Well, hello and welcome to this English lesson about indoor sports.
Indoor sports are very popular in my country in the winter because it's really really cold outside.
We do have outdoor winter sports as well, but many people will play some kind of indoor sport through the winter months.
Late fall winter and into the spring.
So, in this English lesson, we'll talk about some indoor sports.
And I should mention that this is a very North American type lesson.
I think half to three quarters of the sports are universally played around the world.
But some of these sports might be unique to Canada and the United States.
We'll have to see as we go along.
So once again, welcome to this English lesson about indoor sports.
I hope that you enjoy it.
Badminton.
So if you say this word quickly, you don't really hear the N.
Some people say badminton, but I say badminton.
I pronounce the N and both ways are correct.
I think the faster way is just informal but badminton is a game played with a racket.
Also spelled racket.
Two different spellings.
In Canada, we use the first spelling.
A birdie.
That's the little thing that gets hit back and forth and then there's a net and you play on a court.
I just want to let you know that in this lesson this is more than just one vocabulary word.
In every description I tried to put some of the equipment and the name of the place where that sport is played.
So badminton, a game played with a racket, also called a racket, a birdie and a net on a court.
So I there's another name for birdie, but because I'm a high school teacher, we don't use it because the second part of the word um, teenagers giggle, because it references a body part and it's the shuttlecock.
So we don't often use that word in high schools because it just leads to students laughing and giggling.
But we call it a birdie.
But it does have another name, and that name is shuttlecock.
So badminton a game played with a racket also spelled racket if you're in North America.
Uh birdie and a net on a court.
Oh and you can also play singles and One person versus one person or doubles.
Two people versus two people.
Badminton.
Lots of fun.
I like to play badminton a little bit in the winter.
Table tennis.
A game played on a special table with a paddle and a ball also called ping pong.
This is a very popular sport where I live.
Most people have a ping pong table.
I guess if you use the word table tennis, do you call it a table tennis table? probably do.
We call it ping pong.
That is the common name.
The formal correct name though, is table tennis, but we have a ping pong table upstairs in our barn, and our kids sometimes play ping pong on that table.
So, you play on a special table.
You have a paddle and a small ping pong ball and the game is called table tennis or ping pong.
This is a popular sport in the winter because it's not expensive.
You can play it at home.
Like you can buy a good ping pong table and paddles for less than a couple hundred dollars.
Used maybe even less.
In fact, you could probably get one for free if you know someone who's getting rid of one.
But table tennis, a game played on a special table with a paddle and a ball, also called ping pong.
And it also has a net, by the way.
And you can play singles and doubles as well.
Although it's a little crowded when you play 2v2.
Boxing, the sport of fighting with fists while wearing boxing gloves in a boxing ring.
So even though the place where you fight is square, we still call it a ring, because technically in English ring refers to something round, right?
Like I have my wedding ring, but you fight in a boxing ring.
And I should mention what makes all of these things sports.
So something is a sport when you do it competitively against other people, when there is scoring in some way and when there are rules.
So when you have something where it's a physical activity i should have mentioned that where you compete and there are rules, we call it a sport.
So boxing, the sport of fighting with the fists while wearing boxing gloves in a boxing ring.
You can also see there are other two other pieces of equipment.
They have protective headgear.
So what they are wearing on their head we would call headgear And they are also wearing I would assume they both have a mouth guard in their mouth to protect their mouth and their teeth.
So boxing, sport of fighting with the fists.
So this is a hand, this is a fist.
It's the same thing, right?
But as soon as I do that, it's a fist.
I feel like I have like angel hands or something when I'm in the sun, like, oh.
Anyways, I'm getting off track here.
Let's get to the next slide.
Indoor soccer.
So you might be wondering, what's the difference between indoor soccer and regular soccer?
Well, a couple of things.
Indoor soccer is the sport of football or soccer played indoors.
And in Canada, you probably call it football.
We call the game soccer.
And when you play it in the winter inside, we do call it indoor soccer.
So a conversation might go like this.
Are you playing indoor soccer this year?
Yes, I joined a league in Hamilton.
I'm going to be playing on Tuesday nights. that's cool.
I'm so glad we have indoor soccer leagues in our area.
So, indoor soccer, what you might call football, the sport of football or soccer played indoors.
Often the pitch or the field that you play on is a bit smaller depending on where you play, because it's quite expensive to build a building big enough to have a regulation size field.
So, but yes, indoor soccer Many, many people that I know play indoor soccer in the winter in Canada.
It is very, very common.
Basketball, volleyball.
These are two very common indoor sports.
Of course, many of these I should mention you can play indoors or outdoors.
Basketball is very commonly played when it's a competition indoors.
So it's 5v5.
When I say V, I mean versus.
In English, we often shorten the word versus.
But basketball is a sport played on a court with a basketball and nets.
So you have two teams of five.
They take the ball up and down the court.
When you bounce the ball, it's called dribbling.
And then you shoot the ball and you try to score by getting it in the net.
So basketball, a sport played on a court with a basketball and nets at each end.
A fun indoor sport.
And then volleyball.
A sport played on a court with a volleyball and a net.
So this net is different.
In basketball, the net is round and you try to shoot the ball in the net.
With volleyball, it's similar to tennis or table tennis where you have a net or badminton.
With volleyball the net is quite high and then you try to hit the ball back and forth.
It lands on the ground on the other side.
It is a point.
So volleyball a sport played on a court with a volleyball and a net.
Notice when you play basketball the name of the ball is basketball.
And when you play volleyball the name of the ball is it's a volleyball.
Um so you use that specific ball for that specific game.
Dodgeball.
I'm not sure if you are familiar with this sport.
Dodgeball is an interesting sport.
It's quite often played in children, but you can also play it in a league as an adult, and dodgeball is a sport where players try to hit each other with a ball.
That's called a dodgeball.
Uh, so you.
In English, when you dodge, it means you try to get out of the way, so if you throw something at me and I move, that's the verb to dodge.
So we have a game called dodgeball and I think it's played around the world.
Two teams, a number of balls and you literally just throw the ball and try to hit someone on the other team and then they're out.
They can't play anymore for that round.
So dodgeball, a sport where players try to hit each other with a dodgeball.
I think there's even a movie with Ben Stiller called Dodgeball.
I think so.
I haven't watched it so I can't recommend it but dodgeball. fun sport where players try to hit each other with a dodge ball and I'll also teach you the verb to whip you can use the verb to whip to talk about throwing something really quickly so you can whip a ball at someone which simply means to throw the ball really really hard at them bowling the sport that inspired this lesson a game played at a bowling alley on a lane with a bowling ball and pins So let me explain that a little bit.
The building is called a bowling alley.
So you go to a bowling alley if you want to bowl.
That's the verb.
They will have a number of lanes or bowling.
Yes, a number of bowling lanes.
And then at the end, there will either be five or ten pins.
Ten is very, very common in the United States.
Canada, we have five pin bowling and ten pin bowling.
So, the pins are the little white things at the end of the lane.
Uh and five pin bowling, the ball is actually smaller.
So, you take turns.
You throw the ball two or three times, depending on which game you're playing, and you try to knock down the pins.
This is a very popular sport here in Canada.
If you want to go bowling, especially in the winter.
You is very hard to book or reserve a lane at the bowling alley.
Very very challenging.
So bowling.
A game played at a bowling alley on a lane with a bowling ball and pins.
So you roll the ball.
You try to knock down the pins.
Cornhole.
You may never have seen this before.
This is a relatively new game in North America.
It's been around for a little over 10 years.
Um maybe longer but I saw it for the first time about 10 years ago.
And you have two of these wooden sloped targets with a hole in it and you put them about 10 or 15 meters apart.
I'm not sure what the regulation distance is and then you throw bean bags.
You alternate throwing bean bags to try to get them in the hole or close to the hole.
You will see this game in the summer at most family reunions or when, like a family gets together for a barbecue.
Most likely someone will have the game of cornhole and you will play it, and now there are indoor cornhole leagues in the winter here in Canada.
So, you can sign up to play cornhole at night competitively with other people.
So, cornhole, a sport played with beanbags and a sloped target with a hole.
Curling. game played on a sheet of ice by sliding stones.
Now, they're not really like stones.
I think hundreds of years ago it probably was an actual stone, but there are a few things that you need for curling.
You need a sheet of ice.
There is, I guess, what you would call a target at each end, or the area where you're trying to get the stone, and you will slide the very heavy stone, and then I think there's two types of brushes.
Um one will if you brush quickly and it changes the ice.
I don't know if it melts it a little bit.
So, you can kind of make the rock curve slightly.
So, and then, I don't know if you've ever gone curling.
You have one shoe that slides and one shoe that has grip.
If you're wondering how they move down the ice, that's how they do it.
They have, well, not necessarily shoes.
I think there's something you put on your shoe and one will slide and one has grip.
So, curling.
Pretty fun game.
I've definitely gone curling four or five times in my life.
It's pretty fun.
A game played on a sheet of ice by sliding stones to try and get them as close as possible to the center target.
In fact, cornhole is very similar to curling, because instead of sliding a stone, you're throwing a beanbag, but you're still trying to get it as close to the center as possible.
So, I mean, obviously, there's a lot more differences than similarities between those two.
Rock climbing and bouldering.
Let me explain the difference between these two.
In Canada in the last 10 or 20 years there has been an increase in the number of people that like to do rock climbing, which is a climbing sport done at a climbing gym on a climbing wall, with harnesses that's what you wear and ropes.
That's what you connect to the harness.
You can obviously do rock climbing outside as well but it is very common.
I think especially for people in their 20s and 30s right now to be part of a climbing gym, to have a membership at a climbing gym and they go there to do rock climbing.
So, a climbing sport done at a climbing gym on a climbing wall with harnesses and ropes.
Um and you can see this person here.
There's a little rope connected.
If they were to fall, the rope would prevent them from falling all the way, and then they could slowly go back to the ground.
Bouldering is something I only saw for the first time four years ago, and it's a climbing sport on a short climbing wall with no harness and no safety rope.
And the reason there is no harness or safety rope is because if you fall, you land on a soft mat.
The wall isn't very high, it's maybe two or three meters high, at the peak maybe a little more, and if you were to fall, it would be what we call a soft landing.
So again, rock climbing can be done indoors or outdoors and it's done with a harness and ropes and you go a lot higher than you would with bouldering and bouldering also.
By the way, there is a place here where you can do this outdoors.
I should show you in a video sometime.
There are some outdoor rock areas where there's enormous boulders and you can climb on the boulder.
By the way, that's the whole reason it's called bouldering.
A boulder is like a rock that's the size of a a van or a car.
Um but yes, bouldering, a climbing sport on a short climbing wall without harnesses or ropes.
Swimming, the sport of moving through water using your arms and legs to propel yourself.
Um, not everyone is swims as a sport, like it's not like they're racing, but it's pretty common in Canada for people to go and swim laps in a pool indoors in the winter.
So the lane is the area where you stay in when you swim back and forth and then you use your arms and your legs to propel yourself through the water.
Dance.
Now you might think dance isn't a sport.
But I know I have a few students who dance competitively.
So they take dance classes.
Dance is the art of moving rhythmically to a beat, usually at a dance studio.
And you can also dance competitively where you learn certain moves.
You learn to dance in a certain way.
And then you go to a competition where you take turns doing your dance.
And there will be people who judge who did what. dance the best.
So dance the art of moving rhythmically to a beat usually at a dance studio.
You could also say competitive dance is the sport of doing dance at a dance studio against other people who are dancers.
So pretty fun.
I have not taken dance classes.
I have not danced competitive competitively.
Um but I have been known to dance.
Um and I think there's one video where I do a little jig if you look for it.
So, dance.
The art of moving rhythmically to a beat usually at a dance studio.
Fencing.
The sport of fighting with foils, epees or apes or sabers.
Please do not quote me on the pronunciation of ape.
There's two pronunciations in the world and I'm not sure I'm even saying the right one.
But fencing is when two people face each other and they use some type of sword.
There are three types depending on which event you are in and it is basically sword fighting.
You are trying to touch the other person with your sword or tap them with your sword.
So again, this is not a I'm not a professional sports fencing describer, but I think you get the point and you would, of course, wear the correct protective gear if you were to go fencing racquetball.
A racquet sport played with a racquet and a hollow rubber ball on a court.
Squash.
A racquet sport played with a racquet and a hollow rubber ball on a court.
So, a couple differences that I know of.
Racquetball I think is played on a bigger court.
Squash is on a smaller court.
I think the racquetball ball is a little bigger.
Might even be bouncier.
And I think squash it's a little smaller.
Um, but again, I am not an expert, but I do know that there are many people who will go to a gym to play racquetball or to play squash in the winter and sometimes even in the summer.
Um so two very fun sports.
Um, I think when I've played racquetball, I liked it better than tennis, because it's a really fast game and then there's a lot of walls to use.
I think squash has more restrictions about where the ball can hit.
I think you can only hit the front wall, whereas racquetball, I think you can use more than one wall.
But racquetball, a racquet sport played with a racquet and a hollow rubber ball on a court.
And squash, a racquet sport played with a racquet and a hollow rubber ball on a court.
So racquet sports tennis uh badminton squash, racquetball like Any game where you need to buy and use a racket, we would call a racket sport.
Gymnastics, a sport involving exercises that require balance strength flexibility, agility and coordination to perform acrobatic feats.
So, a couple things to unpack in there.
Balance is when you don't fall over.
So, if you stand on one foot on your tippy toes and and you don't fall over.
You have good balance.
Strength is the ability to lift heavy things or your own body.
Flexibility is what I don't have.
If you can touch your toes, you have good flexibility.
Agility is simply the ability to move forwards and backwards and side to side quickly and easily.
Um as people get older, they have less agility.
Uh and coordination is the ability to do know many things in a row.
That would be what coordination is.
Um so gymnastics.
Acrobatic feets.
Feets are like impressive things that people do.
And if I could do any of these things that would be impressive.
By the way I used to be able to do this when I was a teenager.
It's called an L sit I think.
I've never been able to do what that guy is doing on the rings.
And I'm not too gifted at floor routines either.
But gymnastics, a sport where you do acrobatic feats.
Ice hockey, a game played at an arena, on a rink, with players wearing ice skates and using a hockey stick to hit a puck.
So a few things in there.
Hockey is very similar to all of the other sports where there's a net at each end.
Soccer basketball, two teams try to score in, whatever the rules are.
In hockey, you get the puck in the net and you do need to wear ice skates, you do need to wear a helmet, you do wear padding to protect yourself and you do use a hockey stick to hit the puck, which is the small black thing.
A game played at an arena, so the building is called an arena.
The actual ice is called an ice rink.
The players, of course, wear skates helmets gloves, hockey gloves as well, and padding to play the game.
A fun game.
I miss playing ice hockey.
I haven't played it for a while.
I should probably play it again sometime just for fun.
Darts.
An indoor game in which small pointed projectiles with feather or plastic flights are thrown at a circular target.
So, I didn't know how to describe darts.
So, I use the word projectile. projectile is anything that is thrown or shot through the air.
So, an arrow is a projectile.
A bullet is a projectile.
A dart is a projectile and it has a very sharp pointy end and you throw it and it flies straight because it has flights or feathers on the back that allow it to do that.
Um I like playing darts.
It's a fun game to play in the winter uh and it's it's quite enjoyable.
It's a fun game We don't have a dartboard, by the way.
That's what the target is called, a dartboard.
But yes, a fun game.
Pool or billiards.
In my part of Canada, we usually just call it pool.
It's also, there's a variation called snooker as well, where all the balls are red, I think.
But here, the most common thing is to play pool on a pool table with pockets.
That's where the ball goes in and you use a cue stick to strike a cue ball, to knock pool balls into pockets.
So, a little bit of a log description there but quite a fun game to play.
Jen's parents have a pool table.
Often, when we are there, we will play pool with them.
A fun game to play.
Martial arts.
So, I could probably do a whole lesson on martial arts.
But this is self-defense sports such as karate, taekwondo, judo, jujitsu, and more.
I'm sure there's a bunch more that you can put in there.
Martial arts are very, very popular here in the winter.
I'm sure they're popular year round, but I'm sure they're more popular in the winter when it's nice to do something inside.
So this is where you will learn how to fight or how to defend yourself.
I took karate lessons when I was younger for about six months and so I learned how to block.
I learned a little bit about how to punch, but mostly the art, the martial arts, aren't about learning to fight someone as much as learning to defend yourself if you need to.
So, martial arts, self-defense sports such as karate, taekwondo, judo, judo, jujitsu and more.
Sorry, little mispronunciation there on judo.
Um and they are competitive.
Like you can you can compete in these sports and try to win against someone else.
Esports.
Now, this might be controversial for me to throw this in here, because some people don't think esports are actual sports or race car driving um, but esports are multiplayer video games played competitively for spectators.
So if you know about games like League of Legends or or Counter-Strike, or I think they even play, forget what the car.
Isn't there a car soccer game?
What's that game called again?
Maybe one of you knows it in the chat.
But anyways, a team of people will play a computer game, a video game, against other people, and it is called eSports.
Lots of fun.
The E stands for electronic, by the way.
So eSports means electronic sports.
Archery, a shooting sport using a bow, arrow, and a target.
So, this is the sport that I enjoy.
This is the sport I currently can't do but I will start doing again in a few months.
Um, but yes, you knock an arrow onto the drawstring and you pull it and then, when you release the arrow, it flies and hits target.
A lot of fun.
I really really enjoy it and I can't wait to start doing it again.
Archery, a shooting sport using a bow, arrow, and a target.
