Weirdest Dutch Sports – You Won’t Believe Your Eyes

We all know that the Dutch love soccer, ice hockey, and ice skating, but these sports are popular in many other countries as well. However, if you take a closer look, you will come across several strange activities that are not only unique but the weirdest Dutch sports!

Paalzitten is definitely one of the weirdest Dutch sports!

Are you a fan of sitting down? Well, the Dutch have a sport for this! In this “sport”, the participant sits on a pole for as long as they can, sometimes for days! The pole has a board at the top they can sit on, and they are allowed a short toilet break, but that is it. Let’s dig a bit deeper!

The participants, mostly men, sit on wooden poles for long hours, usually over water. No one knows how the sport was born, but according to a theory, the predecessors tried to pass the dull hours with the tools they found around the house in various strange and fun ways.

Today, the sport is a bit more professional than before. In addition to famous sponsors supporting the events and organizing world championships, the participants have comfortable seats now. They can even lean back on the backrest while waiting for their opponents to give up or tire sooner and fall into the water. As you have probably guessed, that is not exactly a spectator-friendly sport. Might as well watch paint dry! To be fair, this article is about the weirdest Dutch sports!

Korfball – The Mixed-Gender Team Sport

A PE teacher from Amsterdam, Nico Broekhuysen, created the rules of Korfball in 1903. He wanted to design a game with equal rights and cooperation from both genders. This is the only sport in the world where men and women play together in a team.

The same rules apply to everyone, and each player has a defender of the same gender, preventing the physical superiority of one gender over the other. This is also ensured by the regulation, which says that physical contact among the players is prohibited. 

The handball-sized court has two half sides, in the middle of which the korf, goal, stands. It is a basket on top of a 3,5-meter long pole. The aim of the game is to get the ball into it. Of the teams, four female and four male players are on the field at the same time.

Two girls and two boys on each side. One half is the offensive side, and the other is the defensive half. While half of the team attacks, the other defends. They can not cross the center line. So the defenders can’t attack or score goals. After every second korf, the offense and defense change halves.

Fierljeppen – Channel Jumping

The number of canals in the Netherlands is so high that it is no coincidence that they have created a sport involving them. Fierljeppen is a traditional sport that originates from Friesland in North Holland. There is a pole about eight to thirteen meters standing vertically in the canal. Athletes must run towards the pole, jump onto it and climb as high and as fast as possible while trying to control the direction of the fall. They then land on a sand bed on the other side of the canal. 

As for its history, the Frisian farmers used to jump over the canals since they had no other option. In 1767, they organized the first official Channel Jumping Championship in Baard in Friesland. Ever since then, they held contests from time to time, but it has become an annual event since 1956.

It may not seem hard at first sight, but the pole must be at least eight meters high and can be even 13 meters. The race is unbelievably fast and dangerous, but thousands of people follow the competition worldwide every year. Check out the next event and its odds at 22Bet Sportsbook!

Kaatsen Needs Steely Palms!

Kaatsen or Frisian handball has a long history, perhaps even longer than we think. It’s the most obvious and yet weirdest Dutch sport. First of all, Kaatsen is a team sport where players hit the ball to each other on the court during the game. However, here comes the twist!

They do not use rackets or bats. They use their palms, ladies, and gentleman! The scoring system works like tennis, and the first team to win six games wins the competition. Hitting a small ball with your hand is truly an impressive feat, which must hurt, but they use gloves to soften the hit. 

Imagine a playing field similar to a quidditch court, where each team has three players. Their job is to score a goal in a box guarded by two athletes from the opposite team. There are some slightly complex rules, but the aim of the game is for the serving player to hit the ball with their bare hand and score. If the defenders block or catch the ball, or it doesn’t make it to the box, the point goes to the defending team. It’s worth checking out this spectacular game at online sportsbook sites in the Netherlands!

Klootschieten – Weirdest Dutch Sports

People are obsessed with throwing things far, whether it’s a prominent Olympic sport or a weird contest. For example, phone or axe throwing, caber tossing, and wellie wanging competitions. In Klootschieten, using their strength, speed, and special throwing technique, the competitors try to throw the Kloot (the ball) as far as possible. Ball shooting and road bowling are other names for this sport, which might help to picture it. If not, check it out at 22Bet Sportsbook!

A Kloot is a wooden or plastic ball filled with lead, weighing between 200 and 800 grams. There are street, standing, and field categories. In street and field games, two teams play against each other, while the standing competition is individual. Stefan Albarus set the world record, which is 106,2 meters! Klootschieten is also considered an old sport, they established the first league in 1902, but it existed long before that. 

Elfstedentocht – Marathonschaatsen

Perhaps the oldest and most famous winter sport and tradition of the Frisians is the Elfstedentocht, a skating competition that involves 11 historic Frisian cities. The goal is to cover a distance of nearly 200 kilometers while going through all 11 cities in a day, and the fastest skater wins. There have been 15 official Elfstedentochts so far, the last time was in 1997, and the first took place in 1909. 

The basic necessity of the Elfstedentocht is solid ice since they can only skate on ice-covered canals and waters. The participants can only cover the route skating on at least 15 centimeters thick ice layer. In the absence of this, they do not hold the event for security reasons. In addition, the 22 members of the board responsible for the Elfstedentocht must agree on its organization. The organizers also have to fill the gaps in the ice to avoid accidents. 

The only way Frisians could go long distances in the harsh winters, was by skating since not everyone had a horse or other means of transportation. People used these skating opportunities for betting, which you can also do at 22Bet Sportsbook! Since the Elfstedentocht is such a rare event, the Dutch organize the annual Marathonschaatsen, aka marathon skating, instead. Competitors race on the three-kilometer-long Biddinghuizen ice rink, 125 laps for men and 80 laps for women. Choosing the right tactics and strategy is very important in this sport. 

Tegenwindfietsen – The Weirdest Dutch Sports

Headwind is the enemy of every biker, and no sane person would do it unless it’s for a competition. They hold a Tegenwindfietsen championship in a roaring headwind, or more like a hurricane each year. The cycling race has been an annual event since 2013.

Professional cyclists also participate from time to time, though it’s more about the incredibly tough challenge than the competition. There is no exact competition calendar! The only thing that is certain is that they hold the Tegenwindfietsen sometime at the end of the year. 

The organizers announce the date if the weather report is favorable three days before the race. In this case, favorable means strong wind blowing from the sea. Tegenwindfietsen equalizes opportunities by giving every competitor the same city bike.

The distance is 8,5 kilometers in the brutal headwind. Sometimes the wind is so strong that the cyclists stand still. Only strength and endurance matter, not technology or better equipment. The bikes don’t even have gears, so it’s probably one of the weirdest Dutch sports, not to mention the most exhausting.

Sjoelen is the Dutch Bingo!

Sjoelen or sjoelbak is a popular game, somewhere between shuffleboard and billiard. It appeared in the Netherlands first in the 18th century. Many Dutch families have one board hidden somewhere in the attic. The goal is to slide 30 wooden discs through four small wooden arches with tunnel-like openings to score points.

The game is surprisingly exciting and similar to bingo in terms of social aspects. Sjoelbak is a competitive board game where each wooden slot is worth various points, but blocking the opponent’s slots is forbidden. The game is fair and fun. You can also check out our article about the most bizarre sports ever!

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