All About Japan

Creepy, Crawly... Human Caterpillars?

Sports Health

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxpIZpTPv60

Sports are supposed to bring people together, giving a group a common goal to work towards and developing community spirit. Nevertheless, it can be difficult to find sports that everyone can enjoy, with many left out due to physical disabilities. However, the World Yuru Sports Association, which goes by Yuru Sports for short, has developed a game intended to level the playing field for everyone so people with and without disabilities get on the ground and play together.

And we mean get on the ground literally: the name of the game is caterpillar rugby and it’s incredibly accurate!

The game follows rules similar to rugby, but with some specific and major differences. Teams are limited to five players and and no one is allowed to use their legs to move about. Also, players must wear the green-and-yellow caterpillar-like ring suits pictured above. Created by Yumi Sada, a designer who specializes in clothing for people with disabilities, the suits both help keep everyone grounded and prevent bruising to the players’ bodies as they drag themselves around the square playing field by hand. This means that anyone can join, even if they don’t have full use of their legs.

This isn’t the only game that Yuru Sports has developed—their website lists everything from “zombie soccer” to “hand soap ball”! The group, which aims to develop sports for everyone, is still quite young, but they’re growing quickly, with 12 level-playing-field sports listed on their homepage, including the international sensation, bubble soccer.

Though we imagine it will take a while for caterpillar rugby to become a worldwide phenomenon, we can’t help wanting to start our own team. A sport you can play while lying on the floor? That sounds right about our speed!

Read full story: en.rocketnews24.com