New Sports: Thumb Wrestling and Sepak Takraw

I was flipping through channels this weekend and landed on "the Ocho," or our version of it anyway. What were the sports of the day? Thumb Wrestling and Sepak Takraw:

Sure, we're all seen Thumb Wrestling - with it's regional rules, fouls and stakes. But I've never seen a thumb wrestling ring before. That's right, there's an actual ring for Thumb Wrestling. Two thumbs, ropes, turnbuckles - The whole sha-bang! It was a full tournament - Karate Kid type brackets with logos. 1980's fantastic! At least there was none of that Stallone-with-a-backward-hat, Over the Top chicanery. That's what I always had to deal with in college late night competition.

That was the competition when we couldn't see outside enough for Hacky Sack. Want to turn that up a notch? Let's take Hacky Sack, combine with volleyball and soccer, and add ridiculous gymnastic style athletes. You've got Sepak Takraw - sometimes called "Kick Volleyball". 3 on 3 competition with service, volley, hardcore athletes. Rules are similar to volleyball. Service area delivers to their teammate, soccer ball contact rules apply, three hits per side...wow. I thought the cradle was difficult. I would need about 15 weeks worth of continuous stretching just to be flexible enough to make some of the easy moves these people do. That's why I stick to Web Analytics. I know where my strengths lie.