As flagged on the WTF thread, I am intrigued by the recent trend for inventing new sports simply by combining elements of existing ones (see witches brew reference in the title). It's a fairly long list - one of the biggest at the moment appears to be Paddleball, which is mostly (Lawn) Tennis but played on a walled court rather like Squash or more like Real Tennis as there is a net halfway up, with bounces off the sides and back walls part of the game, as in those events but not Lawn Tennis. It also uses solid bats with air holes in them rather than a strung racquet. It seems to be making serious inroads into the sporting market.
Pickleball is also highly successful as a participation sport, but I'm not sure how much of a professional tour exists for it. This is mostly Tennis, with a strong similarity to short Tennis played by Juniors, though the court layout is pretty well a Badminton court for the lines.
As mentioned on the WTF thread there is also Teqball. Which is a really mash-up. In fact it is a mash-up of a mash-up as a combined Football and Volleyball sport, called Footvolley already existed. Teqball is Footvolley played on a Table Tennis-alike table but one that curves downwards on both sides (presumably a standard Table Tennis table would make the bounce too high, with too much time to successfully defend shots).
Some other older ones are;
Ultimate: once known as Ultimate Frisbee, which takes some of the gameplay of American Football - touchdowns in end zones as the scoring - but does it with a Frisbee (sorry Flying Disc) and is non-contact like basketball.
Octopush: ice hockey played with the hands on the floor of a (full!) swimming pool
Footgolf: Golf holes played by kicking Footballs instead of clubs and a little hard ball
Chessboxing: Sort of a poor example of this category as despite being a combination sport the chess and boxing elements are sequential rather than combined. Possibly the most famous of the mash-up sports though
But what is this thread for? Well, why? What is motivating people to invent these sports? As mentioned, there seems to be a growing trend for them.
I guess the thread can serve as a catch-all for discussing any events in a brand new conjured up sport.
Pickleball is also highly successful as a participation sport, but I'm not sure how much of a professional tour exists for it. This is mostly Tennis, with a strong similarity to short Tennis played by Juniors, though the court layout is pretty well a Badminton court for the lines.
As mentioned on the WTF thread there is also Teqball. Which is a really mash-up. In fact it is a mash-up of a mash-up as a combined Football and Volleyball sport, called Footvolley already existed. Teqball is Footvolley played on a Table Tennis-alike table but one that curves downwards on both sides (presumably a standard Table Tennis table would make the bounce too high, with too much time to successfully defend shots).
Some other older ones are;
Ultimate: once known as Ultimate Frisbee, which takes some of the gameplay of American Football - touchdowns in end zones as the scoring - but does it with a Frisbee (sorry Flying Disc) and is non-contact like basketball.
Octopush: ice hockey played with the hands on the floor of a (full!) swimming pool
Footgolf: Golf holes played by kicking Footballs instead of clubs and a little hard ball
Chessboxing: Sort of a poor example of this category as despite being a combination sport the chess and boxing elements are sequential rather than combined. Possibly the most famous of the mash-up sports though
But what is this thread for? Well, why? What is motivating people to invent these sports? As mentioned, there seems to be a growing trend for them.
I guess the thread can serve as a catch-all for discussing any events in a brand new conjured up sport.
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