Skip to Search Skip to Live Player Skip to Content Skip to Footer

Jade Springart

Jade Springart

Jade Springart

6 Sports I Discovered Thanks To ESPN8 The Ocho

Avatar photo By Jade Springart
(Photo by Mike Windle/Getty Images for ESPN)

It’s that time of the year where there is a major lull in televised sports. Football season is inching closer but there’s still about a month before any of the real action happens. Baseball, America’s pastime, can get a little mundane 100 games into the season, especially when your team is well below .500. (Looking at you, Tigers.)

That’s why when ESPN2 flipped to ESPN The Ocho last Friday, I was intrigued. We all remember the movie ‘Dodgeball’ starring Vince Vaughn, Ben Stiller and Christine Taylor that made ESPN The Ocho famous back in 2004. Well, in 2017, ESPN decided to capitalize on that fame and flipped ESPN2 to ESPN The Ocho for 24 hours. They featured all sorts of wacky sports people take VERY seriously and it clearly worked because they brought it back this year. They actually flipped for the full 24 on Friday, August 5th but as we are in the sports lull right now, they are continuing to air some of these ‘seldom seen sports.’ And that is how I discovered these 6 sports I may take a bigger interest in!

  • 1. FlingGolf

    As an actual golfer, I really wanted to hate this. These guys are out here acting like ‘Happy Gilmore’ and it’s totally acceptable! “How dare they?” I thought! The more I watched, the more intrigued I got and the truth is, I am not a good enough golfer to care that much. Not to mention I have had plenty of ‘Happy Gilmore’ moments on the golf course that Shooter McGavin would shake his head at. And in all honesty, I may be better at FlingGolf than real golf. I might have to try it out!

  • 2. Death Diving

    This one is NOT one I will be partaking in however, watching it was pretty interesting. Death Diving is for people who clearly love a thrill and aren’t afraid to belly flop from 10-14 meters above the water. OUCH! Competitors fling themselves off a platform, perform various stunts, hold poses and hope they tuck and curl before hitting the water. We’ve all done a belly flop. It doesn’t feel good! I will say, these competitors might be crazy, but they’re entertaining to watch!

  • 3. Quadball

    WTF is Quadball, am I right? I had to do some digging after seeing this sport played. What is this? What are they doing? How do you win? I have no answers to any of those questions. I know that they appear to be using rules from rugby, basketball, polo and whatever that competition is where people run around on those stick horses and jump over things. At one point I saw someone throw a ball at someone to get them out of the game. Then another person threw the ball through a ring? I had a high level of confusion and a low level of focus so I didn’t watch for long. I’m willing to give it another try though after watching THIS VIDEO.

    #GuardtheGold🥇

    Posted by USA Quadball on Sunday, July 14, 2019

  • 4. Teqball

    Another one I had never heard of. According to the teqball website, it is ‘a “football” based sport played on a specialty curved table.’ It’s clearly not American because when they use the term football, they mean soccer, NOT American football. That threw me for a loop for a second. Anyway, it really seems like the sport is played with the rules of soccer in regards to how you move the ball, but the scoring is based on ping pong. I would try this sport however, I know that I will be limping my way to the ice bath after. I am NOT that flexible.

  • 5. Stone Skipping

    Yep, stone skipping. The thing we did as kids before the Internet existed. Something I can easily participate in. I didn’t say I’d be good at it, but I can at least participate without injury. Who knew some people take it this seriously though?! I will say, I have never skipped a stone more than 5 times so I would not be able to compete with these athletes!

  • 6. Golden Tee

    I love me some Golden Tee and knew people competed pretty aggressively however, I did not know to this level. That being said, I have heard stories of my friends kicking the machine for one reason or another which is most definitely frowned upon. My Golden Tee game is much better in reality than actual golf but I still can’t compete with these players. I’ll stick to sipping a Miller Lite and aiming for the trick shots, which are the most fun in my opinion!

Sign Up For The WRIF Everything That Rocks Newsletter

Get everything that rocks sent right to your inbox. We're talking rock news, concert updates, stories from all around metro Detroit, plus exclusive contests, games and more.

*
By clicking "Subscribe" I agree to the website's terms of Service and Privacy Policy. I understand I can unsubscribe at any time.
Tags