeated Germany 8-1. It is said that Adolf Hitler was so impressed with Dhyan Chand’s play that he offered the player a citizenship of Germany and the rank of Colonel in the Army which Dhyan Chand refused politely.

Dhyan Chand’s scoring blitz can be measured from the fact that the second-highest international goal scorer is Sohail Abbas of Pakistan with 348 goals; way behind Dhyan Chand’s tally of 570. For his achievements, Dhyan Chand was given an Emergency Commission in 1943. In 1956, the Indian Government honoured him with the Padma Bhushan and after his death in 1979, in 1980, the Indian Post and Telegraph Department issued a 35 paisa commemorative postage stamp in honour of him. In 2002, the National Stadium in New Delhi was also renamed as the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium.

What Donald Bradman is to cricket or Muhammad Ali to boxing, Dhyan Chand is to hockey. Among all the sports’ personalities of India, Dhyan Chand stands tall, head and shoulder above the rest just as his statue on Sipri Hill in Jhansi.

Credit : Gp Capt Achchyut Kumar

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WHO WON THE ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE IN 2009 2010?

Chelsea have won the 2009-10 Premier League in some style following a thumping 8-0 home win over Wigan Athletic on the final day of the season.

Thus Carlo Ancelotti’s men lift their first league title since Jose Mourinho’s second and last Premier League conquest in 2006, while the Italian boss himself becomes one of the very few managers to have won the Premier League at the first time of asking.

For all but eight rounds Chelsea have led the English standings, last regaining it from Manchester United in week 33.

Despite nervy moments off the top spot, though, the early season favourites were always able to steer themselves back to the summit, largely thanks to a superb attacking record that saw the Blues finish the 38-game campaign with an amazing 103 goals – a new Premier League record.

Both Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard had banner seasons in this regard, with a supporting cast including Florent Malouda and Nicolas Anelka also chipping in.

This was especially true on the final day: Anelka gave Chelsea a 1-0 lead over Wigan just six minutes in and the Blues did not look back from there, eventually running out eight-nil victors over their 10-man visitors.

But for all their goalscoring flair, Chelsea’s two biggest wins of the campaign were also among the narrowest.

In early November, with the Blues newly re-topping the table, Manchester United came to Stamford Bridge aiming for at least a draw. However, John Terry – a figure for whom off-pitch problems would soon loom large – netted a late goal to give Chelsea an all-important psychological advantage.

The return match at Old Trafford was Sir Alex Ferguson’s chance to put Chelsea to the sword, but again the Blues came up trumps.

It was a less-than-convincing performance from the visitors, but despite some weak links Joe Cole and (controversially) Didier Drogba produced the goods. Florent Malouda, for so long a figure of derision in London, also came of age with a splendid individual showing.

With wins like this Chelsea atoned for avoidable defeats at the hands of lesser teams. Giving away soft goals and cheap points has not been a Chelsea hallmark in past years – certainly not in the days of Mourinho – but winning vital domestic games generally has. This did not change despite the arrival of Carlo Ancelotti, nor the ever-present spectre of off-field scandal. Indeed, Didier Drogba noted this week that “Terrygate”, perversely, was a source of inspiration for the Blues squad – a clear throwback to the bunker mentality of Mourinho’s squad that seldom fails to produce team spirit.

But how stressful those preventable point losses were at the time. Everton proved to be formidable opponents, coming from behind at the Bridge to grab a draw before once again fighting back at home, this time for the win.

Card-happy Chelsea also had problems with discipline, best shown by the 4-2 home loss to Manchester City back in February – a result that threatened to end their season as Craig Bellamy ran rampant against his nine-man hosts.

But recovery followed with 5-0 and 7-1 wins before that trip to Old Trafford. Indeed, it was this kind of goalscoring form that ultimately saw Chelsea safe – a habit of netting early on is vital for preserving nerves late in the season.

Sadly for Chelsea the same could not take place in Europe. Former coach Jose Mourinho bested his old side both at the San Siro and Stamford Bridge as Inter progressed through the first knockout stage at the Blues’ expense – not a massive surprise, but disappointing for the Blues faithful nonetheless.

Other cup competitions may bring more succour. The FA Cup final is fast approaching, and in it Chelsea need to defeat financially-stricken Portsmouth at Wembley. This is surely not too tall an order given an aggregate scoreline of 7-1 against the Fratton Park men so far this season.

But such a competition lacks prestige these days: it is the league, and then the Champions League, that captures the imagination. Chelsea have well and truly succeeded on one of these fronts this season, but what about next time? The current squad is aging, with the key players generally on the wrong side of thirty. How long they can continue to challenge at a top level is open to debate.

For now, though, Carlo Ancelotti can celebrate mission accomplished in his first season in London, adding his name to the Chelsea history books as a result. Didier Drogba, too, has ensured beyond doubt that he will be forever mentioned as one of the top Premier League strikers. Frank Lampard, ahead of the 2010 World Cup finals, has had perhaps his best campaign to date. As for the fans, they will demand more of the same next time.

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WHO TOOK THE FIRST HATTRICK IN IPL?

The Indian Premier League was played for the first time in 2008 and saw three hat-tricks in the first season itself. The first of those was taken by Chennai Super Kings (CSK) Lakshmipathy Balaji.

In the match between CSK and Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings) on May 10, 2008 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, Punjab won the toss and elected to field first. Even though CSK were in a spot of bother at 64 for three, fifties from S Badrinath and MS Dhoni helped them post 181 for four in their 20 overs. Punjab were on track at the end of 12 overs, as they were 95 for 2 in their chase of 182. In the space of five balls, however, Balaji dismissed both their set batsmen – Ramnaresh Sarwan (20) off the first ball of the 13th over and opener Shaun Marsh (38-ball 58) off the fifth ball.

Having derailed Punjab’s chase, Balaji added more gloss to his figures with the first ever IPL hat-trick.

Bowling the final over of the match, Balaji dismissed Irfan Pathan, Piyush Chawla and Vikram Singh of the third, fourth and fifth deliveries for his hat-trick. CSK won the match by 18 runs.

DID YOU KNOW?

L Balaji, who finished with figures of 5 for 24 from his four overs, was declared the player of the match.

Including Yuzvendra Chahal’s hat-trick in the ongoing season, there have been 21 hat-tricks in the IPL so far, taken by 18 bowlers.

Amit Mishra is the only bowler to have taken three hat-tricks in the IPL Yuvraj Singh comes second with two hat-tricks. The remaining 16 bowlers have taken one hat-trick each in the IPL.

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