Saturday, May 15, 2010

Basque Sports




A Basque/Spanish word that I have recently learned is "morrosco", which is the definition of a hardy Basque mountain man or woman. The video/photos describes exactly that. Please note, the Basque women can be as or more morroscas as the Basque men can be.
I had ventured out in the rain to catch some live Basque Sports presentations, and quizzically looked on at a few hours of chopping and throwing and diverse weight-lifting activities.
A very common Basque sport is Pelota, or hand-ball, and other more recognized sports in the US that are shared here as well are Rugby, Basketball, and of course, soccer, or fútbol. Here in the Basque country however sports include an asundry variety of activities, such as tree trunk splitting with an ax in minimal chops, chain saw carving/crafting with efficiency, lifting and hitting metal things and hay-stack tossing. I gained that the aim in most of these was strength, efficiency/speed and precision, with strength being a dominant factor. The videos were taken a short walk away from my apartment, in Plaza Urkizu, where the Galician festivities continued on into the weekend.
This young grasshopper is the archetype of morrosco, from a strapping young age of 10 years.

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