Have you ever heard of lacrosse, figure skating, and karate? I am sure you have, but how much do you actually know about these sports? There are so many detailed and different things about these sports that you don’t know.

Did you know Native Americans invented lacrosse? It is a mash of soccer hockey and football. It uses similar equipment as well; like cleats, shoulder pads and gloves. Players also use a lacrosse stick which has a pocket at the end and that is how they pass the ball. There can be up to 10 people for each team on the field at a time. It is a very physical sport.

Ice-skating and more specifically figure skating was invented by the Dutch. It is a very elegant and detailed sport. It is very much a performance sport. It takes a lot of practice from a fairly young age. It starts with one footed skating, swizzles, crossover skating and all of that back wards. You then move on to basic jumps. The biggest achievement is getting to and perfecting an axel. Performances are judged by Technique, Skills, Flexibility, Appearance, Jumps and Spins, and how well your performance matches with the music.

Northtown student Emma Perry skates at Kansas City Ice Center, and when asked what she likes about skating she said, “I like that its an individual sport. You don’t have to rely on everyone else. You rely on yourself.” This picture is of Emma practicing at the KC Ice Center.

Skating takes agility and balance and so does karate. Karate is a very technical sport as well. It was invented by the Japanese. In karate there are 3 types of basic kicks front, round kick, and sidekick. There are also 3 kinds of stances; front, back, and middle. There are also a few different kinds of weapons used to practice such as, nun chucks, sword, staffs, and also boards. There are 11 different color belts, in order from lowest to highest rank they are: White, Orange, Yellow, Camo, Green, Purple, Blue, Brown, Red, Recommended Black, and Black. Within the black belt there are 10 ranks. Every colored belt has a black stripe in the middle of it.

Blue belt Zachary Lynn is a student at Northtown. When asked about why he does karate he said, “I do karate because it’s fun and it shows me what I’m really capable of.”

All of theses sports are interesting and different. They may not be popular but people still do and enjoy them. Maybe you learned something new. Then again, maybe you already knew all of this.