Do you play an unpopular/uncommon sport?

[PsychicTaco115]

I swim for my high school

Pretty good at it, best events are the 50/100 yard freestyle and 100 yard butterfly

I like to pretend that I'm a dolphin while doing it!

 

[VeryOddGamer]

Well, not playing any sports is pretty popular, so no.

 

[Aerosteam]

Have you ever heard of 'Mindball'?

I'm an expert at it. I've only lost once, and the other guy's win was a fluke in that match.

 

[Blazing Steel]

Equestrianism. Don't know if that counts as unpopular/uncommon, but I'm counting anything that isn't taught at school. Although being a guy that rides is normally what leaves people asking wtf rather than the fact I ride horses.

What kind of Equestrianism do you do? My girlfriend is on the university's Western show team and taught me some basics.

Dressage and show jumping mainly, cross country makes me feel uneasy since it's dangerous for the rider and the horse and I haven't had much experience with western.

 

[OctoH]

I box, along with a variety of martial arts.

As far as your fencing goes, I actually prefer an epee when I choreograph stage combat. I don't know why anyone would give you grief over it.

 

[Zyxx]

"Other kids' games are all such a bore!
They gotta have rules and they gotta keep score!
Calvinball is better by far!
It's never the same! It's always bizarre!
You don't need a team or a referee!
You know that it's great, 'cause it's named after me!"

I'm one of the few people I know who's actually played Calvinball, the greatest sport ever invented.

 

[ImperialSunlight]

I'm also a fencer. Not much of a story behind it, I just decided to start when I was 14, since there weren't any other sports I was interested in.

I'm also an epeeist. XD

 

[squidface]

Bird tennis. You use a bird as the ball.

Kidding

 

[Byte2222]

Archery. Someone's already said it but I shoot at a club and go to competitions (I was at a very wet field shoot yesterday). I sometimes describe it as "the sport for people who don't like sports." I like it a lot.

Also: $500 fencing gear? I've got ~£600 of archery gear and want to upgrade about half of it. I'm a musician as well, I have expensive hobbies.

 

[yeti585]

I play a bit of ice hockey and I am going to play lacrosse this year.

Hockey isn't really an unpopular sport here but it's hard to find a place to play/expensive as fuck. The amount of equipment you can go through is terrible. You can snap a few sticks per game if you have a hard shot, your skate blades could brake, gloves get worn out, hockey socks get slashed, etc.

Lacrosse is a big college and high school sport. It's not big at the pro level. It's mostly played in the north east of the u.s. too.

I played a bit of paintball at one point. I played mostly forward and snake. This is possibly one of the funnest sports to play. The game is much more physically demanding than it looks, Snapping builds core, diving and running for leg strength, and superman slides are hell.

 

[bliebblob]

I'm just gonna go ahead here and declare anything but soccer or tennis to be "other" in Europe.


Anyway, of all the sports I ever did the strangest one is also still my favourite: trampolines. How did I get into it? Well I rather enjoyed physical education in elementary so I joined a gym. It's there that I saw real trampolines (as opposed to the tiny worn out one in school) for the first time and what they allowed you to do. I switched from general gym to trampolines first chance I got after that.
Aah a child's mind, brilliant in it's simplicity

Sadly, people's general response when I bring it up is confusion because all they can think of is the mediocre trampoline they once saw at a kid's birthday party or some such. But that's OK because that means I get to show them some footage from the olympics or whatever and watch them go "oh wow..."
Occasionaly there's the odd jerk who thinks it's gay because of the emphasis on grace. Which is even better because than I get to whip out the footage of me and my friend literally (and very ungracefully) bouncing off the walls. Because we can.

 

[Bloodstain]

Fellow fencer reporting in!
Well, I stopped after a few years. But I plan on starting again.

 

[Wolf In A Bear Suit]

I play rugby, it's popularity is a matter of perspective. I used to play Gaelic Football, which is only played in very small amounts outside of Ireland. Biggest sport here though so not unpopular

 

[SckizoBoy]

Fencing is awesome. It's sometimes talked about as "physical chess" - so some parents' assumption that it's dangerous/violent is not completely true (and then we get out the daggers and go at it with two hands!)
Most fencing clubs are very reasonably priced and all will provide all the gear you need - my coach often lends me jackets and breeches for competitions.
The killer is the price of buying your own gear - my epee was $200 and mask was $180. Competitions aren't cheap either - I did one that was $60 per weapon - as there are 3 different weapons/styles in fencing.

It has definitely improved my reaction speed - at least it does when I am in practice. As I said before, I'm currently travelling around and haven't fenced for aaaaaaaaaages! It's killing me!

A couple things... my first thought was 'define fencing', because where I used to practise Chinese sword arts and kenjutsu (separate places) blade-based combat would always be colloquially referred to as 'fencing'. Also, I hope it's not with any stolen kit... -_- (/bad joke)

Anyway, semantics aside, my big sis used to fence, but since she also did archery, hockey, music, haberdashery and any number of other things besides, she had to give a few up, fencing being one of them.

I used to do archery as well... and...

Also: $500 fencing gear? I've got ~£600 of archery gear and want to upgrade about half of it. I'm a musician as well, I have expensive hobbies.

... man, you have it cheap! My bow by itself cost £750... add a dozen ACEs (of which I smashed six of them *weeps*), long-rod, twins, sight, release-aid etc. my full set up cost about a grand and a half... and that was just the compound kit... thankfully my recurve kit was cheaper. After a while, upgrading my assembly was too much of a pain in my wallet.

These days, I've got the money but not the time. And I do Muay Thai and kenjutsu these days. Not sure how rare they are, but I know in the south-east the latter is very unusual.

 

[TheMann]

I play baseball, which isn't really uncommon, but I don't think it's played as much outside North America. Also, it's rare to play purely recreational and not in a league (most people play softball for that), but I've got a bunch of friends who have all the gear, so we do.

Also, I used to mountain bike competitively. I still bike, but I haven't done a race in a while.

 

[Da Orky Man]

I used to kayak a bit, but a spinal operation put a quick end to that.

 

[Hollyday]

Anyway, of all the sports I ever did the strangest one is also still my favourite: trampolines.

Also mine! My reason to get into it was a bit less interesting though - My best friend's Mum was a trampolining instructor. I used to compete a little, and did some judging at competitions (beginners only though) but I could never get into the big stunts. I didn't start trampolining until I was 14 so by then I had full realisation of how horribly wrong everything could go! Quite liked synchronised trampolining too.

Other than that, some basic athletics style stuff, like triple jump, shot putt etc.

Weirdest sport I've ever tried? Weaselling! It's like caving except in very tiny spaces and tunnels that you have to twist and turn your way in and out of. Not for the claustrophobic!

 

[Byte2222]

Also: $500 fencing gear? I've got ~£600 of archery gear and want to upgrade about half of it. I'm a musician as well, I have expensive hobbies.

... man, you have it cheap! My bow by itself cost £750... add a dozen ACEs (of which I smashed six of them *weeps*), long-rod, twins, sight, release-aid etc. my full set up cost about a grand and a half... and that was just the compound kit... thankfully my recurve kit was cheaper. After a while, upgrading my assembly was too much of a pain in my wallet.

If you don't want to break arrows don't buy ACEs! ACGs might be heavier but they're so much tougher and ACCs aren't exactly rubbish. Also, compounds will cost you over a grand, £600 is for my first recurve setup which I haven't had the money to upgrade (though a £75 2nd hand Shibuya A/C sight helps matters). If you're going to shoot compound and blast arrows down the range at a couple of hundred fps then they probably won't mind the extra weight and drag from ACGs or ACCs.

God, I'm such a nerd.

 

[Gomithrus]

Play field hockey. It being Canada, its weird. However, since its Vancouver not so much. Besides, it awesome playing in the best league in North America. We get lots of imports from the EHL and various national teams.