From Japan to Bruges: hado is the sport of the future

Hado is a kind of dodgeball but in a virtual jacket. Very popular in Japan and soon maybe with us too. Hado is a kind of dodgeball in augmented reality. With special glasses and a device around the wrist, the teams can shoot at each other and score points. The game is very popular in Japan and is now coming to Bruges.

“Worldwide there are already 5 million hado players, especially in the east,” says Hendrik Tratsaert of Sport Vlaanderen in Bruges.

“But there are already world championships and it is also our intention in the long term to actually be able to send a hado team from Belgium to those world championships.”

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“Nice extra in sports world”

But first conquer our country. You play three against three in short games of 80 seconds.

“At first I thought oh only three times eighty seconds, so little. But it’s actually quite intensive because you don’t want to stand still because then you’re too easy a target, you try to move as much as possible and in the meantime pay attention as much as possible to hit the other,” says hado player Greet Smekens.

“Is this the future of sport? I do think that this is part of the future of sport. It is of course important that everyone keeps moving. But I do think that this can be a nice extra within the sports world,” says hado player Ellen DeNil.

Squash field becomes hado arena

Even if you don’t do sports often, you can play hado in the Sport Vlaanderen center in Bruges. For this they have transformed a squash field into a hado arena.

“Gaming is becoming an increasingly important part of youth and their time use. It is also our intention to get those gaming youth out of their seats and to get them to Bruges to get acquainted with sports and innovation here.”