You must have heard about
frisbee, a flying disc based pastime, haven't you? Throwing a flying disc can be more exciting than you think. You can try to break one of the
world records (there's a record for 1-year olds and a challenge for 102+ years old women). Alternatively, you can play some competitive
games, including some well known ones like
ultimate and some you probably haven't heard about:
buttgutts,
a game of immense skill played between two teams of one to ten players each. The objective is to hit the oppostition's butts with discs.
posted by kamil_antosiewicz
on Oct 12, 2011 -
17 comments
Embarrassment alert: some would say Channel 4 hired the
wrong man (Youtube) to host live coverage of the Athletics World Championships. The
consensus seems to be that Channel 4 are to blame.
posted by nthdegx
on Sep 4, 2011 -
50 comments
The Aeronautical Pentathlon Has Six Events—and Flying Doesn't Count. Aeronautical pentathlon—which inexplicably has six events—is a riff on the modern pentathlon at the Olympics. Created 63 years ago, the military pilots' version has pretty much flown under the radar.
And though the sport is based on flying, the nonflying parts of the competition determine the winner. While it is exclusively practiced by air forces, it was always excluded from the military Olympics—called the World Military Games—until last month's event in Rio de Janeiro. ... and the
home team wins.
[more inside]
posted by caddis
on Aug 18, 2011 -
8 comments
Copa América is streamed live on YouTube. Copa América is the oldest international football competition, having been held first in 1916. This is a contest between the 10 South American nations and two invitational teams, this time Costa Rica and Mexico, who both sent young squads (Japan was slated to take part but
withdrew due to the earthquake). The tournament started yesterday with Bolivia unexpectedly managing to
hold Argentina to a draw. Colombia are currently beating a 10-man Costa Rica 1-0. Brazil start their campaign tomorrow, against Venezuela. One of the world's premier football writers, Jonathan Wilson, wrote previews of the three groups,
A,
B and
C. The Independent has more light-hearted
team previews.
posted by Kattullus
on Jul 2, 2011 -
13 comments
Cricketer
Adrian Shankar recently hit the headlines in Britain after blagging his way into an
embarrassed Worcestershire side but he's hardly the first to overcome a complete lack of talent to launch a brief, inglorious sporting career.
Rosie Ruiz famously took a bit of a shortcut to 'win' the 1980 Boston marathon and Senegalese footballer
Ali Dia made a brief and solitary appearance for Southampton, as substitute for the sublime Matt Le Tissier no less, after fooling the notoriously hard bitten Graeme Souness. Excellent as their efforts may have been, none possessed the all round sporting skills of the immortal
Karl Power.
posted by joannemullen
on Jul 2, 2011 -
16 comments
Recent research on children. (1) Brothers and sisters who argue a lot can improve their language, social skills and outcomes:
Guardian article;
paper on part of the research (pdf). (2) First findings from
Understanding Society. Conclusions include: the unhappiness of children’s mothers with their partners affect children’s happiness, but this is not the case if children’s fathers are unhappy in their relationships; having older brothers or sisters doesn’t appear to affect children’s happiness, but having younger brothers or sisters is associated with less happiness; not living with both natural parents has a greater negative impact on a young person’s life satisfaction than their material situation. (3) A longitudinal study on people now in their forties has found that for these people reading is linked to career success, though not necessarily to better pay, whilst playing computer games and doing no other activities was associated with less likelihood of going to university. In particular, those who owned a ZX Spectrum or Commodore C64 were less likely to go to university.
thinq interview with researcher.
Guardian article.
Telegraph article. (4) Poll about children’s attitudes to losing in sport.
Press release.
Data from children’s survey.
Data from parents’ survey. (All three are PDFs.)
posted by paduasoy
on Apr 9, 2011 -
30 comments
"
I've never been in a stadium that feels like this one. Hindus and Muslims, Sikhs and Christians, people from different castes and classes, speakers of a dozen languages, all citizens in the Republic of Sachin. The stern cops give wide smiles and thumbs-ups. The chant goes from "Sachin! Sachin!" to "Hoo … ha … IN-DI-A!" They are interchangeable."
[more inside]
posted by vidur
on Mar 30, 2011 -
74 comments
Bye bye Big Mal. Malcolm Allison, one of the most flamboyant characters in English football, has gone to the players' lounge in the sky. He certainly knew what sold, with his signature cigar, fedora and sheepskin coat, and also
laid on a pretty good bath. But all that stuff aside, he was a
well-respected manager, and will be fondly remembered by Manchester City fans (
you can read the fans' tributes here, and leave your own if you are so inclined) for leading them to glory in the late 60s and early 70s. The world is a lesser place without him.
posted by Myeral
on Oct 15, 2010 -
3 comments
Since the attack on the Togolese national team in Angola (
previously), soccer in Togo has descended into a freefall. In a strange turn of events, a fake national team recently represented the country in a tournament in Bahrain. The soccer loving people of Togo were outraged when
the truth about the situation came out.
posted by reenum
on Oct 8, 2010 -
4 comments
Commonwealth, schmommonwealth. The Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games are on. Horse lovers the world over are enthralled by the high drama and hijinks in Lexington, Kentucky this week. Already there's been a controversial withdrawal following a
travel-related mishap (on the very same flight
hilariously previewed here.) In all the excitement, Eitan Beth-Halachmy, a "cowboy dressage" rider in the opening ceremony, seems to have
burst a spleen. As expected, the Dutch took the gold medal in Dressage despite one of their team being disqualified with
a horse bleeding from the mouth. Some point to training methods like
rollkur, or hyperflexion, saying they are cruel and abusive. The FEI has banned rollkur; former advocates say that what they do is not rollkur, but "LDR" (long, deep and round.)
Look at the lawsuits fly! In happier news, the gloriously named
Nobby took the gold medal in the Endurance event. "He could go another 100 miles today if you wanted him to," rider Maria Mercedes Alvarez Ponton said of the 15-year-old bay Arab gelding. Still to come, the equestrian triathlon:
Eventing! [more inside]
posted by rdc
on Sep 29, 2010 -
16 comments
Today, Deadspin
leaked financial documents detailing the finances of several MLB teams, including a few that are getting revenue sharing money. They show that several of MLB's "poorest" franchises turned a profit due to these cash infusions.
[more inside]
posted by reenum
on Aug 26, 2010 -
56 comments
Joeurt Puk (aka Joe Cook) is the father of Cambodian baseball. In
this feature by ESPN, Patrick Hruby looks into Cook's background and finds that Cook may not be the tireless philanthropist he claims to be.
[more inside]
posted by reenum
on May 19, 2010 -
6 comments
Halation can interfere with your brain making out the shapes of distorted words, such as on
passing highway signs. Banned from advertising in F1 racing, a major tobacco company that sponsors a team came up with a
novel design solution that may play on this visual effect to an opposite, suggestive effect, depending on the observer. European officials were
not amused, going so far as to call the design "subliminal". Ferrari responded by
removing traces of the design from its cars.
Judas Priest could not be reached for comment. [
via]
posted by Blazecock Pileon
on May 13, 2010 -
53 comments
BRIDGTON, Maine, February 27 (ESPN) -- It takes a certain kind of confidence for an athlete to wear a cape. You can't just be good. You have to be amazing, as in world champion-caliber amazing. Otherwise, you run the risk of looking ridiculous. Luckily, Christian Housh, better known as Tiger Claw, proved himself worthy of a world title. "I can't say I ever had any dreams of being a four square champion until I found out about the world championships of four square," Housh said. "Then the dream came alive."
Bonus: incomplete list of
cool rules. Previously on MetaFilter. Previously at a MetaFilter meetup. Get well soon, klangklangston!
posted by not_on_display
on Mar 10, 2010 -
14 comments
