Thursday, December 14, 2006

Non-Rugby: Vaulting on Horseback? Cup Stacking?

I came upon this while trolling wikipedia ...

There's a sport, called "vaulting". It involved riding around on horseback and doing all sorts of acrobatic and gymnastic type things. They have mens, women's, teams, age grade competitions, world championships, etc. It seems that the modern gymnastic vaulting and pommel horse events originated on real horses, so that's what these folks do.

It's got to be hard ...

Check out their photo page.

Compare this to the sport of "speed stacking". People basically stack cups, in different formations, as fast as they can. Apparently, on Nov 6th, 81,252 people across the world participated in this death-defying activity, setting a new Guinness Book world record.

The actual "worlds fastest stacker" title is shared by two 13 year olds, one in Germany and one in the USA. They both stacked whatever cup formation is designated in under 3 seconds.

Why aren't those bozo's at the NY Press writing about these guys, instead of harassing ruggers, golfers, and marathoners?

Given the choice between cup stacking (which PS is going to be on ESPN) and vaulting, I think I'd rather watch those folks on horseback.

3 Comments:

Anonymous said...

vaulting is actually quite a lot of fun.
well, if you consider horseriding fun.
which is used to do as a young girl.
this stacking thing is rather geeky and i don't think that it has a future...

Kentucky said...

Considering the SPELLING BEE is on ESPN every year...cup stacking doesn't really surprise me, and in fact, I'm about 90% sure I've seen in on there before. Makes you wonder what the people who market rugby to ESPN are doing so wrong??

Blondie said...

In fairness, an elementary school here in Madison had kids do cupstacking and they taught the UW Men's hockey team to do it on a field trip, so the hockey guys actually got into it and have little competitions in their locker room before practices and stuff. It's supposed to teach you hand-eye coordination, thinking skills, etc. And the hockey team did just win the NCAA championship last year ... hmmm ...

And as a former 8th grade spelling bee champ :), I get a kick out of the bee on ESPN. Especially the wacky kids with weird ticks.

Kentucky's point about what rugby is doing wrong to promote itself is right on the money though. IMHO.