{"id":8772,"date":"2017-10-27T12:28:58","date_gmt":"2017-10-27T12:28:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=8772"},"modified":"2017-11-20T22:00:04","modified_gmt":"2017-11-20T22:00:04","slug":"swiss-national-sports-hornussen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/swiss-national-sports-hornussen\/","title":{"rendered":"Swiss National Sports: Hornussen"},"content":{"rendered":"

All countries have some sport that has some tradition, or that is extremely popular. The United States, for example, has American football, baseball and basketball. Brazil and Germany have football\/soccer, the British have rugby and cricket, the Canadians ice hockey… But what about the Swiss? There are actually three national sports. And I have never heard of any of them and I am from the adjacent Germany! So, let’s explore what they do down there! Today, we look at\u00a0Hornussen<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Other posts in the series:<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. Schwingen<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

3. Steinstossen<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Isn’t It Just Baseball?<\/h2>\n
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The Hornuss<\/em> set on the Bock<\/em>, about to be hit with the Stecken\u00a0<\/i>(Image by Roland Zumb\u00fchl at Commons.wikimedia.org under license CC BY SA 3.0)<\/p><\/div>\n

Hornussen\u00a0<\/em>is a sport that has some similarities to baseball. There are two teams: one in the field and one at the Bock\u00a0<\/em>(ramp). Like with baseball, one by one, the “batters” at the Bock\u00a0<\/em>use a\u00a0Stecken<\/em>, which looks like a whip with a round wooden block at the tip (called\u00a0Tr\u00e4f<\/em>)\u00a0to hit the\u00a0Nouss\u00a0<\/em>or\u00a0Hornuss<\/em> (puck), which is where the name of the sport comes from. The\u00a0Hornuss\u00a0<\/em>then whizzes through the air at speeds up to 300 km\/h (about 180 mph) and reaches distances of up to 400 meters (about 440 yards). The task of the field team is to stop the\u00a0Hornuss,\u00a0<\/em>called\u00a0Abtun<\/em>. They have big wooden boards called\u00a0Schindel\u00a0<\/em>(or shingles) to do this. The goal is to hit the\u00a0Hornuss\u00a0<\/em>before it lands in the playing field. It really is a team effort: By holding up the Schindel\u00a0<\/i>sideways, the players in the front show players in the back how the\u00a0Hornuss\u00a0<\/em>flies. The\u00a0Schindel\u00a0<\/em>are sometimes also thrown up in the air to hit the\u00a0Hornuss<\/em> – after all, hitting it and stopping it in its\u00a0Flugbahn\u00a0<\/em>(flight path) is all you need to do. If they fail to do so, the batting team gets a\u00a0Nummer\u00a0<\/em>(number).<\/p>\n

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Players during the Abtun<\/em> (catching) of the Hornuss<\/em>. The players in front do the Anzeigen<\/em> (showing) of the Flugbahn<\/em> of the Hornuss<\/em>, so the players in the back know where to stand.<\/p><\/div>\n

Usually, there are two\u00a0Umg\u00e4nge<\/em> (rounds). Each\u00a0Umgang\u00a0<\/em>consists of each player of the batting team batting twice and the teams switching once. So a game can take a while. A game with two\u00a0Umg\u00e4nge\u00a0<\/em>can take 3 to 4 hours!<\/p>\n

This (rather old) video shows you very nicely how the sport works.<\/p>\n