Guangxi, China

This sport was invented in 1500s, during Ming Dynasty. It was originally used to train soldiers to improve their cooperation in Guangxi. Then it becomes popular around other parts of China as an entertainment activity.

This sport usually covers several pairs of wooden shoes/long ski boards. Each pair of wooden shoes is 100 cm in length, 9 cm in width and 3 cm in thickness. It has velcro or nylon tapes for fastening athletes’ feet on it.

Wooden Shoe Racing is usually played in three forms: speed contest / Relay Race/obstacle race

Rules:

(For Speed Contest)
1. Speed Contest is usually played in a stadium. It uses normal athletic track.
2. Three players form a team and get ready for race.
3. On “Ready, set, go” mark, athletes must compete a distance of racing(60m or 100m)as fast as possible.
4. The first team crossing finishing line wins.
5. If the team falls down or their feet leave wooden shoes during the race, they must stop and make their feet attach to nylon tapes on wooden shoes again. Only then could they complete the rest of the race.
6. They must keep in their own race track during the race.
7. False start, running on other teams’ track or someone’s feet without keeping touching wooden shoes during race will cause an invalid result.

(For Relay Race)
Rules similar to speed race, but distance of race is longer(200 m) and each team usually has two or groups for relay race.

(For obstacle race)
Rules similar to speed race, but more interesting because players have to finish several tasks while they are running on wooden shoes. For example, bypassing cones or stepping over balloons, etc.

Practiced sport. It is also a formal event of Traditional Sports Games For Ethnic Groups in China.

It improves cooperation, agility and determination of players.