Football not doing it for you anymore? Alternative sports break the rules—mixing adrenaline with creativity. Less about scoreboards, more about freedom, they attract those who'd rather scale walls or shred trails than follow whistles and lines. Here’s where to get involved.
Underwater Hockey
Tiller Leisure Centre, islingtonuwh.github.io
Underwater Hockey — also known as Octopush — is exactly as it sounds. There are snorkels, fins, a puck and usually plenty of chaos. The aim is to, with ice-hockey style sticks, get the lead puck in the opponent’s goal. It’s hard work — you can’t breathe at the bottom of the pool, after all — but incredibly good fitness. In Islington, there are sessions every Thursday night, usually followed by a trip to the pub.
Aussie Rules football
Regent’s Park, londonswans.com
Not such a surprise that the Australians took regular soccer and decided it was too soft by half. It is much more, in a word, violent; a contact sport in every sense. But it is also lots of fun — lots of running and leaping and kicking and throwing and tackling. It’s also a big game, with 18 players on each side. London has a few clubs, including the Wandsworth Demons and West London Wildcats. Especially friendly to newcomers are the London Swans, who train every Tuesday and Thursday nights in Regent’s park.
Chessboxing
Islington Boxing Club, chessboxingnation.com
Just as it sounds, chessboxing takes two of the world’s oldest sports and combines them into one. Boxing is intellectual as it is — the best boxers are strategists, not sluggers — but this turns things up a notch, with rounds of chess played between the fighting. The Islington Boxing Club offers training sessions on Saturday mornings, with pay-as-you-go sessions coming in at £18. To win, it’s either checkmate or a knockout.
