Wacky they may be, but unicycle hockey and bubble football are fun ways to exercise

Making it through a game of unicycle hockey is an achievement in itself. Staying on is only part of the story. You also need to coordinate with your four teammates, hit a tennis ball with a hockey stick and try and score. And you have roughly half an hour to do that.

Chan Koon-sing, a 20-year-old who has been playing unicycle hockey for 11 years, says anyone can learn to unicycle in around two to three months, but they have to keep practising.

Usually unicycles don't come with brakes, though some models do. It takes some perseverance; Chan says quite a number of newcomers, including some of his friends, tried it and gave up. "They don't really stick around. They come a few times, pose for pictures and leave."

There's not as much physical contact as in ice hockey, though unicycle hockey players zip around the rink at similar speeds. The rules are simple: you don't raise your stick too high (to avoid hitting someone on the head), and you can't jam your stick into someone else's wheel. The group in Hong Kong plays for fun every Friday evening starting at 8pm at the YMCA King's Park Centenary Centre in Jordan, and after the first match, they are all soaked in sweat.