Have you ever played King Of the Hill? Have you ever played king of the hill, but with a 15-foot pole being the “hill”? Have you ever played king of the hill, but with all the above and 300 total people?
What if I told you that there’s an official sport that is exactly what I’ve just described?
Bo Taoshi is an exclusive sport played only by one country in the world, and only the military in this country. Especially after watching some videos of this sport, it’s hard to believe that it’s a real thing…yet at the same time, also after watching a few games, it’s one of the most riveting, heart-thumping sports I’ve seen. You can almost feel the adrenaline that the people playing have. The adrenaline of running full speed ahead at a group of other humans and trying to attack. Maybe the (modern) sport that most closely resembles wartime battle (unless there’s some gladiator or hunger games sport out there still happening).
The sport is played with 150 people on each team. 75 to attack the opposing team’s poll, 75 to protect their own pole. They start out with a full out sprint at the other team that is holding up the pole, and their one goal is to get the other team’s pole down to a 30-degree angle or more. There are of course, as there are with all sports, strategies that each team uses to do this, but the end goal is the same.
So simple, yet so much adrenaline.
Part of me thinks this game is a gross game that no human who regards human life as anything should play…another part of me kind of wants to get 149 of my closet friends together to form the first American Bo-Taoshi team.
Let’s take the Japanese and give them some real competition!