In The Dressing Room

“Only a surfer knows the feeling”

A quote I’ve always resonated with. To look at a surfer and know that the feeling and experience of riding a wave and being completely at the mercy of the ocean is something that only those who surf would understand.

As I sat in the dressing room after our elimination finals loss today I thought about that quote but as I looked around at the devastation in our teams faces I realised, “only an athlete knows the feeling”

Both individually and in team sports, putting hours and hours into weeks and weeks of preparation, review, strategy, recovery and so on, only to fall short.

The highs in sport are euphoric. When everything comes together and you achieve what you set out to, the feeling is unmatched.

The lows are devastating. You sometimes feel like you go through hell in training for a small opportunity each week to put it all together… and it isn’t quite enough.

I initially felt that maybe writing about what you learn in training and who you become as a result of the experience was the most important thing… but sometimes it really is just about winning and losing. It’s what we do it for. To win. Particularly at an elite level.

So as I reflect on those quiet moments in the sheds after the coach has given his final post match address for the season, a position I myself have been in before, and I look around at the pain and suffering of the players, I see passion and a deep care for a common cause.

I see young men who cared enough about something to dedicate time and make sacrifices.

I see a team made up of individual attributes, values and personalities that put asides differences to unite for months with one focus.

But we fell short.

Not a lot of people will understand what those moments in the dressing room feel like.

They’re special.

Because regardless of the result, we come back again and again in pursuit of euphoria!

In the dressing room.