5 ms·

These sports which are popular in only one specific region (or several regions) are really fascinating. For instance, I had to visit Ireland first to learn abou

by rob74 3y ago

These sports which are popular in only one specific region (or several regions) are really fascinating. For instance, I had to visit Ireland first to learn about Gaelic football (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaelic_football https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaelic_football), which seems to be a mix of soccer and rugby and is immensely popular in Ireland (the largest stadium in Dublin, which is also the third largest in Europe, is used primarily for it), but pretty much unknown anywhere else.

emmelaich 3y ago
There's a comp which is a combo of Gaelic Football and Australian Rules Football which are somewhat similar. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Rules_Series https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Rules_Series
- EdwardDiego 3y ago
  I love that the Aussies and the Irish independently developed a game that overlapped enough that they could compete against each other
  - walthamstow 3y ago
    They didn't. Both games are dependent on one or more forms of football that were codified in England, just like American Football. Think of them as forks that have deviated little enough, or deviated in similar enough ways, from the upstream that they are still somewhat compatible.
    - stormdennis 3y ago
      Football was everywhere (e.g. calcio in Italy) The English codified rules for it but that doesn't mean Aussie rules or Gaelic Football are derivitives of the English game.
      - walthamstow 3y ago
        Medieval kicking games were everywhere, yes, in China and Florence and all kinds of places. Unless you have some evidence to the contrary, I think it's quite clear they are directly descended. Factors include chronology, similarity of the games and both places being English colonies.
        defrost 3y ago
        Proto Australian Rules Football predates European settlement of Australia and possibly even European settlement of England. Marn Grook, marn-grook or marngrook is the popular collective name for traditional Indigenous Australian football games played at gatherings and celebrations by sometimes more than 100 players. From the Woiwurung language of the Kulin people, it means "ball" and "game". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marn_Grook https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marn_Grook https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6sOfIhCzuI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6sOfIhCzuI
        walthamstow 3y ago
        And you're telling me you believe the white Australians adopted and codified this indigenous game instead of one based on English Rugby Football? It doesn't seem likely. Like I said, medieval kicking games were everywhere, including marn grook, but I don't see any evidence that Aussie Rules is based on it. "Some historians claim" is the strongest sentence in that Wikipedia article.
        emmelaich 3y ago
        Agree, but not Rugby. Aussies Rules doesn't have much in common with Rugby.
        defrost 3y ago
        As noted, Aussie Rules isn't rugby by a long shot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMZYZcoAcU0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMZYZcoAcU0 I'm saying I believe that Australian settlers were heavily influenced by many things that indigenous people did; what to eat, where to find good water, how to manage land, but they rarely acknowledged that influence. The original version of AFL played by English settlers was a great deal more like original Marn grook than 'modern' codified AFL - the playing area was larger and effectively unbounded (save by the need to score through designated goal areas, etc). Indigenous influence on AFL creation confirmed by historical transcripts, historian says Monash University historian Professor Jenny Hocking found transcripts placing Indigenous football, commonly known today as Marngrook, firmly in the Western district of Victoria where Australian rules founder Tom Wills grew up. "We found in the State Library of Victoria records of a transcription of an interview with [Mukjarrawaint man] Johnny Connolly, who describes actually playing the game in the Grampians region as a child in the 1830s to 40s," https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-13/historian-reveals-marngrook-influence-on-afl/8439748 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-13/historian-reveals-mar... > It doesn't seem likely. You're entitled to your opinion but I'd hazard a guess you never grew up playing barefoot football on stony ground with aboriginal teams whereas I did (40 years ago). Everybody seems to wear shoes now and many of the remote fields have grass now, with a few exceptions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UqL_M6_muU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UqL_M6_muU I don't put much stock in your opinion.
    - TRiG_Ireland 3y ago
      The Australian game was codified first.
      - deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
      - walthamstow 3y ago
        So are you saying it was independently created or not? It's unclear.
        TRiG_Ireland 3y ago
        The Australian game is the first form of football to be codified. It probably does owe something to other forms of football around at the time in England, and perhaps also to a local indigenous game named marn-grook, but it was the first to have an actual codified set of laws. It's a winter game, designed to keep cricketers fit out of season, which is why it's played on an oval field (and the final is played on the Melbourne Cricket Ground). This isn't just a feel-good story. Tom Wills, the main inventor of Australian football, was raised as the only white kid in his area, and played with the Indigenous kids. Source: https://www.sbs.com.au/whats-on/article/did-afl-come-from-an-aboriginal-game/dw50ad1tp https://www.sbs.com.au/whats-on/article/did-afl-come-from-an...
        TRiG_Ireland 3y ago
        I should have checked that after posting. It was supposed to be an asterisk indicating a footnote, and then another indicating the footnote itself. Normal markdown implementations don't span italics over paragraph breaks.
    - DoughnutHole 3y ago
      Gaelic and Aussie rules aren't so much dependent on codified association football as they were each somewhat independent codifications of existing games. Association football has only existed as a codified game since 1863 - football before then was just a spectrum of local games played across Europe with little in common as areas got further away. Around the time of the codification of association football it was noted that different people in Ireland were playing association football, rugby football, and a third distinct game people referred to as "Irish football". Modern Gaelic football was codified in 1884, and its rules were "dependent" on English football forms in the sense that it's codifiers explicitly rejected anything that was regarded as an English influence in writing the rules. It was a very nationalist time in Ireland and the GAA is an Irish nationalist organisation - they tried to keep out elements that were perceived as foreign, and integrated a lot of elements of hurling (a very distinct Irish game played with sticks that predates written history in Ireland). The similarities between Gaelic football and Aussie rules is probably not a coincidence, but it's not because of soccer - the Irish diaspora played Irish football in Australia, and how the game was developed there had an influence in how the game was codified into Gaelic by the GAA. Irish football may have had an outsized influence in how football was played in Australia that it didn't have in Britain. American football does more directly descend from codified English rules of football - Harvard were big proponents of rugby-style rules, which evolved into modern American football.
      - walthamstow 3y ago
        Why does your post repeatedly mention soccer? I'm not talking about Association Football anywhere, it's irrelevant to this discussion. Aussie and Gaelic are based on or depend upon or took influence from Rugby Football, not soccer. The idea that Gaelic and Aussie were developed independently on opposite ends of the earth, in English-speaking crown colonies, and randomly just so happen to be compatible enough to play against each other be is absolutely barmy and I can't believe anyone is espousing it.
        emmelaich 3y ago
        I think you're in agreement... > The similarities between Gaelic football and Aussie rules is probably not a coincidence, but it's not because of soccer
  - Gordonjcp 3y ago
    You also get Shinty/Hurling matches between Scottish and Irish teams. If you don't know what Shinty is, imagine if you took Ice Hockey, got rid of all the ice, allowed people to swing from as high and back as they like (golf swing, rather than "keep your stick on the ice"), and just in general made Ice Hockey really fast and violent.
    - Bukhmanizer 3y ago
      > made Ice Hockey really fast and violent.
    - mb7733 3y ago
      "Keep your stick on the ice" isn't a rule; it's a folksy saying that means "pay attention". Slapshots are very much allowed in ice hockey!
jmedefind 3y ago
Ireland sponsors a bunch of local leagues all over the World to promote Hurling/Camogie and Gaelic football. Lots of fun if you want to give it a try or just watch some games. Link to the US organization - https://usgaa.org https://usgaa.org
kodah 3y ago
Australian Football is another. I'd really like to go see it after watching it streamed two years in a row.
- Balgair 3y ago
  Aussie Rules is my favorite of the football sports. I say this as a mega fan of American Football, Union, and League. Sacrilege, I know. The scoring opportunities are much higher. The pace is much much faster. There are more players, more umps, more space. The kicks are high, exciting, gotten off in the nick of time, barely making it. Tackles and hit are very big and constant (issues there, I know). The jumping and running are great too. Imagine those big plays in American Football, the sacks, catches, jukes, etc. They happen every few downs, maybe once a quarter. In Aussie Rules they happen every 5 minutes or so, as the game clock keeps going. The downsides are the somewhat strange uniforms. That's about it. Amazing game, really. Go 'Pies!
- red-iron-pine 3y ago
  Lived in Melbourne for a bit and was surprised by how much the locals went nuts for it. Fun sport, fast moving, and it felt like a very three dimensional game compared to US football, which is feels heavily scripted, like running the same tests over and over and over.
sybercecurity 3y ago
I learned about duckpin bowling the same way. Never heard of it until moving to the US Mid-Atlantic. Might be an interesting study as to why certain sports/activities take off and become popular for a while, then fade. I wonder if pickleball will follow this trend?
DoughnutHole 3y ago
If you think Gaelic football is interesting you should check out hurling - I've heard it called both "the fastest game on grass" and "a cross between field hockey and murder". The game predates written history in Ireland (although I assume it's changed a lot with time). Here's some highlights from a recent game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rNbodFzlwI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rNbodFzlwI I honestly find it nearly impossible to follow what's going on when watching it in person.
- tssva 3y ago
  Both Hurling and Gaelic football are played in the US. https://usgaa.org/ https://usgaa.org/ I live in the DC area and both used to be broadcast on a local station. That ended years ago. GAAGO is a paid streaming service which allows you to watch games on your PC, mobile device or smart TV. Edit: Wanted to clarify that what used to air on TV and what is available through GAAGO are Irish matches and not those of the USGAA.
- stanford_labrat 3y ago
  maybe apocryphal but I was always told that hurling was designed to strengthen young boys to make them good warriors. basically lots of running and fighting.
silverbax88 3y ago
Gaelic football is one of most amazing sports I've ever seen. I had no familiarity with it until a few years ago, but watching someone run with the ball on a pitch, dribble it, then drop kick it at full speed and bend the pass all the way to the other side of the pitch to a teammate is incredible.
ExtraRoulette 3y ago
Handball (Also called Wallball) is popular in New York City, along with a few other places in the US. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_handball https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_handball You can also view tournaments that have been held here: https://www.youtube.com/@TensFinest/videos https://www.youtube.com/@TensFinest/videos It's one my my favorite hobbies; I've been playing since I was a teen (not that I'm any good at it lol). Outside of Florida and California I don't think many have heard of it. Though I believe there are a few places in Europe that play (Belgium I think?) but don't quote me. Happy to elaborate further if anyone is curious!
- dghlsakjg 3y ago
  I grew up in Denver, and we had handball courts in some of the city parks. It seemed to be super popular with central and south Americans. The tennis courts were super popular with African immigrants, mostly Nigerians. Don't know if they're still there, or if they have been turned into a pickleball court like every other place on earth.
  - ExtraRoulette 3y ago
    Ah so pickleball is spreading like crazy in CO too? I have a todo to play it just so I can see what the fuss is about.
- OkayPhysicist 3y ago
  Wait, wallball is a regional thing? My mental image of an elementary school recess yard has just changed wildly. What about 4 square?
  - lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 3y ago
    To give a personal account, I grew up in Utah and students at the public schools which I attended knew both wallball and 4 square.
    - ExtraRoulette 3y ago
slim 3y ago
check out florence calcio. it's the original soccer/football

by rob74 3y ago

emmelaich 3y ago

There's a comp which is a combo of Gaelic Football and Australian Rules Football which are somewhat similar. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Rules_Series https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Rules_Series

EdwardDiego 3y ago
I love that the Aussies and the Irish independently developed a game that overlapped enough that they could compete against each other
- walthamstow 3y ago
  They didn't. Both games are dependent on one or more forms of football that were codified in England, just like American Football. Think of them as forks that have deviated little enough, or deviated in similar enough ways, from the upstream that they are still somewhat compatible.
  - stormdennis 3y ago
    Football was everywhere (e.g. calcio in Italy) The English codified rules for it but that doesn't mean Aussie rules or Gaelic Football are derivitives of the English game.
    - walthamstow 3y ago
      Medieval kicking games were everywhere, yes, in China and Florence and all kinds of places. Unless you have some evidence to the contrary, I think it's quite clear they are directly descended. Factors include chronology, similarity of the games and both places being English colonies.
      - defrost 3y ago
        Proto Australian Rules Football predates European settlement of Australia and possibly even European settlement of England. Marn Grook, marn-grook or marngrook is the popular collective name for traditional Indigenous Australian football games played at gatherings and celebrations by sometimes more than 100 players. From the Woiwurung language of the Kulin people, it means "ball" and "game". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marn_Grook https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marn_Grook https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6sOfIhCzuI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6sOfIhCzuI
        walthamstow 3y ago
        And you're telling me you believe the white Australians adopted and codified this indigenous game instead of one based on English Rugby Football? It doesn't seem likely. Like I said, medieval kicking games were everywhere, including marn grook, but I don't see any evidence that Aussie Rules is based on it. "Some historians claim" is the strongest sentence in that Wikipedia article.
        emmelaich 3y ago
        Agree, but not Rugby. Aussies Rules doesn't have much in common with Rugby.
        defrost 3y ago
        As noted, Aussie Rules isn't rugby by a long shot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMZYZcoAcU0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMZYZcoAcU0 I'm saying I believe that Australian settlers were heavily influenced by many things that indigenous people did; what to eat, where to find good water, how to manage land, but they rarely acknowledged that influence. The original version of AFL played by English settlers was a great deal more like original Marn grook than 'modern' codified AFL - the playing area was larger and effectively unbounded (save by the need to score through designated goal areas, etc). Indigenous influence on AFL creation confirmed by historical transcripts, historian says Monash University historian Professor Jenny Hocking found transcripts placing Indigenous football, commonly known today as Marngrook, firmly in the Western district of Victoria where Australian rules founder Tom Wills grew up. "We found in the State Library of Victoria records of a transcription of an interview with [Mukjarrawaint man] Johnny Connolly, who describes actually playing the game in the Grampians region as a child in the 1830s to 40s," https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-13/historian-reveals-marngrook-influence-on-afl/8439748 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-13/historian-reveals-mar... > It doesn't seem likely. You're entitled to your opinion but I'd hazard a guess you never grew up playing barefoot football on stony ground with aboriginal teams whereas I did (40 years ago). Everybody seems to wear shoes now and many of the remote fields have grass now, with a few exceptions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UqL_M6_muU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UqL_M6_muU I don't put much stock in your opinion.
  - TRiG_Ireland 3y ago
    The Australian game was codified first.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - walthamstow 3y ago
      So are you saying it was independently created or not? It's unclear.
      - TRiG_Ireland 3y ago
        The Australian game is the first form of football to be codified. It probably does owe something to other forms of football around at the time in England, and perhaps also to a local indigenous game named marn-grook, but it was the first to have an actual codified set of laws. It's a winter game, designed to keep cricketers fit out of season, which is why it's played on an oval field (and the final is played on the Melbourne Cricket Ground). This isn't just a feel-good story. Tom Wills, the main inventor of Australian football, was raised as the only white kid in his area, and played with the Indigenous kids. Source: https://www.sbs.com.au/whats-on/article/did-afl-come-from-an-aboriginal-game/dw50ad1tp https://www.sbs.com.au/whats-on/article/did-afl-come-from-an...
        TRiG_Ireland 3y ago
        I should have checked that after posting. It was supposed to be an asterisk indicating a footnote, and then another indicating the footnote itself. Normal markdown implementations don't span italics over paragraph breaks.
  - DoughnutHole 3y ago
    Gaelic and Aussie rules aren't so much dependent on codified association football as they were each somewhat independent codifications of existing games. Association football has only existed as a codified game since 1863 - football before then was just a spectrum of local games played across Europe with little in common as areas got further away. Around the time of the codification of association football it was noted that different people in Ireland were playing association football, rugby football, and a third distinct game people referred to as "Irish football". Modern Gaelic football was codified in 1884, and its rules were "dependent" on English football forms in the sense that it's codifiers explicitly rejected anything that was regarded as an English influence in writing the rules. It was a very nationalist time in Ireland and the GAA is an Irish nationalist organisation - they tried to keep out elements that were perceived as foreign, and integrated a lot of elements of hurling (a very distinct Irish game played with sticks that predates written history in Ireland). The similarities between Gaelic football and Aussie rules is probably not a coincidence, but it's not because of soccer - the Irish diaspora played Irish football in Australia, and how the game was developed there had an influence in how the game was codified into Gaelic by the GAA. Irish football may have had an outsized influence in how football was played in Australia that it didn't have in Britain. American football does more directly descend from codified English rules of football - Harvard were big proponents of rugby-style rules, which evolved into modern American football.
    - walthamstow 3y ago
      Why does your post repeatedly mention soccer? I'm not talking about Association Football anywhere, it's irrelevant to this discussion. Aussie and Gaelic are based on or depend upon or took influence from Rugby Football, not soccer. The idea that Gaelic and Aussie were developed independently on opposite ends of the earth, in English-speaking crown colonies, and randomly just so happen to be compatible enough to play against each other be is absolutely barmy and I can't believe anyone is espousing it.
      - emmelaich 3y ago
        I think you're in agreement... > The similarities between Gaelic football and Aussie rules is probably not a coincidence, but it's not because of soccer
- Gordonjcp 3y ago
  You also get Shinty/Hurling matches between Scottish and Irish teams. If you don't know what Shinty is, imagine if you took Ice Hockey, got rid of all the ice, allowed people to swing from as high and back as they like (golf swing, rather than "keep your stick on the ice"), and just in general made Ice Hockey really fast and violent.
  - Bukhmanizer 3y ago
    > made Ice Hockey really fast and violent.
  - mb7733 3y ago
    "Keep your stick on the ice" isn't a rule; it's a folksy saying that means "pay attention". Slapshots are very much allowed in ice hockey!

jmedefind 3y ago

Ireland sponsors a bunch of local leagues all over the World to promote Hurling/Camogie and Gaelic football. Lots of fun if you want to give it a try or just watch some games. Link to the US organization - https://usgaa.org https://usgaa.org

kodah 3y ago

Australian Football is another. I'd really like to go see it after watching it streamed two years in a row.

Balgair 3y ago
Aussie Rules is my favorite of the football sports. I say this as a mega fan of American Football, Union, and League. Sacrilege, I know. The scoring opportunities are much higher. The pace is much much faster. There are more players, more umps, more space. The kicks are high, exciting, gotten off in the nick of time, barely making it. Tackles and hit are very big and constant (issues there, I know). The jumping and running are great too. Imagine those big plays in American Football, the sacks, catches, jukes, etc. They happen every few downs, maybe once a quarter. In Aussie Rules they happen every 5 minutes or so, as the game clock keeps going. The downsides are the somewhat strange uniforms. That's about it. Amazing game, really. Go 'Pies!
red-iron-pine 3y ago
Lived in Melbourne for a bit and was surprised by how much the locals went nuts for it. Fun sport, fast moving, and it felt like a very three dimensional game compared to US football, which is feels heavily scripted, like running the same tests over and over and over.

sybercecurity 3y ago

I learned about duckpin bowling the same way. Never heard of it until moving to the US Mid-Atlantic. Might be an interesting study as to why certain sports/activities take off and become popular for a while, then fade. I wonder if pickleball will follow this trend?

DoughnutHole 3y ago

If you think Gaelic football is interesting you should check out hurling - I've heard it called both "the fastest game on grass" and "a cross between field hockey and murder". The game predates written history in Ireland (although I assume it's changed a lot with time). Here's some highlights from a recent game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rNbodFzlwI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rNbodFzlwI I honestly find it nearly impossible to follow what's going on when watching it in person.

tssva 3y ago
Both Hurling and Gaelic football are played in the US. https://usgaa.org/ https://usgaa.org/ I live in the DC area and both used to be broadcast on a local station. That ended years ago. GAAGO is a paid streaming service which allows you to watch games on your PC, mobile device or smart TV. Edit: Wanted to clarify that what used to air on TV and what is available through GAAGO are Irish matches and not those of the USGAA.
stanford_labrat 3y ago
maybe apocryphal but I was always told that hurling was designed to strengthen young boys to make them good warriors. basically lots of running and fighting.

silverbax88 3y ago

Gaelic football is one of most amazing sports I've ever seen. I had no familiarity with it until a few years ago, but watching someone run with the ball on a pitch, dribble it, then drop kick it at full speed and bend the pass all the way to the other side of the pitch to a teammate is incredible.

ExtraRoulette 3y ago

Handball (Also called Wallball) is popular in New York City, along with a few other places in the US. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_handball https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_handball You can also view tournaments that have been held here: https://www.youtube.com/@TensFinest/videos https://www.youtube.com/@TensFinest/videos It's one my my favorite hobbies; I've been playing since I was a teen (not that I'm any good at it lol). Outside of Florida and California I don't think many have heard of it. Though I believe there are a few places in Europe that play (Belgium I think?) but don't quote me. Happy to elaborate further if anyone is curious!

dghlsakjg 3y ago
I grew up in Denver, and we had handball courts in some of the city parks. It seemed to be super popular with central and south Americans. The tennis courts were super popular with African immigrants, mostly Nigerians. Don't know if they're still there, or if they have been turned into a pickleball court like every other place on earth.
- ExtraRoulette 3y ago
  Ah so pickleball is spreading like crazy in CO too? I have a todo to play it just so I can see what the fuss is about.
OkayPhysicist 3y ago
Wait, wallball is a regional thing? My mental image of an elementary school recess yard has just changed wildly. What about 4 square?
- lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 3y ago
  To give a personal account, I grew up in Utah and students at the public schools which I attended knew both wallball and 4 square.
  - ExtraRoulette 3y ago

slim 3y ago

check out florence calcio. it's the original soccer/football