Donderdag 13 augustus 2009

9e jaargang, nr. 41

Visiting groups:

 

261 scout troop

Birmingham

 

Maidenhead District Scouts

 

 

Staff:

 

Olga & Nanning

 

 

Todays summerstaff dinertip:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In todays paper:

 

The weather

Polejumping

 

 

 

 

Polejumping

 

One of the activities you could do at the Scout Centre is polejumping. Maybe you’re wundering what is polejumping. We’ll try to explane it to you.

 

Polejumping is also called Fierljeppen. Fierljeppen is a traditional sport of the Frisians (Friesland is a county of the Netherlands) and of the Dutch. Ljeppen is West Frisian for "to leap". It is a fine example of the close relationship between the Frisian and English languages.

 

Description

The sport involves a long pole and a body of water. The pole is between 8 and 13 m long and has a flat round plate at the bottom to prevent it from sinking into the muddy river or canal bottom.

A jump consists of a sprint to the pole (polsstok), jumping and grabbing it, then climbing to the top of the pole while trying to control its forward and lateral movements over a body of water, and finishing by landing on a sand bed opposite to the starting point.

History

The sport is believed to have originated with farmers who used poles to leap over small water drainage channels to access different plots of land. In East Frisia this sport is known as Pultstock-Jumping. Today the sport is primarily practiced for fun or to entertain tourists, but there still is an official annual National Fierljepping Manifestation (NFM) in the Netherlands, and championships are contested in six leagues and numerous clubs.

 

Fierljeppen throughout the World

International tourists who have visited Friesland and who have observed this sport have helped to spread its popularity throughout the globe. Competitions in other locales now take place, albeit at a less competitive level due to smaller numbers of athletes and the lack of suitable locations.

 

Fierljeppen at the Scout Centre

At the Scout Centre we don’t have the long poles. We use practicepoles, shorter then the competitionpoles. They have a length of 3.75 meters. We jump across small waters. In fryslan we used these poles when we are searching birds-eggs  It saves a lot of walking if you can jump over the water.

 

If you want to try Fierljeppen ask the summerstaff for more information.They will help you on your way.