The Similarities Between Sport and Painting: Flow, Discipline, and the Art of Showing Up
There is a moment—whether on a wave, a court, a mountain, or in front of a canvas—when thinking dissolves and something deeper takes over. Time softens and blurs and then movement becomes instinct. You are no longer forcing anything; you are just simply a part of it.
Athletes call this flow.
Artists know this concept just as well.
I first discovered this feeling as an artist during Covid when I started this journey with watercolor. It was a beautiful moment to realize my flow did not depend on the weather and for the first time, I could jump in whenever I felt inspiration. It was the common thread from my life as a professional kiteboarder into my new life as an artist.
Kiteboarding on the World Tour developed this skill as it required learning how to jump into focus when the conditions lined up and I will be forever grateful as it has propelled me forward in my art career.
Showing up is the quiet backbone of success in both practices.
An artist, Donna Billick, used to tell me to lay out a runway for creativity to land because if you don’t, someone else will and the idea and inspiration will go to them. This is still a philosophy I practice in my daily life by opening my mind each day to all the possibilities.
And with flow comes failure.
Both successful athletes and artists develop a familiar relationship with failing.
In sport, failure is immediate and visible—a missed trick is a splat on the water for everyone to see.
I remember my first trip to Brazil and we were training for the Kiteboarding Tour in front of crowds who could watch and judge every. single. crash. It was brutal for my ego but I learnt a lot about progression and how respect is earned by showing up day after failing day.
Watercolor has included stacks and stacks of failed paintings but non of them were on show, until now.
Revealing my XXL watercolor and gold painting online in real time brings me back to that lagoon and, somehow, I trust it will be ok because failing is part of the process and it’s ok to share that too. But I know now that failure is not an endpoint, it is information.
The athlete learns to fall.
The painter learns to pivot.
Presence Over Perfection
Past all the differences, both practices are a meditation. They pull me out of distraction and into the direct experience. They both demand my full attention and in return, they offer a kind of clarity that is increasingly rare in our chaotic world. I am extremely grateful to have leaned into the art world with my whole heart and to see where it will go!
(This photo is of my mother, brother, and I on an African sailing boat called a Dhow.)
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