What sports do you practise, or have you practised?

Might be fun to know what kind of sports we've tried in our lives. And no, Wii-sports isn't a real sport, nor is bedroom golf.

I've done the following over the years:

Indoor soccer: about 3-4 years. Took part in the university competition. However, we were crap, and we once lost 15-1.

Basketball: Off and on, for several years. I was quite adept at 3-pointers, but that's about the only thing.

Running: I started running around 10 years ago, and I still do run every now and then. I tend to keep the distances short, 10km at most, because my knees don't respond well to the conrete-pounding.

Weightlifting: Did a little bit of this in my university years. Never did manage to bulk up too much, but it was fun anyhow. Chicks in tight outfits huffing and puffing on the treadmill had something to do with it too :yesyes:

Cycling: I have an expensive road bike that I haven't used for a few years. However, when I was still into it, I got out there almost every day. It's a fun sport.

Karate: I practise karate about 3 times a week. Still a beginner, more or less, but I love it. The fun thing about martial arts is that you actually learn to have more control.

When younger I wasn't really into much sport.

Cycling: Before I learnt to drive at 21 I used to cycle everywhere. To work, to the shops, out into the New Forest for the day at weekends. It was definitely great way to keep fit. But once I was driving I stopped cycling pretty much completely.

Then more recently I bought a new mountain bike at the same time as a friend who lives close to me and we started to cycle into the forest, stopping at pubs along the way for some light refreshment. ;) Sadly he has since sold his bike and I've not been on mine for a while now. I went out on it last summer with my girlfriend, and a couple of time alone in the forest but that was all.

But now that the weather has finally changed and it is nice and hot, and summer finally seems to be here, I might go for some rides in the New Forest during this month. It will be good exercise and I can take a camera with me to do some photography at the same time.

Walking: Not sure if you can really class this as a sport, but i like to walk places to see new areas. Also I haven't done much of this in the last few years but want to get back into it. Maybe visit the lake district at some point and do some camping in that area.

Weightlifting: A few years ago I had been working in a design office for a couple of years, sat at a desk for up to 12 hours per day, and I realised I was getting very unfit due to the lack of physical activity. I also realised I was gaining weight so I thought I would do something about it, so took up weight lifting.

I had done some earlier in my life at school so knew the basics. So I purchased a lot of equipment and started to work out a routine and did this daily.

It worked too as a lost a couple of stone in weight over a few months, got much fitter and it really helped my asthma. And I continued to stick with this for a couple of years and it definitely gives you much more energy and you feel better about yourself.

I have however let this slip and haven't really kept to a routine in the last couple of years. But this is about to change as I've decided I really need to get back into it as I used to like weightlifting and the benefits of the extra energy and better lifestyle it gives you in return for the effort. It also all but stopped my asthma, which has got a bit worse in the last few years again, so getting back into it should help that too.

10-pin bowling: I used to play this every week for a few years and was a member of my school team. We never entered any big competitions but it was great fun and I usually managed to get some good scores. It has become quite expensive to hire a lane these days though so I've not been for a while. I do used to love this though so might start going more often once the hot weather is over.

Archery: I've owned a couple of traditional long bows for many years. I think I got my first at around 10 years old, and have always enjoyed it. I've not done any for a few years now. But thinking about it I should. I still have the bows, I just need to buy some new arrows and targets.

I've also wanted to get a crossbow for years too, but they are much harder to buy these days due to law changes. Also one of the professional long bows would be cool too.

Badminton: I used to play this at school and really enjoyed it. I loved Tennis too but was no good at it, finding the sport a little too fast for me. But badminton was fun. I've not played this since school though.

Ok I will try to do this in some kind of order....

1. Soccer: Played this from when I was ten through to 16. Lots of running and I almost made the state side, but I was too old :lol: I played Sweeper, but most of the time I became a striker and would have it pretty good because I was fast. Take the ball from one guy and because his entire team was up I would run the entire field. I scored about five goals like this. But my favourite goal was when the ball was rolling (fast I might add) at me and I just took a shot. I was right on our penalty spot and it sailed all the way down the other end and hit the goalkeeper in the head and went in ! :o was the most amazing feeling ever!

2. Athletics: Have been doing this since I was about seven years old. I was an all rounder, competed in: 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1600m (I think that was the distance or 1200 m, whatever my school did) Hurdles, Relay, Long Jump, High Jump, Shot put, discuss, javelin, triple jump...yea I think that was it. :D I was a 100, 200 and Hurdles champ, I still have records at both of my school :) I was ok at High Jump, but I dropped this later on because I wasn't that good at it. I made it to State for 100m, 200m and the relay team. I got blitzed in both 100 and 200m but our relay team kicked ass! We won by a whole leg! Was awesome!

3. Tennis: Played this for about seven years. I was ok, not too outstanding, but with training I could have been ok. I trained twice a week with games on the weekend. I went away with the team from the state's schools and we stayed in Burra and played the country kids. We were pretty evenly matched, but we had to play in 42 degree heat (in Celsius) so it was really bad. I dropped it after my final year of primary school.

4. Cricket: Played this for three years. Was an opening batsmen for the side and scored three fifties and almost a century. I was also a swing bowler. My favourite part of the game was actually fielding, either at square leg or the slips. I have four great memories from cricket.
1. We were playing on a smallish ground and this guy came in and tried to bowl me a slower ball..I walked down the pitch and cracked it down to square leg. The ground was so small that I hit it out of the school and onto the main road....whoops!
2. I was opening and the last couple of games I had gotten 4 and 8. I said to myself, get your eye in, get your eye in....first ball.....four. Second ball....six. Third ball....four, fourth ball.....four. The last two were dot balls. So 18 off the first over. That guy was really pissed. :lol: His team were like wtf? I got called many nicknames after that game
3. This was a fluke. I was fielding at mid off, but I was up, close to the pitch. The guy played a nice drive, but I got to it in time to stop the four. I just threw the ball back to the non-striker's end and started to walk back to my mark. Then, everyone started cheering! I was like huh? I then realised that the guy was backing up so much that I had actually run him out! So funny!
4. I was fielding at square leg and I was about 10m behind the square leg umpire. This guy smashed the ball down towards my end, and I took a running dive and caught it! He hit it so hard that my entire hand was red for the rest of the game.

5. Hockey: I never really got into this sport fully, but I played about seven games for the school. I played centre, and I loved the speed of the game. I used to love being able to run....but it was annoying having a stick in front of you! I gave it up because it was disrupting my soccer

6. Volleyball: Played this at school for about the same amount of time as hockey. Main reason I liked it was because of my ability to react fast....good ol' computer games! Also I loved diving around alot! :D I was extremely hyperactive back in the day!

Other sports I played at school:
- AFL
- Badmington (love it)
- Basketball
- Lacrosse
- Indoor soccer
- Table Tennis
- Gymnastics

7. Breakdancing: This has to be one of the most, fun, intense, scary, painful and tiring forms of exercise I have ever done! The spins, holds and power moves destroy any sense of stamina you thought you had! I have been doing it on and off (mainly off lol) for the past eight years. I performed three years in a row at the royal adelaide show. It was crazy! People would be extremely impressed by the moves...but it was only because they hadn't seen the real guys in action!

8. Weight Training: I am starting this up again, just starting with some 7kg dumbells and working my way up to 15 kg. Hoping to drop about 5kg of fat and replace it with some solid muscle. Am doing swimming with my gf also to help keep my aerobic fitness up :)

Phew! I have done some more, but not for very long, so cant really say much about them! That was a record post for me lol

Not much for me:
Swimming
I used to swim 5 days a week but now i dont get the chance as i dont have as much free time
5-a-side football
I used to play with workmates but it was damaging my knee so I had to call it quits:(
Weight and cardio training
I still do this as I can use the bikes instead of running so my knee dosent hurt the day after. I enjoy a good workout, especially if theres a sauna at the end of it!
Cycling
I used to cycle quite a bit but as i live in town and theres no space for a bike in my flat I have had to give it up for the time being. Oh yeah - my dad moved my old bike out of his shed into a spare garage and put it under a hole in the roof so its now rust city - this didnt help either!
Hill climbing
What can I say - I live in Scotland, there are heaps of hills / mountains, they look like they will be fun to climb. They arent as your doing it, but the views are usually spectacular.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by toomanymikes

Hill climbing
... they look like they will be fun to climb. They arent as your doing it, but the views are usually spectacular.

---

Lol, yes I can imagine thats the case :lol:

Well here in Portugal our favorite sports are:

- Running away from taxes !
- Running away from politicians !
- Lan parties
- Beer lifting
- Changing tv channels

- ok, real sports... i run a litle bit... and i play football.

But my favorite is
- Going to the beach (:lol: real sport!! he he he), only 5 minutes, and drink a nice beer on the beach bar . Last sunday was a good beach day.

This is my local beach, just 5 minutes from my home
http://www.cp.pt/StaticFiles/Sitios/...scp/117532.jpg

Quite a small picture but it looks very nice.

How built up is it around that area? Many big buildings or still quite natural and untouched? I hate it when they build big buildings right near to beaches and sea fronts. I think it ruins it.

The place I went camping recently in Cornwall had a nice beach but there were big signs up for a huge beach front apartment development about to be developed that was going to span the whole length of the beach front. I imagine that is going to look horrible once they complete it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Harrison

Quite a small picture but it looks very nice.

How built up is it around that area? Many big buildings or still quite natural and untouched? I hate it when they build big buildings right near to beaches and sea fronts. I think it ruins it.

The place I went camping recently in Cornwall had a nice beach but there were big signs up for a huge beach front apartment development about to be developed that was going to span the whole length of the beach front. I imagine that is going to look horrible once they complete it.

---

There 2 Beachs that have small buildings around, the others dont have nothing close.
More pictures from my local beachs:
all 5 minutes from home :D

http://www.visitportugal.com/NR/rdon...iz500x2002.jpg

http://rpm.planetaclix.pt/travel/cascaisbeach.jpg

http://www.palacioestorilhotel.com/Imagens/estoril.jpg

Looks like a very nice area to live. :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Harrison

Looks like a very nice area to live. :)

---

Yes it is. And i have the Estoril autodrome here we had the Formula 1 back in the days. And it is only 10 minutes away !!!

It 's a good area to live and have your kids.
The problem is "Jobs", the area dont have almost nothing related to computer jobs, you have to travel 25 km to go to Lisbon, but i dont mind.

Ha, I made almost the same foto from the balcony of the Palacio hotel, as we were situated in the middle on the front side of the hotel. I'll have a look, and when I have the photos, I'll scan them and post them here. That was in 1993/4, so no digital photos.

I have a friend who is also from Cascais.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tiago

Yes it is. And i have the Estoril autodrome here we had the Formula 1 back in the days. And it is only 10 minutes away !!!

---

Cool, the MotoGP still visits Estoril doesn't it. That's one of the bad things about where I live, the major racetracks are all ~4 hours drive away.

I remember Estoril well from F1.

For me it isn't too bad with Brands Hatch being about an hour away and Silverstone about 1.5 to 2 hours. But when I've visited Silverstone for F1 in the past I've still stayed close to the track as travelling any distance after spending hours at the race track isn't nice.

Gymnast
I was a pro Gymnast throught my teens and was a won and i was sponsored by coca cola and won lots of medals.

Swimmer
I am also a pro swimmer I started taking swimming lessons through out my teens I never won anything and I no longer have lessons but I still swim.

Cubs
I was a cub and went on camps and did canouing and absailing Aso I went back to my tent and a person in a bungle from rainbow or bear suit was stealling sweets and chocoalate from everyones bags i niped it and hit it and it ran out of the tent and was stoop behind the tent it wasnt sure which way to go and it made a run for it and i chased it and it ran away with the sweets and chocolate in to the woods. I thought this was just a person in a bungle or bear suit because it was a cub camp but apparently there was no such thing so it must of been a real grizzly bear. On camp me and a friend went out of bounds in to the forest and saw deers and mountians and water falls and fallen pine trees and we heard some thing walking slowly over broken braches we stoped and looked and we were sure we saw a sasquach.

Scouts
And I was also a scout I did lots of mountain climbing and hikeing just me my friend and scout leader in lots of snowy conditions and it was very dangerous and we had no safety ropes. In the snowy conditions we had to cross over a gully balancing on a fallen icey pine tree trunk that had fallen across the gully within the gully was frozen ice covering water.

Skate Boarding
I also used to do skate boarding and still like skate boarding.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Blue Jedi

Cubs
I was a cub and went on camps and did canouing and absailing Aso I went back to my tent and a person in a bungle from rainbow or bear suit was stealling sweets and chocoalate from everyones bags i niped it and hit it and it ran out of the tent and was stoop behind the tent it wasnt sure which way to go and it made a run for it and i chased it and it ran away with the sweets and chocolate in to the woods. I thought this was just a person in a bungle or bear suit because it was a cub camp but apparently there was no such thing so it must of been a real grizzly bear.

---

You can usually tell the difference between a Bungle costume and a real grizzly bear by it's height. One's about 5'8" and the other about 9'.

Not to mention the spit and the roaring and such

Or just look by looking at it, come to think of it:

http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/3...glebearmn5.jpg

Well I would be convinced. I mean, you can hardly tell the one on the right is a costume now can you! It looks so realistic and hard to tell the difference.

So Blue Jedi, where did you do all this camping when you were in the Cubs? Sounds like quite a dangerous place your Cub Scout Leader took you all to.

Currently still playing footy, only 5 aside at the moment.

Have done Jujitsu when I was younger.

Played badminton quite a bit up until a couple of years ago.

Played rugby and basketball a little in school.

As one offs -
Have climbed a quarry and abseiled backdown again.
Went skiing for a week.
Ice skated
Been ten pin bowling.
Played tennis.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Harrison

Well I would be convinced. I mean, you can hardly tell the one on the right is a costume now can you! It looks so realistic and hard to tell the difference.

So Blue Jedi, where did you do all this camping when you were in the Cubs? Sounds like quite a dangerous place your Cub Scout Leader took you all to.

---

If it was a bear costume it looked more relaistic than bungle and maybe it was a bear who knows. It could of been bungle because if it was a grizzley bear then why dident it show its claws and teeth and fight instead making a run for it with sweets and chocolate that the type of thing bungle would do.

Cubs was just camping.

It is Scouts is were you can go on risky climbing and hiking trips. I did most of my climbing and hiking in Wales and Yorkshire you dont normally go to such risky places in scouts but my scout leader was good at knowing all the risky places.

Wales and Yorkshire, risky?
Hahahahahahahahahah.
The Midlands are riskier, there are wolves there.

Most dangerous place in the UK seems to be Manchester these days though. People seem to be murdered there every week at the moment!

I expect your memory of camping as a Cub seemed scarier back then as you couldn't have been that old. Things always seem much bigger and scarier when you are young and you always seems to remember things as being much worse than they really were.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Harrison

Most dangerous place in the UK seems to be Manchester these days though. People seem to be murdered there every week at the moment!

I expect your memory of camping as a Cub seemed scarier back then as you couldn't have been that old. Things always seem much bigger and scarier when you are young and you always seems to remember things as being much worse than they really were.

---

Thats right harrison I remember it but at the time but I wouldnt of really known if it was a person in a bear costume or a bear its only recently went I talked about it did some one point out that there was no person in a bare costume.

Scouts was a different story that was scary some on the mountain climbing and hiking in wales Scotland and yorkshire was very risky and in snowy conditions.

You do realise there are no bears in the UK though, right?