^'Relay', very apt for an olympic thread, well done!

World Peace coming soon?

I feel exactly the same before, during and after sex.

Formby wrote:

"My Grandpa was a boxer and he said he could never hear the spectators at all because he was so focused in the ring."

True, once the match starts all you hear are the sounds of the match.

BTW, I did try boxing briefly but I was no good. I stopped when I got into the ring with a cross country runner (skinny guy) a weight class below me and he creamed me.

Sal wrote:
"It never looks as if the judo fighters are doing a lot on the mat, but you can see from the state of them at the end that it's probably the most exhausting of all the Olympic sports."

Judo was my earliest organized sport. I started with my Dad in 1961 with this sensei named Takahama. I will never forget him. With at most 2-3 words in Spanish he taught a bunch of kids about respect, ceremony, discipline. My mom still keeps a group photo of when I made orange belt. All the kids have the kimonos perfectly folded on and the belts just so, sitting in perfect pose, backs straight. The thing is in my memory we were just rough housing around after the ceremony when they called us to attention. I don't remember straightening up for the picture, we just ran down at sat down and must have spruced up posture and clothing without thinking.

Later on the sense of balance and using the opponent's force really helped in wrestling. And yes, it is every bit as exhausting as it looks. The whole time you are apparently not doing a lot you are actually doing a lot of pushing, pulling, probing, trying to upset balance until the moment is right to strike. The best judo moves look sudden and smooth because they are incorporated into the follow thru of your opponents previous counter reaction.