A hobby that I would like to practice again

When I was at school and I played football with my friends, I always wanted to go to the goal to try to stop them from scoring a goal. That's when I started to fall in love with being a goalkeeper.

I always loved football and Real Madrid so when I was a kid my idol was Iker Casillas.

Because of all that, I decided to start playing football in the school team with my friends. 

When I was finishing primary education, many of us began to play more seriously in our neighborhood team, in which we won some titles.

After a few years, many teams contacted me to sign me into their teams, which were much better than my neigborhood team because they played in the national league. So I decided on a team and I started playing with them.

          

At that time I think it was when I reached my highest level, I was playing well but I was not happy playing football, I felt like it was an obligation for me, I missed playing with my friends and I started getting bad marks at school because I didn't have enough time to study because of football. So I decided to go back to my neighborhood team.

          

I was playing there until a few years ago, I had a hand injury and I had to stop playing and now we can't play because of the COVID-19 pandemic, so I hope it ends soon so I can do what I like again.

          

 

 

Chess is the greatest sport

"Intellectual activity is perhaps the greatest pleasure of life; chess is one of the forms of intellectual activity."

Siegbert Tarrasch 

A hobby that can turn into a job

Throughout my life I have played many sports, such as football, swimming, kickboxing, athletics, canoeing and acrobatic gymnastics among others.

At the age of 14 I started my career in the world of refereeing. At the beginning I took it as a hobby, a way of not getting bored at weekends, but the truth is that I liked it more and more.

Refereeing has not only helped me to do sport and not get bored at weekends. I've made friends, I've gone out partying, I've travelled all over Galicia and it has made me improve as person. Best of all, I get paid for it.

In order to be promoted, not only do you have to take exams and physical tests, but also the way you referee is taken into account.

And the hardest thing of all is that you compete against people who also want to be promoted.

At the moment I referee in the Preferente Galicia category and who knows if I'll be in the Tercera División category next year, it will all depend on my desire and effort.

 

The ease of being happy

What is happiness? how do you get to it?  Of course, these are questions that many people ask themselves almost every day. Is it really so complex to understand this emotion?

In my humble opinion, I think that all people are different. Yet, we should all have several things in common. One of these things should clearly be to appreciate the little things. That is, to know what is really important.

From a personal point of view, for me happiness is everything that fills you up inside. It is that which brings a smile to your face when you least expect it. Or as simple as being at ease with yourself. It is values, friendships, moments, facts, looks or smiles. Simple things like these are what make me happy.

However, there is one thing that has made me who I am at present. Sport. Sport has given me everything I know and am, which is why I would like to talk a little bit about it and my experience.

Triathlon is a multi-sport that includes swimming, cycling and running.It is such a dynamic sport that there isn't reason for boring. So much that I have been doing it for 15 years now. So much that I want to dedicate my life to it. I want to have the possibility as a personal trainer to transmit the happiness that this magnificent sport can bring you.  From friendships, new places, or values such as sacrifice, solidarity, companionship, equality, perseverance or responsibility.

A little more than 2 years ago I got to know another sport. Unlike triathlon, this one is collective and not so popular. But that doesn't mean it can't bring you even more. I am talking about canicross, a sport in which you team up with your most faithful companion. It consists of completing a foot race with your dog pulling you in the shortest possible time. On the other hand, I think it is so special because the bond that is created with this animal is totally indescribable. It is a source of motivation to stand at the start line and see your dog barking, jumping and bursting with energy as you share the effort that you both want to agonise over. Clearly, and I say this loud, I am going to try my best to popularise this sport. I would like people to be able to feel this sensation.

So, without further ado, here are a couple of pictures to show you what I'm talking about. I don't exaggerate. 

A little video doing bikejoring

 

This my friends, is the purity of happiness. It is the simplest things that sometimes become the most complex. Happiness does not depend on anything or anyone, but on the way you look at things.

Thank you very much for reading this article and, as you know, let's be happy! it doesn't cost that much!😁

 

Antoni.

COOLDOWN

¿Who thinks the mindfulness exercises are not only to do them in a class or in a job?

These techniques can also be applied to sports. Everyone knows that if you do any activity or you play for a team or a club you will need to be concentrated some times. We can make up the level of how calm you need to be into two kinds of sports.

First one if you compete individually like maybe swimming, tennis or ping pong you must learn how to come back to the calm during the competition, because in this short period of time you are alone. You have to throw away the stress and the anxiety, because with theses on your mind you wont be good doing anything.

On the other hand if you work in pairs or on a team like football players you need to have the same kind of mindfulness for your own but from my point of view, with less pressure. I mean you will have your teammates next to you on the field or wherever they can help you if you need it and also the pressure of wining is on the shoulders of all the team. Here the one that has to work more is the coach he must control twenty five brains and keep them from having any troubles between each other and the opinions of the players in each situation, it isn´t easy!!!.

In sports of high contact like handball or rugby it´s easy to lose your mind after receiving a hit or feeling pain and that´s when you need to take a breath and calm your mind to prevent yourself from doing anything stupid. If you receive a kick and you get up and punch the player that hits you maybe the referee will give you a yellow card or a red one and your team will lose because of playing with one less player.  So take two seconds and think before doing something that you really don´t want to do!!