I spent the last weekend surfing with my brother, which sparked some thoughts about how incredible sports are. They have a magic feel.

I feel like sports are in some kind of untouchable state. In other words, I think the principles behind it remain unchanged after centuries. They seem to be a safe place surrounded by everything that’s changing constantly. This feeling is really hard to put into words, but today I decided to talk about it.

I enjoy nothing more in this life than a good surf session with my brother and best friend. Warm water, sunlight, good waves. That's perfection for me.

I’ll explain why sports are incredible and some factors that make me love them.

Multicultural

This is really present in soccer. It's awesome to see how the top-tier teams are a mix of a bunch of nationalities. You have some Brazilian guy in the left wing, while the goalkeeper is German and the midfielder is Belgium. In some cases, they don't even speak the same language and can still play together.

It’s like assembling the Avengers in some sense. The best of each country play together.

Primitive

Competition is in our DNA. Sports promote this in the best sense: healthy competition. Playing any tournament is amazing and challenging yourself or your team against people with the same goal creates a beautiful space of improvement.

Another primitive face that I experienced when I was younger and came back to in the last 4 months is martial arts. I practiced Taekwondo for several years when I was younger (even got a black belt 😄) and now I started learning BJJ. There are some interesting singularities in this segment. First (and most obvious), fighting with someone and getting your ass kicked is the most humbling thing ever. Feeling powerless against another human teaches something. Second, you are directly exposed to human primitive nature, because you are basically fighting your life and that can teach a lot too. Lex expressed it wonderfully here.

I talk a lot about humans’ primitive aspects because I find them so interesting. They are behind almost every single action and still are not talked about enough.

Pay-to-win

As Lex said in the video, the hard work is necessary. There's no way around it. You can have Roger Gracie teach you BJJ or buy a custom Sharp Eye board and you’re still going to start from the bottom. When I see someone nailing a wave or defeating a good opponent in Jiu-Jitsu, I instantly think about how much work this person must have been through to achieve that level of performance.

Health

The physical health is obvious, but the mental improvement you get after working out is unmatched. When I don't exercise in the day, feels like the maximum amount of happiness I can extract from this day is lowered by half.

Superheroes

This is more of what I said in my intro. Seeing people like Filipe Toledo (who won the WSL Finals yesterday), Cristiano Ronaldo, or Roger Gracie is something that connects with my inner child. They are like real superheroes living among us. They make life feel more like a movie sometimes and we forget about our problems for a little while watching them.

There are a lot of other topics I would like to cover, like hormones and something about the history of sports in our society and how that connects with our past as a species, but I'm tired and need to code a therapy app now. Bye! 😄