Innovation in sports: Chessboxing
One breakthrough moment as a kid was the first time I played a pinball machine that, when you hit the right bumpers, would release a second ball. This little change transformed pinball forever, as the level of panic required to managed two or more balls at once created an entirely different experience of game play.
A bigger breakthrough occurred when watching the biathlon in the 1984 Olympics. What on the surface seemed to be a boring combination of two boring sports (skiing and precision rifling), was a suprisingly interesting event to watch – a fascinating combination of two very different skill sets. It’s still one of my favorite sports. It made me realize you can make interesting things by combining two boring, but creatively unrelated things, and putting them together.
So when I first heard about Chessboxing, I was thrilled. The name itself expresses everything. Like the biathlon, it takes two unrelated skills at opposite ends of the physical/intellectual spectrum, and throws them in together.
Here’s how it works:
- Competitors play a 4 minute round of chess, alternating with a two minute round of boxing
- You win by knockout or checkmate
- The chess is speed-chess, which means you have a total of 12 minutes of time to make your chess moves. If you run out, you lose.
I’ve never seen a chessboxing match – there don’t seem to be to many of them yet, but I’d watch.
I’ve also come across SlamBall, which combines basketball with, well, trampolines. It’s basically a version of basketball focused on trying to be like a video game, as the trampolines that make up the court allow for amazing dunks, blocks and lots of high impact mid-air collisions (Youtube highlight reel here)
So what new sports have you seen? Or always wished existed? It can be hard to think of it, but there was a day when soccer, baseball, and football were only ideas in someone’s mind.
(Photo credit: wikipedia)
When the American Indians played the game that is the precursor to lacrosse, it was played on fields that were over a mile long. I’ve always wanted to play a game of ultimate frisbee on that scale: over rolling hills, through glades.
Don’t think I’ve got the lungs for it, though…
I hear mountain bike polo is fun.
I enjoyed your post. I think chessboxing would be really interesting to watch to see if people could keep there composure when they were completely off their rocker.
I was going to give you another source for Slamball highlights. http://www.slamball.net has a highlight real for every game this year. Along with the championship game that was on CBS and also the dunk competition. This last year I played on The MOB, one of the six slamball teams. They are hoping to have new expansion teams next year but If you haven’t picked a favorite yet I’d go with that one.
Hope your search for new sports continues.
I watch the sport slamball and love it. I wish I could see more of it in person. Are they going to be on live national tv or they going to ad. live game that are coming soon.
C.Dixon: You’re right. Slamball is making a big push this year. I think they have a few games being broadcast on CBS, or another major network.
Chessboxing on the other hand seems in need of a sponsor :)
Thx for the comments guys
Love SlamBall! I want to play it when I graduate high school!