How to write a Sports scene?

[crmsn_conqueror]

When you're reading a fight scene, what's the most important ingredient when it comes to making it satisfying and memorable?

For me, it's movement. This is probably my inner Fanderson talking, but the more the characters are able to move around, and the more ways they have of moving around, the easier it will be to keep my attention. That's why so many of my characters' powers involve movement somehow. In Juryokine, Toke can manipulate his gravitational field, letting him jump rapidly from the walls to the ceilings. Henry can charge parts of her clothes with magic, and the explosion it creates when she releases it will launch her in the opposite direction. Miranda's dagger is imbued with a spell that teleports her to it, so she's constantly tossing it around the battlefield to appear and disappear unpredictability. Zara has the Break Gravity spell, which acts the same as Toke's power (yeah, I'm ripping myself off. cry about it!). I haven't gotten to this part of the story yet, but Jeremy is going to get a pair of boots with an airblast spell that shoots him off the ground, and an auto-retracting crossbow/grappling hook to let him zip around really fast. All of this out together let's me write fight scenes that are more interesting (and more fun) than "The good guy swung his sword. The bad guy blocked it. The bad guy swung his sword..."

What's the most important part for you?

This is a great topic, but I'd like to pose an even more challenging question: how do you write a sports scene? How do you write a running scene so that your readers genuinely understand the force, timing and skill necessary in order to perform at that level? Or if you're writing a football scene, how do you draw in your audience to the point they sweat in their seat as if the ball was at their feet?

 

[ArchlordZero]

I did it with my novel Speedmage Tournament, which was inspired by Aokana.
I did it blow-by-blow, including subtle things like pivoting feet, heavy breathing, sweating, etc.
I also included their strategies inside their head.
Basically, everything during the sport is slow-motion.

 

[Worthy39]

Well, depends on the sport. If you're doing running, probably a lot of flash backs to training, and a lot mental screaming at the top of your lungs about something cheesy, like not being able to disappoint your friends.

For something like soccer? Little details matter. Now, that isn't to say you should write every second, but you should definitely fill out the important ones, at least. You can kinda fill all the boring stuff in with just a few quick sentences. But people need to feel the tension, that moment a defender caught the character completely off guard, the moment the main character had a breakthrough, and just tore the enemy team apart. The moment they felt completely crushed by a simple play they didn't see coming, everything matters.

And then you get sports that can be considered boring... well, I really don't have any tips for those ones, other than make them some sort of super version of the sport to keep people interested. Maybe they play golf by hitting the ball into a course that hovers in the air, and the ball ricochets off everything with a ton of force. Or maybe you're just a genius who can write interesting golf without any sort of visuals.

 

[DireBadger]

First off, Jargon: A tiny, minor amount of Jargon, hopefully explained quickly, makes it feel genuine. Too much Jargon, and it makes the reader feel like you are mocking their ignorance.

But, like Worthy39 said, it really depends on the sport. Golf needs an entirely different level of tension from MMA or baseball.