What's your greatest physical feat?

  • Thread starter Loren Booda
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In summary: World Cup game against the best team in the world. I was so surprised and happy that I just about jumped out of my skin.In summary, the measure of sport that has most interested and excelled me is soccer.
  • #1
Loren Booda
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Strength, endurance, speed, control, etc. -- what measure of sport have you most excelled in?
 
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  • #2
zapping faster than a bullet.
 
  • #3
I can take off my socks without taking off the shoes...=)
 
  • #4
I can emit gravitational field proportional to my mass.
 
  • #5
I run downhill on trails, really, really fast. You should have seen me fifteen years ago, but you wouldn't have 'coz I was SO D&MN FAST!
 
  • #6
Give me a lever and a place to stand and I'll move the earth.
 
  • #7
Jimmy Snyder said:
Give me a lever and a place to stand and I'll move the earth.
That's been done. Or, that's been would have been done if could be done, as it were. Mars makes a marvelous fulcrum I hear.
 
  • #8
Loren Booda said:
Strength, endurance, speed, control, etc. -- what measure of sport have you most excelled in?
Smoking 40 cigarettes in a couple of hours.
 
  • #9
Loren Booda said:
Strength, endurance, speed, control, etc. -- what measure of sport have you most excelled in?
I was going to post something like arildno's reply, since high levels of strength, endurance, speed, control, etc. don't seem to apply to anything I've done (not that that applies to him). I do play tennis, but I'm not very good at it. And, I did quit smoking for a few days recently, but have smoked (let's see) ~ 11 cigarettes today. Then there's my falafel, the eating of which requires certain measures of endurance and control. But that's not quite a sport.

Ok, I just remembered. I used to be a good baseball pitcher in high school. Had a mean split-finger fastball. Moved like a slider. We called it a forkball in those days. Remember Elroy Face of the Pittsburgh Pirates? Well, I wasn't as good as him, but for high school not bad.

What's yours?
 
  • #10
after several years of strength training, i made a couple of personal bests last year, but certainly nothing approaching elite status.

a few years post-puberty, i could do a forward flip off the ground and (just barely) land on my feet. did this at the community pool, where i could also swim the length forwards and back underwater without coming up for air.

when i played trumpet, i could get as high as a G above high C.

i am generally uncoordinated for most sports.
 
  • #11
I used to be very active in cross country cycling (still am to a certain degree, but no where as hardcore as I used to be). I used to train around a 30km road loop that involved both gravel and highway travel, with a moderately steep 2-3km uphill. The best time I managed on that was 45 minutes, which gives me an average speed of 40kph. The best I ever came in competition was first, in a number of races, but second whenever I competed with a friend of mine who no one could touch.

I now rock climb a fair amount with relaxed trail biking on the side.
 
  • #12
Endurance. During X-country season, I would run the entire course twice - the first lap for time, and the second lap wearing soft ankle weights for toning. Then, I'd alternately run and jog all the way back home (3 miles) because there were no late buses at my HS.
 
  • #13
Once during an all-star baseball game I dived over the fence to catch the ball. After the game the umpire awarded me the ball under his own volition.
 
  • #14
I was the fastest kid running down the stairs from the 7th floor. 1, 2, 3, jump - trick was to catch the rail at correct moment, to be able to turn 180 degrees without losing speed.

We couldn't race too often, for some reason people thought we were too noisy.
 
  • #15
Walking two blocks with a pinched nerve in the base of my spinal column. Took me almost 30 minutes and I had to sit on the sidewalk twice, but I made it.
 
  • #16
Evo said:
Walking two blocks with a pinched nerve in the base of my spinal column. Took me almost 30 minutes and I had to sit on the sidewalk twice, but I made it.

As the kids say:

ftw!
 
  • #17
estro said:
I can take off my socks without taking off the shoes...=)

Actually, I think this is a pretty impressive accomplishment. It's hard to envision how that would work.

I guess my best sport was cross country/distance track events. I was one of the top three in the city and almost good on an even higher level than that. In the end, though, I was just a very good runner that, once in a while, could run a great race.

But the feats I was most proud of were on the soccer field. I actually enjoyed soccer (as opposed to running, which I did only because I was good at it and because I liked the coach and the team). My most impressive feat was scoring 4 goals and 3 assists in an indoor game - as the sweeper. Of course, indoor soccer is a lot different from outdoors with all of your players getting involved in offense and scoring is usually higher, so that's not nearly as impressive at would be in an outdoor game, but it was a fun night, none the less - especially the pass I intercepted inside the redline in my own defensive end where I followed the ball nearly to the offensive red line where my second touch was a move to beat a defender and my third touch was a goal in the upper right corner - that was pretty sweet and my favorite compliment on that goal was from one of my team mates who just said, "Nice defense".
 
  • #18
Last year I completed a 100km endurance walk through mountainous national parks in 33 hours (with no sleep).

This year I completed a 14km fun run from the city to the beach with an average run speed of 10km/hr (Heartbreak Hill Sux!).
 
  • #19
I've done pretty much everything mentioned in this thread (except the Evo's feat). Pretty ordinary. I never guessed these were extraordinary things for others.
 
  • #20
jobyts said:
I never guessed these were extraordinary things for others.

Are these supposed to be extraordinary?
 
  • #21
What would you define as ordinary, in order to define extraordinary!
 
  • #22
I'm flat-footed, so neither are very good.

I went on a training exercise once, covering ~40 miles with >20kg pack over two days. My flat feet were so badly strained at the end of it that it was 6 months before I got the feeling back in the outer two toes of each foot!

In regards other physical attributes, I used to be able to hear a 24kHz audio tone and had hearing so acute that it was off the scale of those hearing measuring machines. As I have gotten older I have lost hearing acuity (now only ~18kHz!) with tinnitus and discomfort with almost any noise. Instead my sense of smell has become crazy - I can often smell the purfume (or BO!) of the driver of the car in front of me on the highway, if they have their windows down. Strong smells can trigger migraines, which I started getting around the same time I noticed my sense of smell had increased significantly.
 
  • #23
jobyts said:
I've done pretty much everything mentioned in this thread (except the Evo's feat). Pretty ordinary. I never guessed these were extraordinary things for others.

You mean you can walk through walls? Now THAT's extraordinary!
 
  • #24
Chi Meson said:
You mean you can walk through walls?
I can do the Neo flying thing, but I have to keep it quiet for now.
 
  • #25
turbo said:
I can do the Neo flying thing, but I have to keep it quiet for now.
I can do like his first try!
 
  • #26
Chi Meson said:
I can do like his first try!
You could get a pavement-removal contract.
 
  • #27
Skiing with two broken arms. Fun.
 
  • #28
While I was always very active, strength was by far my greatest natural advantage. By the time I was twelve or thirteen I could military press 220 Lbs [all the weights that I owned at the time]. In fact, that weight set was the first major purchase made with my own money.

While I never pursued it when I had the chance, I probably could have made it as a kicker for pro football. I've always had legs like tree stumps - a lead butt but legs like iron. By the 8th grade I was kicking 60 yard punts for the school football team.
 
  • #29
I can place myself in a state of reduced or absent consciousness, relatively suspended sensory activity, and inactivity of nearly all voluntary muscles. During this time, I can also heighten my anabolic state in order to accentuate the growth and rejuvenation of my immune, nervous, skeletal and muscular systems.
 
  • #30
Borg said:
I can place myself in a state of reduced or absent consciousness

I can do that too. I rarely do, as the next day is usually horrible.
 
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  • #31
Borek said:
I can do that too. I rarely do, as the next day is usually horrible.
:rofl: My feat doesn't involve the consumption of organic compounds in which a hydroxyl functional group is bound to a carbon atom.
 
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  • #32
I'm doing the Pisgah Mountain trail race tomorrow. http://pisgahmtntrailraces.blogspot.com/
I'm doing the 24k but my wife is running 50k. I'll try to get a video of one of my descents, but in doing so I'll probably break my phone.

And my neck.

So, be foreshadowed: if you don't hear from me within a few days, then I nearly died for you! Send flowers.
 
  • #33
Back when I was in high school, I got into olympic-style lifting. My proudest moment was power cleaning over lbs. Mind you, I weighed about 145.
 
  • #34
Chi Meson said:
I'm doing the Pisgah Mountain trail race tomorrow. http://pisgahmtntrailraces.blogspot.com/
I'm doing the 24k but my wife is running 50k. I'll try to get a video of one of my descents, but in doing so I'll probably break my phone.

And my neck.

So, be foreshadowed: if you don't hear from me within a few days, then I nearly died for you! Send flowers.
Should we send flowers to any particular location, or just to our mistresses/paramours?
 
  • #35
Not clear to me what 24k (otherwise known as 23k) means. 24 thousands feet up during whole race?
 
<h2>What's your greatest physical feat?</h2><p>1. What inspired you to pursue physical feats?</p><p>2. How did you train for your greatest physical feat?</p><p>3. What challenges did you face while attempting your greatest physical feat?</p><p>4. How did you overcome those challenges?</p><p>5. What advice do you have for others who want to achieve their own physical feats?</p>

What's your greatest physical feat?

1. What inspired you to pursue physical feats?

2. How did you train for your greatest physical feat?

3. What challenges did you face while attempting your greatest physical feat?

4. How did you overcome those challenges?

5. What advice do you have for others who want to achieve their own physical feats?

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