Whats the best 'feeling' in sport?

If we’re talk competitive sport, rugby running 2/3 the length of the pitch round/through half dozen players and scoring a try is a pretty good one.

Windsurfing flat out on a tiny slalom board in a force 5/6 on open water. Ideally in the Caribbean or occasionally the Red Sea.
Back off and its over in a second you just have to keep fully powered. If your racing and a buoy is coming up and there are 30 others behind you it all gets a bit interesting as you time your gybe down the swell.

Road cycling/football – when you feel like your lungs are gonna burst, but still making the run/top of the hill.

Football – when you get that telepathy with someone and a move you never considered goes right, also taking the ball off the cocky wee shite/cocky big bastard. Anticipating and intercepting a pass/long ball.

Mountain biking – when you’re floating and carrying the speed through everything, also clearing technical climbs

Kayaking – when you’re arms feel like they’re gonna fall off but still ploughing on, also eskimo roll in white water is one hell of a feeling! (OH MY GOD I’M GOING TO DIE wait I can breathe!)

When participating in MTB then i guess its that feeling of adrenaline;the feeling of pushing yourself and that moment when you regain a smile after losing all sense of humour on a particularly challenging bit!

Being a little more mature and not particularly racey, I like to get involved in organising things for the benefit of others. A little ‘thank you’ is always appreciated and is also a very good feeling!

Oh yeah just re-read it lol

For pure ‘feeling’ it has to be middling a cricket ball with a lofted straight drive and just seeing it go like a tracer bullet back over a bowler’s head.

Which is strange, because I was a bowler, and used to love seeing the stumps go flying, but the actual effortless feel of a ball pinging off the sweet spot of the bat was better.

About 5 times in my life I’ve come off the water and turned round to applaud the sea. I guess those times I was feeling pretty good.

First time you enter the green room. Nothing else has hit the spot!
Big open powder fields on a snowboard gets pretty close.

Is pooing a sport?…..guessed not 🙁

Football -scoring &winning
Cricket -bowling out a gobshite.
Bikes- putting on clean ,dry underwear and clothes after a filthy ride. 🙂

Surfing.. Paddling into some dredging sand bar peak, stand up, free fall, manage to get a rail in, sneak up under the lip, hang on for a 3 or 4 second tube and then get spat out. Have wasted / mis spent the best part of my life chasing waves. I pretty much can’t surf anymore due to wearing out my back paddling a surf board. Reminds me.. I need to start a stricter regime for core strengthening as if my back can’t handle it this summer I’ll be hanging up my wetsuit.

For me it was the wild rush of the speed of my motocross bike years ago but I’ve changed now and it’s definitely the pump and the feeling of invincibility you get after a good training session.

Beating someone on an e-bike up a hill.

Dropping in to Easy Gully on Aonoch Mor last weekend. Never skied it before but heard lots about it. Walk over, stop 5m short so I don’t get psyched out. Tighten my bindings and shuffle across. Look at the landing and think “I’m not convinced I can do that, but I’ll give it a go” Off the cornice, skis bite, flex, turn and I’m in. Then about a mile and a half of pretty much virgin spring snow. Yehaa.

River Styx in New Zealand a few years back. Walked in and scouted the first few hundred yards of Grade 4 rapids. Was very nervous after nearly dying in Norway the year before. Thought I’d scouted all the hard bits but I hadn’t. The river stayed hard for a while and I only knew one of the group I was with. He was urging me to keep up and not get left behind. We ran all the rest read ‘n’run from the boat. It was right at the limit of what I could do. Right on the edge of control, but I nailed the lines and survived. Adrenaline overload to kill for.

Chase boating on the Barhal in NE Turkey. Mate had broken his paddle and swum. We chased his boat for about 2 miles of G4 rapids on a river we knew nothing about apart from the fact that there was a mandatory portage. Took us ages to get his boat to the side, but the feeling of zooming down a river read’n’run knowing that if we don’t get his boat back then it’s the end of his holiday. Feeling in control and knowing that after years of trying you’re no longer the swimmer but the rescuer. Best feeling ever.

That moment on an ice climb when your axe and feet are a bit unstable. Every time you swing your other axes it bounces off rock or breaks the ice. Each swing makes your other three points of contact more shakey. Then eventually thunk, you find a solid placement in perfect ice and pull up on it. You’re not going to die after all.

Rugby or football, scoring or making the perfect tackle, winning as a team, cup matches, the clubhouse after, nothing beats any of those for me, team sports give you feelings solo sports just can’t on the same level.

Or the 5th form/yr11 female house captain’s arse in tight shorts on sports day……. (I was 15, not on the staff)

The timing of a perfect uchi mata. Speed, effortless and the anguished look on your opponents face as they lay on the mat afterwards.

Countered by the feeling of an opponent catching you perfectly. Sometimes you only know once you hit the mat, others you have time to dread the contact.

Powder on a board is a prolonged rush but not as intense.

I like the time immediately after the event, usually sat / slumped there plastered in sweat / mud / vomit, etc., blurred vision, often bleeding & completely destroyed knowing you could not have tried any harder either physically or mentally.

You play ice hockey don’t you?

Ah, classic Arnold. Think he used this in his governor speech.

Winning a really close cricket game that looked way out of reach at one point. Then sitting around the changing rooms sharing a beer with really close mates with loads of banter. Miss it.

Is pooing a sport?…..guessed not

If there’s more than one stall, course it is

Boarding through fresh powder is pretty special. When the sun is setting over Helvellyn and you’re heading down towards Keppel Cove trading lines with one of your best mates on fresh powder, it’s even better.

Cruising up a road climb like it’s not even there is amazing.

Clearing a section on a descent that I’d been struggling with for years gave me a buzz that stayed with me for a good couple of days afterwards:

team sports give you feelings solo sports just can’t on the same level.

Team sports maybe. Team games, not so much. 😈

Essel – Not really for me – not built for contact sports

Powder skiing the steeps on nice fat skis.

Powering along on a road bike at 25+ mph in a big group.

The sound and feeling of a perfect drive.

When a football pops out of the area and you absolutely rattle back at goal and everyone simply doesn’t move before it hits the net!

Pushing your bike uphill and just flying back down, no brakes, no Steve peat skills, just hold on and hope for the best. Not so fun when you crash though!

Another vote for surfing here, you can’t beat the feeling you get when you’re riding a shoulder high green wave.

Flow – being totally immersed in the moment that you forget everything else. Doesn’t matter what sport it is.

Again Flow,

Ie doing something difficult ie just on the edge of your abilities, but actually finding it quite easy/automatic at the time u do it

Also scoring a team goal in footy is good, scoring a team goal that involves flow is even better !

But this is very rare

So I’m rappelling down Mount Vesuvius when suddenly I slip, and I start to fall. Just falling, ahh ahh, I’ll never forget the terror. When suddenly I realize “Holy shit, Hansel, haven’t you been smoking Peyote for six straight days, and couldn’t some of this maybe be in your head?”

And?

And it was. I was totally fine. I’ve never even been to Mount Vesuvius.