What do you get when you cross a very muscular Frisian, a very long pole, and a lot of athletic ability? I know some of you ladies got excited, but I'm sorry, the answer is actually not a very entertaining dance at a male strip club. No, I am actually referring to my new favorite sport: Fierljeppen.Fierljeppen is a Frisian sport in which athletes sprint several meters, do a flying leap off of a dock onto a very long pole, proceed to climb quickly up the pole whilst trying to keep it centered and moving in a forward direction, and then
pushing off of the pole on the the other side of a canal, with distance from the canal being the main objective. Sound easy? Didn't think so...In fact, we learned from talking with people at the event that like most any major sport, kids start training at a very young age. Fierljeppers are considered to be very diverse and all-around athletes, because of the variety of athletic skills they must have, including strength, coordination, and balance.
Although fierljeppen is currently most popular in Friesland, there are also smaller scale competitions all over the world. According to wikipedia, the sport was on the 12th season of the Amazing Race, but there was called ditch-vaulting. This site also told me that the world record is currently 20.76 meters. Impressive! The video below shows one of the best jumps at the competition we went to. I can't remember what his jump was, but as you can see, he was pretty excited about it, so I'm guessing it was pretty far.
Note: Please tilt head slowly and carefully to left to view the video. Please don't hurt yourself. You have been warned.
Picture credits go to Carol Bontekoe, of Bontekoe Tours (Tour Motto: We Hook You Up).
2 comments:
you went and researched fierljeppen? :)
Haha. Yes. Quite extensively in fact. I'm thinking of making it my thesis topic, in fact... The Psychology of Fierljeppen. Sound good? ;)
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