We all love our sports whether this is indoors or outdoors and for many different reasons for me i have to say i love the outdoor sports such as rugby and Football but indoor sports are becoming just as popular in the UK due to the weather the country has. Indoor sports allows you to take part in activities without having to be in t-shirt and shorts outside on them cold bitterly days.

I think the most popular indoor sport would depend on what country you live in as if you lived in America this would be Basket ball where as in the UK this could still be football although squash and badminton would be high up there.

As so many of you would have been aware and seen on television we are well into the winter Olympics which is being held in Vancouver this time round the games have seen their ups and downs with at the start a male athlete died in practice on the luge track

However we have also seen many highs with Amy Williams making British Olympic history in the bob skeleton taking gold in the event. And As for the indoor sports the Mens British team take to the ice today in the mens Curling Final which is set to hopefully finish with a great ending got British team.

We are all familiar with common pub games such as Dominos, Pool and Darts there are a wealth of different pub games that are not so well known but are played at a competitive level.  You can even win  trophies if you are good enough.

Bagatelle. This game is like billiards and is played on a long table with a semi-circular end with nine holes. The object of the game is to get a number of ball past pins into holes.

Skittles – also known as nine pins. In this game players take turns to throw a wooden ball along a lane in an attempt to knock over wooden pins. The well known ten pin bowling is thought to be based upon the skittles game. The space required to play nine pin skittles lead to the creation of the game table skittles, in which the ball is attached to a chain and swung at the pins to knock them over.

Shovge Ha’penny – this game is played on a board and involves the players pushing coins with the heel of the hand to send the coin sliding  along the board. The board has parallel lines that are spaced by about the coin’s width. The area separated by two lines is known as a bed.  The objective is to shove the coins so that they come to rest in a bed without touching the lines on either side. To win requires that the player gets 3 coins between the same lines.  Like golf, it has its own terminology for achieving these goals. For example if you are able to score three coins in a bed in a single turn it is known as a ’sergent’. Five coins in a single turn is known as a ’sergent major’ or gold watch.

One of the biggest events for all athletes has to be Commonwealth Games after the Olympics of course this year the beautiful City New Delhi, will host the Commonwealth Games 2010.

This will be the first ever time India have hosted the Games and only the second time the events history that it has been held in Asia the first time in Kuala Lumpur in 1998.

The Dates for these games will be from the 3 – 14 October 2010,  and with a population of excess of 14million  i am sure it will be a great spectacle.

Some great events are to take place in this competition and we will be keeping a close eye on the indoor sports such as:

• Badminton,
• Boxing,
• Cycling,
• Gymnastics
• Table Tennis
• Weightlifting
• Wrestling.

The countdown has already begun to the 13th IAAF World Indoor Championships, Doha, Qatar being held on March 12-14, 2010. This will be a big event for many of the athletes who will be hoping to make a statement ahead of Olympics.

The indoor event will see over well over 10 countries competing against each other for gold in some of the best indoor event such as:

• 60m
• 400m
• 60m hurdles
• High Jump
• Shot Put

The championships is always an indoor event to watch and this year is sure to bring some drama, controversy, personal best and may be even world records.

Sunday just gone seen the Aviva International Match held in Glasgow. This in door Athletic meet was a great warm up form many athletes coming back from injury and getting back to form before the championships start.

The star of the show had to be Jessica Ennis who started 2010 with a bang setting a new British 60m hurdles record, recording 7.95 seconds, carving 0.18 secs off her previous personal best.

Ennis, who has only recently turned 24 also set a new personal best of 1.94m in the high jump showing us that she is defiantly one to watch this year as she hopes to take gold in everything.

One of few indoor water sports, water polo Is another ball based sport. The idea of the game is to navigate the ball throughout the ‘pitch’ by throwing it to various team members, and then throwing it into the opposing team’s net, which in turn gains a point.

Kind of like football, water polo features defenders, attackers and a goalkeeper. Whilst playing, a player cannot swim with the ball, but rather swim into position to receive the ball (nor can a player swim underwater with the ball). This game is often played in leisure centres as the direction of wind wont have an effect on the ball, or the players.

The aim of this sport is to beat the other team by a larger score margin. This can be accomplished by working in a team to score goals, which are technically points. 5 a side football is very similar to the sport football, however, there are several different rules. For example, as in the name, there are only five players compared to eleven, secondly, a player may not hit a ball over head height or score a goal in the ‘D’ of the goal. Since it is an indoor sport, the ball is more than likely to rebound of a wall due to a player’s direction of the ball.

Badminton is a racket sport. The sport involves either a one-on-one match or teams of two-v-two wherein the player has to hit a shuttlecock over a net into their fellow competitor’s side. To begin the game, a player must serve (which means hitting the shuttlecock to the counter-player’s side) and the server changes after each round.

If the shuttlecock is hit outside of the opposing player’s ‘W’ shaped area, then the serve or shot doesn’t gain a point as it is outside the playing area. Badminton rackets aren’t too different compared to tennis rackets, the difference being is that the badminton rackets are a lot slimmer, allowing lighter hits to the shuttlecock.

Indoor basketball, as in its name is an indoor sport which is based on a court with two opposing nets. The nets are held by a pole so that a player may ‘throw’ the ball from a certain area within the court into the net, by doing so, that earns the team points. Whilst in game, a player cannot run with the ball, unless they bounce it directly against the floor.

There are usually five players in basketball though the game is also played socially and can be played with the simple number of just two people at a time!