Sports

[Elsie Grey]

The Earl has been nagging me for a while to start a new thread so I thought I might as well get it over with!

I was wondering if anyone here participates in a sport and what sport it was?

I'm just wondering 'cos I'm not feeling to great but I really don't want to miss my trainging tomorrow because theres a race in two weeks time and I'm desperate to participate!

Elsie

xxx

 

[TheEarl]

Well this may be a bit obvious for anyone who's ever heard me speak, but.... Rugby. Yes, I know, surprising news.

I also play cricket, football and tennis and I go swimming and do karate. However I'm not doing any of them at the moment, cause I've got too much bloody work!

<grumbles away>

The Earl

 

[Elsie Grey]

You play tennis? Didn't know that!

Elsie

xxx

 

[Colleen Thomas]

I played some sports when younger. Soccer and softball mostly. Ran a bit of track, but that was light years ago. Today I am lucky if I get any exercise other than walking from the computer to the fridge

 

[oggbashan]

All my sport is in the past tense. I tried many things and failed to be more than mediocre.

I have a certificate for coming 3rd in the 100yards at a Boy Scout Regional sports event. I was and am the wrong build for sprinting but I was the right age. The only two others in the 'final' (there were no heats) finished 10 seconds before I did.

I used to row at number 5 in my school's third eight. I played rugby at a school where rugby was a minority sport and finding 15 people who had heard of rugby was difficult. For rugby and rowing my training sessions were 4 nights a week and Sunday mornings. I was fit - just incompetent.

I tried rock climbing - I fell off too often. Mountaineering - ditto. Horse riding - ditto. Motorcycle grass track and scrambling - ditto. Surfing - ditto off the front of waves.

Now I am suffering for an adventurous and incompetent sporting career. Do I regret it? Not really except when I can't do something I'd like to do and probably shouldn't attempt at my age.

Enjoy sport while you can. Be the best you can be and then you can remember the achievements when you are as old and doddery as me.

Og

 

[Elsie Grey]

You don't look that old Oggbashan! I think it's cool you rowed!

Sorry, I've only just realised I neglected to mention my sport! I'm a novice rower. I row any number in a four or and 8 (prefer to be stroke, but bow or 7 can be cool) and I am working my way up to a racing scull. I'm currently one boat below (it's a nasty heavy wooden clinker) but I want to race sooo badly! Theres a Head to Head coming up soon so hopefully I'll be put in crew for that. I hated sport at school and I only got into rowing by accident, but I love it now!

Elsie

xxx

 

[TheEarl]

You play tennis? Didn't know that!

Elsie

xxx

Not brilliantly but I play. Rugby's the only sport in which I have any real talent. I'm average to poor in most of the others which I mentioned, but I love doing them, so anyone who wants a quick game of.... well, just about anything, I'm in.

I know exactly why Elsie joined rowing .

The Earl

 

[Elsie Grey]

Care to share?

Elsie

xxx

 

[Alex De Kok]

I'm very non-sporting. Back in school days (all-boy grammar school) our class size was about 25. Sports period comes along, two soccer teams = 22. Guess who was inevitably one of the three left over! I took to cycling, touring rather than racing, and commuted by bicycle until a couple of years before my bypass in 2000. Convalescent, I was urged to use the gym and did for a while but I'm solitary by inclination so got my wife to get me a rowing machine for exercise. I think if I had my life again I'd be tempted to try rowing proper, in a boat! I enjoy walking, but am waiting to see a foot specialist because of a problem so don't do as much as I'd like.

Alex

 

[Elsie Grey]

If you can use a rowing machine proficiently theres indoor rowing competitions. There held in Birmingham I think.

Elsie

xxx

 

[R. Richard]

I wouldn't call it a sport, but I work out in a gym each day unless I play another sport. The most frequent sport I participate in is kung-fu. Again, I would not call the kung-fu I do a sport, the people I work with are not playing.

 

[oggbashan]

As a child I can't remember when I couldn't row. I have lived by or close to the sea for most of my life.

In Australia I trained at Palm Beach (north of Sydney) and qualified as crew on a surf lifeboat. That sort of rowing is scary for novices.

At school in Melbourne we used to train on the Yarra, the river renowned for flowing upside down with the mud on the top. It isn't true. It is even muddier below the surface. My eight competed in very few races but we distinguished ourselves by sinking in Williamstown just by one of the Antarctic exploration ships, the Magga Dan. They launched a boat to rescue us and our shell.

Rowing at one position for some time gives you asymetric muscles. Unless you are going to be part of an Olympic crew it is a good idea to swap positions.

Og the former oarsman

 

[Guest]

I love swimming and playing tennis, however I haven't done either for about a year. One thing I do do is go to karate every week. Not really a sport, as such, but as R. Richard said about kung-fu, karate is not to be taken lightly. My Sensai said he'd get me to black belt within three years. Glad he thinks so.

 

[Elsie Grey]

Come Feburary I'll have been rowing for a year or so. My friend and I got into rowing by accident, we were looking for a different sport entirely, despite what the Earl will try and tell you! I can't imagine given up now though, and my weekends (and most of my week nights!) are devoted to rowing in one way or another.

Thikn I'm a little old to qualify for any olympic teams now! I'd like to race as a sculler or as a stroke for a four or a quad.

I've been quite lucky so far,not fallen in or anything yet! Only time I really thought I was in trouble was when we were out in a double and an 8 came straight at us. The cox didn't see us and it was lucky the bowman heard me scream and pulled his oar in else I would have been whacked really hard. As it was, we only narrowly avoided a crash!

Elsie

xxx

 

[Belegon]

not much anymore, just time issues really. more of a coach for my young 'uns than a player.

Big time when younger though. Played basketball and baseball in college and played baseball for a little bit after. Continued to play basketball a couple times a week into my thirties, played in indoor soccor leagues, did lots of different sports just for recreation, willing to try almost anything.

Had a chance to play soccer at a clinic with Brandi Chastain a few years back. Asked her to take a penalty shot and not hold back. Guessed right and still never had a chance in hell of stopping it. Her shirt stayed on though

 

[scheherazade_79]

I guess I'm like most people in that I used to do a fair bit in my younger days - netball, hockey, tennis, athletics, football - but now I'm older I've grown lazy. I did join a kick-boxing class the other day, and I'm hoping to make that a regular thing. I'd also like to row, but the nearest I'm ever likely to get to it is a rowing machine...

 

[Vincent E]

Triathlon, but I go slowly because I like to take in the view.

 

[LadyJeanne]

I used to run, did lots of 5Ks. These days it's mostly yoga and belly dancing - not technically a sport, but so much fun.

 

[Elsie Grey]

Sounds very cool!

Elsie

xxx

 

[LadyJeanne]

Belly dancing is quite sensual. It's amazing how sexy you feel when you watch yourself in the mirror - the languorous movements of your hips and stomach is almost mesmerizing. It gave me a new appreciation for all the things my body can do.

Not to mention, it makes for some very interesting party conversation.

 

[Joe Wordsworth]

Did football for years, MLB at 6'6" and 248... got out of that when I started college and focused more on boxing. That's been seven years, now, and I'm still at it. I half-heartedly tried MMA, but couldn't unlearn the boxing enough to be gifted at it. And, I play a little basketball with friends on weekends.

 

[R. Richard]

I love swimming and playing tennis, however I haven't done either for about a year. One thing I do do is go to karate every week. Not really a sport, as such, but as R. Richard said about kung-fu, karate is not to be taken lightly. My Sensai said he'd get me to black belt within three years. Glad he thinks so.

Black belt in three years is a reasonable goal and it sounds as if you have a good sensei. If someone tells you that you can get to black belt in three weeks or three months, run do not walk to the door!

 

[Liar]

Noting too athletic these days, I'm afraid.

I compete in sailing in the summers, and I play a good enough hand of poker to skin the occational pro.