Fall In Love With These Underrated National Sports

There are lots of sports in the world, from which it would be interesting to sometimes catch a broadcast on TV. So we collected some underrated national sports, which are famous in some parts of the world but people have no idea about it in others. It’s human nature that once you’ve followed your favorites for years, you get curious about new ones. Then the question comes up. What else is there? Well, quite a lot. For example, do you know the national sport of the Philippines or Bangladesh? Stay tuned and find out!

Buzkashi – Afghanistan

Let’s get the roughest out of the way first. The article is about underrated national sports, but in the case of Buzkashi, it is probably intentional. Not only is it the most bizarre sport on this list, but it also ranks high on the list of brutal sports in the world in general. There are two teams of Afghan riders of 40 and 100. Since the Buzkashi is a team sport, we have two competing teams, whose goal is to get the headless goat, thrown onto the field at the beginning of the match, to the scoring area as many times as possible. Again, a headless goat! It is like the ball in soccer. Yikes!

Everything is fair in love and war and Buzkashi. Neither the horses’ nor the riders’ physical integrity matters. The point is to get the corpse behind the goal line. This Afghan national sport is not only for occasions, but they also play it on a regular basis. And what’s more, they also organize national championships. The sport spread to several neighboring countries, with some minor modifications. They completely destroy the “ball” by the end of the match, just as injuries are quite common after the competition. Talking about weird, check out our article about the most bizarre sports ever!

Underrated national sports – Capoeira

Everyone has probably heard of capoeira. The question is, do you really know what it is? Are the people actually dancing or fighting? Well, mostly both. Its story began in the 1500s when the Portuguese traders transported slaves from Africa to Brazilian tobacco and sugar cane plantations.

At the end of the tiring days, the Africans were justifiably frustrated. So to release the stress, they invented this method of fighting, disguised as dance, since the physical force against each other was forbidden on the plantations. Over time, this martial art has become the symbol of fighting against oppression and became a tradition. It began its world-conquering journey in the 80s, and today you can take capoeira classes in gyms and quite a few elementary schools. 

Contrary to popular belief, capoeira is not a dance. Only the basic steps are similar to dance moves. Capoeira contains many different things. Since it is very diverse and complex, everyone can find something attractive in it. Music is an essential part of capoeira. It gives energy, sets the pace, and you can learn its story and language with it. Music helps you determine what style to follow. Respect is the foundation for capoeira.

The higher status your opponents have, the more respectful you have to offer them. There are cases where you can’t even use some elements against your opponent out of respect. This tradition is about respect, culture, confidence, building bonds, and the power of togetherness. Capoeira is an underrated national sport because its values should appear worldwide, much more than it already is.

Arnis – Philippines

We never thought that beating, hitting, and messing up someone can be turned into a supervised sport. Yet this has happened in the Philippines, and the sport’s name is Arnis. It is also not a young invention, so much so that rumor has it that one of the first victims of arnis was Magellan, the explorer.

According to the legend, the natives started to fight against the Spanish conquerors with bats and wooden swords. They previously developed their own fighting style, and in one of these battles, they also ended the conqueror’s life. We will probably never know the truth, but the stories suggest that it has a rich history. The point hasn’t changed much, though. In this sport, basically, thrashing each other is the purpose.

It is not only the national sport of the Philippines but also a very effective combat system. Recently, like other martial arts in Asia, it became popular. The practice method improves the hands and, among other things, the reaction speed to the various attacks. Although this system is based on armed struggle, it certainly involves hand-to-hand fighting modes, like punches, kicks, wrestling, etc., including bare-handed skills against most weapons.

The techniques don’t require much strength, but skills, speed and alertness, and a high degree of technical knowledge. It enhances stamina, reflexes, and coordination, strengthens the wrist, elbows, and shoulder joints, increases flexibility and speed. As we have mentioned before, the processes do not require much physical force. It gets the necessary power from the kinetic energy of the body and the energy-saving movements. All in all, Arnis is one of those martial arts that we can use very effectively against multiple attack types.

Underrated national sports – Kabaddi

Most of us weren’t even aware, that when we were playing tag in our childhood, we were actually training for Kabaddi. This game has really spread in and around India but has become the national sport in Bangladesh instead.

The game is popular in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, etc., but so much so that it has been an official sport at the Asian Games since 1990. You can check out the other trendy Asian sports at online sportsbook sites in the US and place bets on the next kabaddi tournament at 22BET Sportsbook .

The point is simply that two teams of seven are playing the mix of tag and wrestling. When one of the teams attack, one of the seven players moves to the opponent’s half of the court. The other team members form a chain of defense. If the attacking player manages to touch one of the players on the defensive team and returns quickly to his own half before the tagged player takes him to the ground, he receives one point. If the defender manages to prevent the attacker from returning, a point goes for the defense.

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