Hands on the ball

The most popular ballgame in Germany is association football ! No doubt !
But there are also other sports in favor of the German population and one of them is played with the hands ,includes
a smaller ball and is also seen as one of the  most popular sporting activities  in Europe !!

Team handball

Like probably all German readers of you already guessed ,the sport is Team handball !
This game is especially well known and famous in all over Europe but a is also known as handball in America,Australia and Ireland but in a different style more related to squash with a defined culture and rule set

This post though is entirely concerned with European style of the sport and therefore doesn’t include any
aspects of the other versions .
The origins of kind of handball-like games go back to medieval times in France where first appearances were recorded .
The modern style was developed by the end of the 19th century in northern Europe countries primarily Denmark, Germany, Norway and Sweden.
Team handball is played by two teams indoors on a court 40 meters long by 20 meters wide (40 m x 20 m),
with a goal in the center of each end .
Both team consists of seven players each (six outfield players and a goalkeeper) and the main goal is ,obviously , to score as many goals as possible and in the end tohave at least scored 1 goal more then the opponent to win the game .
Due to its small field and the style of one team attacking and the other being just in defense alternating it
is a game with high portion of physical contact .
The main action happens around crease ,which is a semicircle with a radius of six meters at both goals where
just the defending goalkeeper is allowed in .
However, the court players may catch and touch the ball in the air within it as long as the player starts his jump outside the zone and releases the ball before he lands.
The game is played in two periods of 30 minutes with a 10 minute half-time break and each team may call one team timeout (TTO)
per period which lasts one minute to discuss new tactics or just interrupt the flow of the rival .
Like i already mentioned Team handball is a really popular game in Germany and other European countries also
representing the best national leagues (i.e.  Handball-Bundesliga(German first division,Asobal (Spanish first division)) containing the best players from all over the world .
Iam personally not a big fan of handball due to the frequent interruptions caused by tactical fouls detaining the flow of the game but i definitely do understand other people ,who are passionate about it , enjoying the pace , dramatic and many scored goals making it a fascinating game if you are into it .

Just to show you how dramatic a handball  game can get
i want to show you this video of the world championship 2009 in Croatia between Germany and Norway.

Field Hockey

After i already published a post about American sports including NHL ( North American Ice Hockey league)
I want to look a a quite closely related sport this time, even though, it is not played indoors and you don’t need skates, but proper footwear to perform it .

Field hockey

So it is : Field Hockey !
Probably very well known worldwide because it is performed more or less all over the globe .
Field hockey is actually one of the oldest competitive sports and dates back well before the Ancient Olympic Games.
It is not 100 % evidenced but 4,000-year-old drawings have been found in the tomb of Beni-Hasen in the Nile Valley of Egypt showing men playing a sport that experts are almost sure was field hockey.
The modern game was founded in public schools in England as early as the beginning of the 19th century .
Due to the formation of first hockey club in 1849 (Blackheath),the founding of the Hockey Association in London followed in 1886 .
The british army then also brought the game to the former colonized countries and though the first international competition was played in 1885.
At the 1908 London Games, field hockey was introduced into the Olympic Games it was dropped again in 1924 but reinstated 1928 in Amsterdam and has been a Olympic sport ever since .
In the early days field hockey was only a men’s sport because it was considered to be far to dangerous for women .
But the participation of women became more and more popular and so Hockey was probably the first team sport for women.
The Hockey field is pretty similar to a normal football pitch (91.40 m × 55 m) but with smaller goals (2.14 m high and 3.66 m wide ,comparable to a handball goal) and artificial “water-based” turf .

Hockey field

These surfaces are used at professional level nowadays because they speed up the game and are much more smooth and harder than normal artificial sand turf or grass surfaces.
The game is played in two halves of 35 minutes each with a 5 minute break .
Even though the game is a pretty ruff and physical game there are at least some rules preventing the players
from getting properly hurt .
This is called dangerously played ball ,and is performed when the player deliberately takes part in evasive action. This includes fighting, verbally abusing other players and breaking the rules set by the International Hockey Federation and if the ball is lifted above the knee and at an opponent who is within 5 m of the ball.

But like everyone still can guess that sometimes , even if just accidentally , players get hit by the ball or racket because everyone is up on adrenalin and wants to win the game no matter what happens to the opponent.

Very critical and dangerous situations are corners . Why ? Watch here :

I mean it is a little bit uncommon  to have a tea or lunch break  in between a game and matches lasting
for a couple of days .

South Asian passion !!!

Cricket in action

The sport I´am talking about this time , if you did not find out so far, is Cricket .

Some of you have maybe already heard about it ,or if not will find some information in the following article.
The game of cricket is around since the 16th century where it was first documented as being played in southern England
and even developed to the national game in the 18th century.
Due to the large scope of the British empire in former days it was also widely performed in a lot of colonized countries .
Nowadays the game’s governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC), has 104 member countries and it is particularly popular in the Sub-Continent Nations-
India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh ,England and Australia.

The game is played on a oval ,grassy field that can vary in size and shape
with a especially prepared center that is called the pitch and at either end of the pitch, 22 yards (20 m) apart, are placed the wickets.

Cricket field

A team consists of eleven players with different abilities and therefore also functions.
The two main players are the batter,who hits the ball ,and the bowler,who throws the ball .
And from here on we come straight to the main goal of the game :
The primary objective of each team is to score more runs than the other team,by hitting the ball and running from one side of the pitch to the other, and to completely dismiss the other team,by knocking over (by the bowler) the wickets of the opponent.
In one form of cricket, winning the game is achieved by scoring the most runs,
even if the opposition has not been completely dismissed.
In another form, it is necessary to score the most runs and dismiss the opposition in order to win the match, which would otherwise be drawn.
But Cricket is actually a quite complex game with a lot of different ways to win and a large set of rules also called “laws of cricket” .

If you got interested and want to find out more is here a video which explains the main idea and rules  !

Highest Possible score - 180 !!!

This weeks post is about a very well-known bar and pub sport and free time activity for people around the world
that especially became more and more popular over the last 5-10 years.
There are is very little physical movement involved but therefore a lot more of mental stability over a long period,precision and the ability of concentration in pretty much every second !

Darts!

Even though there is no real data or credible  history about the origins of the game ,it is a fact that ,in a little different form over the decades , the beginnings go back to  medieval times in England where the knights improved and practice their arching skills  all year round so they would be sharp and ready for battle at any time.

After a while, instead of just shooting for practice, they also started throwing their arrows as a means of fun and wanted to find out you can throw the most accurate.
But ,like everyone knows , the weather in Britain isn’t really favorable for arching practice outside all year
around and therefore the game was taken indoors to the comfort of the local pub and the footprint of the game was born !
The general aim is to hit certain points on the dartboard ,differing from the playing mode .
Most common and also most popular method played nowadays is the 01 darts game ,especially 501, were the two opponents have to play down
501 points but the last shoot has to be a double field !

But there are a lot of other really great playing methods like Cricket , Aces or All-fives.
Independently of the game played ,the opponents alternate after 3 arrows thrown and the highest possible score is
180 points , only possible by hitting the triple 20  3 times in a row!
The dartboard is exactly 1,73 m high , measured from the bulls-eye which is the middle of the board , and the players have to keep a distance of 2,37 m measured horizontally indicated by the “oche” .
The different scores on the board are explained here .

The rise of the popularity of darts and therefore also the first broadcasting on television goes back to the 1970´s in south east England which is still the mecca of the sport till today even though the sympathy for this game expanded worldwide especially over the last decade !

Me and a couple of friends of mine got also infected by the dart virus pretty much
about  4 years ago after one of us had seen it on tv for the first time !
From there on it developed to one of our major indoor free time sporting activities and is also a common method to evaluate who has to buy the first round at a bar on a night out ! (For sure the looser !)

And for the end i want to show you incredible dart skills by the most successful dart player in history ,Phil “The Power” Taylor.
A perfect 9 dart Checkout to play down 501 points !

Shopping

Shopping !!!

Right now you might think that shopping isn´t really a sport but wait till you finished reading this article and maybe
i can convince you that excessive shopping has all attributes of a proper sporting activity !
So first of all i would like to give a definition of a  sport :  “a. Physical activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in competitively.”
So now just think about proper shopping trip !
It is definitely a physical activity right ,i mean when iam finished with shopping i am always totally exhausted !
There are more or less rules involved . For further information look at this Page explaining the 5 most essential ones, but there
are definitely more varying from person to person.
And for the attribute of competitiveness ,either think about extremely desperate women who would do
everything to get the last pair of  fashionable footwear in a shoe store or your yearly shopping nightmares ( especially for men ) for Christmas , trying to find a very special present for your loved ones which is nearly sold out !
For a more visual picture remember the the movie : Jingle all the way ( or in German :”Versprochen ist Versprochen”) with Arnold Schwarzenegger .
And for those who haven’t seen it ,here a little trailer : Classic !!!

->  I guess at least 80-85% of all men have been in this situation .

And here also a little rating of the 10 best shopping  destinations around the world at the end . Enjoy !

Official Tour Ball

Beach-Volleyball !

Beach-Volleyball is obviously a sport everybody knows and has played already sometime in his
or her life .
Whether it was with friends and family at vacations or or with just a single teammate ,like Competitive Beach-Volleyball is played with two teams consisting each of two players .
The game itself was originated in Southern California even though the first beach volleyball games
took place on the beaches of Waikiki in Honolulu, Hawai’i .
Especially over the last couple of decades the sport became more and more popular
and due to this rise in attention the FIVB created the first World Beach Volleyball Championships,
played in Rio de Janiero, Brazil in 1987.
Beach-Volleyball tournaments nowadays are played worldwide,even in countries without traditional beaches like Switzerland and even cities like New York , Singapore or Berlin and the sport even had its Olympic debut in 1996.
At the time there is also a very successful German Team on the Tour,with Jonas Reckermann and Julius Brinck
who became World champions in 2009.

Jonas Reckermann and Julius Brinck in action

The Rules are actually quite common to the ones in indoor Volleyball but there are differences, especially concerning
the blocking game because we just have 2 players on the field instead of 6.
And this is also why Beach-Volleyball players use a technique a lot of people might always wonder what it is all about.
These weird finger signs their use behind their backs !
But i think this video definitely describes it better as i could,so enjoy :

Best thing to do in winter !

Because we are just in the middle of December and we are probably all dreaming of a hopefully white
Christmas, i thought it might be a good time to write about a sport a lot of people are
enjoying this time of the year and i´am really passionate about too.

Snowboarding !
But because i am still in the mood of writing about Extreme Sports
i will focus on a special kind and style of snowboarding called Freeriding (includes also skiing) .
Even if the name already describes it ,Freeriding is the style of snowboarding where you
dont ride on proper made tracks, instead you are taking any terrain available maybe even trough trees,
down cliffs or other natural existing obstacles.
Freeriding may also include many tricks and deep carve turns trough the
untouched deep powder snow what actually is the main thrill about it .
But they are also different stages of difficulty and riskiness ,because some people
(like me) just drive off the track in a certain ski-region where still help
and people are all around .
Another group of people even fly with an helicopter up untouched mountains ,drop out
and ride totally undiscovered landscapes without pretty much knowing what comes next having
the possibility of an avalanche coming down straight behind you .
And even it is a wonderful experience to be the first riding trough this
unbelievable nature you still should be aware of all risks and from my experience
always take a mobile Phone with you and never do it own your own .
Thanks !

Let´s continue with the crazy world of extreme sports !
But this week i would like to describe you a sport were i think you only
can either love , because it must be one the best feelings you can possibly experience,
or hate ,because you might think that the people doing that must be definitely crazy !!!

BASE JUMPING !

Jehaaaa !!!!

Not to be confused with another activity called skydiving,of which BASE jumping grew out of ,
but i´ll come to this later .
It is an activity that employs an initially packed parachute to jump from fixed objects where
“B.A.S.E.” is an acronym that stands for the four categories of fixed objects
from which one can jump: buildings, antennas, spans (bridge), and earth (cliff).
In contrast ,Skydiving is also a sport where you jump with a parachute , but like the
name already describes it out of the sky (plane).
BASE jumping is significantly more dangerous than similar extreme sports and is therefore currently
regarded by many also as a fringe extreme sport or stunt.
And as well as the risk of injury ,Base Jumper must consider legal issues concerning permissions to use the object from which the jump is initiated and the area used for landing.
So, said in easier words , if they don’t have the right to jump from an object they either
wont jump (what normally does not happen) or they jump and have to get out of this place
as quick as possible before their get arrested !
But enough theory , watch this and either be amazed or disgust :

Base Jump- Ghostbar Las Vegas

Shaka-sign

For the next couple of weeks i will  focus on  sports which gained more and more
popularity since the 1970´s and developed to a huge craze nowadays.
“Extreme Sports “

Generally speaking, extreme sports are activities that are associated with an adrenaline rush
that is felt by the participant.
These activities are often dangerous and any mistake could result in injury or even death.

And for the start i will write about Surfing , the one impressing me the most !!!

Aloha !
Just by watching this video i can see why surfing developed to a life-culture
for a lot of people especially in Hawaii , Australia ,California or any
other Place where beautiful beaches , a lot of sun and proper waves are
present many days of the year .

Close-up Surfer

The first known occurrences of surfing are connected to the ancient Hawaiian
tradition of “he’e nalu”, meaning “wave-sliding”.
Ancient Hawaiians relied on Kahunas (priests) to pray for good surf.
Kahunas would engage in ritual chants and dances,
with the intention of pleasing the sea to provide the people with surfable waves.
As the 19´th century approached surfing was nearly surfing was nearly an extinct pastime.
Nowadays ,modern surfing became more and more popular since the 1960´s
moving surfing from an underground culture into a national fad and the stage was
set for a great revival !

By the late 1970′s surfing had a new Center, Australia.
I also got to know the Australian lifestyle and culture and
tried surfing in Oz by doing a surf course on famous “Bondy Beach“
in Sydney but i can tell you it is not as easy as it looks , but still heaps
of fun !!!
I even would really like to go surfing every now and then but unfortunately
there are no proper waves even close where we live.

And to say Goodbye in a proper surfing lingo : Later dudes !

Table-Tennis on vacation

Ping,Pong,Ping,Pong ………….
As you may have already recognized , i really do like every kind of sport which
deals with a ball in any way !
Let it be Soccer, Basketball , tennis , rugby and so on ,
but one of my definitely favorite ones is the good old Table-Tennis .
Not just because i am really good at it !
No ! Because you can play it pretty much everywhere , at any time and
it is heaps of fun even if you are not that good at it ,or you play it the first time ever .

The Game itself is played on a 274 cm × 152.5 cm × 76 cm high (9 ft × 5 ft × 30 inches high) table , with wooden rackets(rubber surface) and a hollow ,40 mm ball made out of celluloid .

The rules are quite easy to understand and in a manner similar to tennis .
The winner is the first to score 11 points while being ahead by 2 points or more if the score is 10-10, and Players alternate serves every two points.
The 11 point game is an International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) change which occurred in 2001. Previously, the first player to gain 21 points won the game !
Table-Tennis is a quite well-known sport all over the world and i guess that pretty much everybody who reads
this post already played it sometime in life .

I actually grew up with Table-tennis because my Grandfather was a passionate Player and therefore we always
had a table wherever we lived and even in primary school we played it every day at every break .
So if you are interested just try it out by yourself and you will see how much fun it is
and if you then want to stick with it or you are already are an enthusiastic player i also have a quite
useful link for you : www.pingskills.com .

Here you can find Informations, Explanations, Videos …. to get started or to improve your skills even further !

And after you learned all these skills you may be as good as this one day :