For the most part, we are all familiar with the rules of the game.
In football, if a player drops the ball before they are technically down it is a fumble. In both basketball and soccer, whichever team touches the ball last before it goes out of bounds loses the possession. The fastest swimmer in the pool, who touches the wall first, wins the race.
We all know the important rules of the game, the ones that are in use during every match, game or race. But what we are not as familiar with are the rules for smaller, lesser played games, as well as the rules that don’t often come into play.
Do you know what happens if a baseball gets lodged in an umpire’s mask? Or what happens when someone shatters the backboard of a basket in high school leagues. How about the uniform code for beach volleyball (yes, there is a dress code for a game without much clothing)? Or, get this, the dress code for chess. That one is even weirder.
Some of the rules on this list are designed to protect athletes, just wait until you get to water polo. But most of them have nothing to do with safety, and they aren’t used very often because they are so obscure. Many of them leave you scratching your head and wondering, huh? Why? These rules make no sense and don’t seem to advance the game in any way. But they do exist, for one reason or another. Many of them have to do with dress codes, what you can or cannot wear including your underwear, when you can take clothing off – yes, this is real – and what kind of hats you can wear.
Here they are, some of the most obscure rules in the world of sports:
[post_page_title]Show jumping[/post_page_title]
In show jumping competitions, the horses cannot have any cuts on their legs. This is because some people believe that cutting the legs may motivate the horses to jump higher, and is seen as unfair. In 2012, during the London Olympics, a Canadian showjumping horse named Victor and his rider, Tiffany Foster, were disqualified because Victor had a small cut on the coronary band. After some attempts to protest the decision it was eventually denied.
