ODD SPORTS

Hello ladies and gents this is the viking telling you that today we are talking about

Fierljeppen

Fierljeppen (West-Frisian compound of fier—"far" and ljeppen—"leaping") or polsstokverspringen is a traditional sport of the West Frisian people in the Dutch province of Friesland. The sport is nowadays also popular in the province of Utrecht which produced record holder Jaco de Groot.

The sport involves a long pole and a body of water. The pole is between 8 and 13 metres (26 and 43 ft) long and has a flat round plate at the bottom to prevent it from sinking into the muddy river or canal bottom.

A jump consists of a sprint to the pole (polsstok), jumping and grabbing it, then climbing to the top of the pole while trying to control its forward and lateral movements over a body of water, and finishing by landing on a sand bed opposite to the starting point.

Due to considerable parts of the Netherlands being under sea-level, it has many waterways. Fierljeppen originated as a way for Frisian people to get around the waterways easily. Over time it turned into a competition with the first official match in 1771 but the sport was not properly structured until 1957.

The sport is believed to have originated with farmers who used poles to leap over small water drainage channels to access different plots of land. In the German region of East Frisia this sport is known as Pultstockspringen. Today the sport is primarily practiced for fun or to entertain tourists, but there still is an official annual National Fierljepping Manifestation (NFM) in the Netherlands, and championships are contested in six leagues and numerous clubs.

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