It takes all sports: The best of the UAE's alternative fitness scene
It’s sport, gym, just not as we know it…
If you find fault with padel, if football isn’t one of your life goals, and the very idea of HIIT makes you cross(fit), it might just be that you haven’t found the right sport for you. Thankfully the UAE is home to an incredible range of unconventional fitness activities. Join us as we do a lap of Dubai’s wildest sporting action…
Roller derby
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Get your skates on, it’s jam time. Roller derby, as a sport emerged from Chicago in the 1930s – it’s a high-energy, race-based contact sport that’s made significantly more complicated by the fact it’s all done on skates. Two teams take turns to field a jammer, who must complete tours around a skating circuit, scoring points for each player from the opposing team that’s lapped. The job of the other four skaters on the jammer’s team, is to interrupt the opposition. Physically. There are rules around what sort of contact is allowed of course, and today it’s a well regulated sport so it’s as safe as skate jostling is ever going to be. If you fancy giving it a go, UAE Roller Derby organises ladies’ meets and competitions in both Dubai and Abu Dhabi (Sunday and Tuesday). They’re even representing the UAE in the Roller Derby World Championships next July – for the first time ever. If you’re interested, just drop them a DM on the Instagram account below.
Sandboarding
We know you can snowboard in Ski Dubai, which is cool, but sandboarding just seems to go with the grain of UAE culture. And whilst the thrill potential is high, the barriers to entry are low – you just need a board (available in local retailers from Dhs200), some wax and a sand dune, which you can find *gestures broadly around*. If you’d prefer to open your sand shredding account with a bit more structure, there’s a bucket load of desert tours that offer guided descents down the region’s powdery peaks.
Teqball
Conceived in Hungary in 2014, teqball is the resultant offspring from the shotgun marriage of football and ping pong. Players meet across a curved table to deflect a ball with whichever part of their body is most immediately convenient (except their arms/hands). Its advocates point to its fast pace and technical complexity as reasons why it’s one of the fastest growing sports on the world stage. If you fancy giving it a go for yourself you can rent a table at Dubai Sports World (Dhs25, Dubai WTC), but you’ll need to be quick, it shuts up shop on September 5. Alternatively, there are a growing number of multi-sport hubs in Dubai and Abu Dhabi that offer dedicated teqball table rental.
Ultimate frisbee
Barbecue backhand, clam, doink, scoober – nope, these aren’t the latest entries into the Gen Alpha lexicon of impenetrable slang – these are terms used in the fabled art of disc chucking. Ultimate frisbee, now often referred to as just ‘ultimate’, spun out of the American counterculture of the 1960s and has steadily grown in popularity to the point that it’s now being considered for inclusion in the 2028 Olympic Games. There are several ultimate clubs operating in the UAE including Tika Taka, Junkies (Zabeel Park), AFT and Dubai Stackers (JVC) as well as annual tournaments and championship games.
Dodgeball
According to the movie of the same name “if you’re going to become true dodgeballers, then you’ve got to learn the five d’s of dodgeball: dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge”. Sage words, but your first task as a prospective baller should be finding a place, and a team to doge with. Fortunately for us, Dubai marks a strong entry as the sixth d – with opportunities to throw and be thrown at across the city. Jump Boxx (from Dhs79, Mirdiff) and Bounce (from Dhs90, Festival City, Al Quoz) up the difficulty quotient by adding trampolines into the equation.
Parkour
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Located just a few hops, kick-flips and jumps away from Kite Beach – XDubai has long been a half-pipe haven for the UAE’s skatewardly mobile. But they’ve recently expanded their offering to cater to parkour life. Traceurs can explore the Path of Discovery (Dhs75), challenging themselves on the parkour loop, scaling new heights at the 20-foot climbing tower, or conquering the bouldering area safely with soft-fall.
Images: Getty/Unsplash
