Woodkopf is a crazy new sport invented in the Czech Republic that’s been gaining quite a lot of national media attention lately. The popular sport involves a pair of opponents wearing two-meter wooden boards on their heads and trying to knock the other’s board down without dropping their own. As strange as it sounds, a rousing match of Woodkopf can be quite exciting to watch.

The wacky sport can be traced back to July of 1992, when it was practiced during a cultural festival of art school graduates in Prague. Woodkopf (which literally translates to ‘wooden head’) is popular partly due to the fact that the game is simple, inexpensive and requires no complex equipment, but also because it never fails to supply a good dose of humor.

Photo: Unie Woodkopf

It is played by both men and women of all ages, and the rules are pretty simple. Both opponents must wear long, thin wooden boards of 200x16x2 cm, weighing between 3 and 4 kilograms. Once the boards are in position, the opponents try to knock each other’s boards off, using only plank-to-plank touches. No body-to-body or plank-to-body touches are allowed. The player who manages to knock down the opponent’s board twice in a row is declared the winner.

Photo: Unie Woodkopf

According to members of the Woodkopf Union, the best players are generally the taller ones. A bald head is also of great advantage, as pointed out by union chief Ivan Rezac.

Veteran Woodkopf players are now striving for the sport to be included in the Olympic Games. They strongly believe that it has a great future. Vladimir Cech, who has been playing for the past seven years, said: “We want it to become our national sport, and a part of Czech culture along with beer, pork, dumplings and cabbage.”

Sources: Unie Woodkopf, Denik, CT24