Few things in sport are as inspirational, or make the hairs in your arms stand on end as easily, as watching professionals functioning at their absolute best.

Fatima De Melo knows this, not least on account of her own experience as an Olympic gold medal winning hockey player. Competing on the highest level requires a commitment, let alone ability, few people could ever really keep in mind that. goes for hockey players, it goes for poker players, and, as De Melo discovered on the Isle of Man TT this summer, the arena of motor sport.

Even if you happen to have no idea what the TT is, the possibility is you've heard of it. It's arguably one of the famous weeks of motor racing on the planet. As meriting Valhallas go it's right up there with Monaco and Le Mans.

First run in 1907 it has since become referred to as probably the most dangerous motorsport event on the planet. The 37.7 mile course has taken the lives of greater than 200 riders during the last 100 years; something riders live with, that spectators acknowledge, and which presumably De Melo knew as she climbed on board the HondaCBR of professional racer Connor Cummins to ride pillion across the Tourist Trophy course.

De Melo wasn't the primary person to satisfy Cummins, who's sponsored by PokerStars, after having watched YouTube footage of him flying during the air like a rag doll, sustaining massive injuries in a horrific crash in the course of the 2010 TT. However it served as an invaluable conversation starter after they met in the course of the UKIPT IoM charity event.

"I thought: oh my God this guy is so cool for purchasing back available in the market. How do you come again up after something like that?"

That in turn ended in an concept. While in no position to race at the TT track, when invited to try the course at the back of his bike she jumped on the chance.

And so De Melo flew to the Isle of Man (also the official home of PokerStars) to experience the TT for herself. There she met Cummins for a once in a life-time ride across the Snaefell Mountain Course. His job was to supply a glimpse into the arena of a bike racer. De Melo's job was to carry on tight as they reached speeds upwards of 130mph.

"I have this moment where [I FEEL] if I let go I'm dead," said Melo when asked if she was scared. "That's weird to think that. As a result of a bump or something you lose your balance or whatever. You're more vulnerable that way."

For speed freaks footage of De Melo at the bike gives an concept of the kinds of speeds reached at the infamous circuit (although not just about the 200 mph so riders hit at the straights). De Melo wasn't done, and day after today joined TT legend Ed Swain for a lap within the course car.

"Ed just knew every little bump within the road, every little tree, every little mark he needed to aim for, and was commenting in the course of the entire drive."

De Melo was learning what racing drivers and fans already knew, that driving fast is set greater than putting your foot down.

"It was amazing," said De Melo, who spends the duration of the video with a huge smile on her face. "I USED TO BE just enjoying it because there's such a lot skill that goes into that."

Swain explained every bump and curve of the course, and the optimum line around it, all while driving at high speed. Like her experience with Cummins, all of this stuck with De Melo.

"It's like poker while you first start playing online. I WILL always see the chip stacks of different people, now I NEED TO count them myself. Oh, how much is the raise, you have no over view. When you know everything you'll be able to check the patterns of that person and the way he bets, and the way he throws his chips in, you know, you've that overview.

"That's exactly what guys like Connor have at the bike. They have got such a lot room for other sh*t. Everything is automatic. The remaining is solely the brink that they've. There's such a lot knowledge and ability that goes into it. Whenever there is something like that that I never knew before, it is a bit cool. But I never knew what went into it. While you are aware of it becomes far more exciting."

De Melo admits to being something of a thrill seeker. Or a minimum of her mother says she is. Her most up-to-date experience was a parachute jump in her native Holland, to mark the launch of a magazine.

But as at the bike with Cummins, and within the car with Swain, De Melo had absolute faith within the ability of her instructor. Well, for essentially the most part.

"The guy had done 5,000 jumps already and that i was asking a majority of these questions, I USED TO BE interested right, what goes into this?"This happened as they circled the Euromast, alongside the Maas River in Rotterdam. Below them the river sparked because it wound its way during the city, and the mayor got able to greet them as they made their landing.

"At some point the trainer interrupted me and said: 'Ah, I TRULY must focus now. There's more wind than I ASSUMED there would be.'"

Strapped to her instructor (Britishness prevents me from detailing exactly where she said the straps hurt her) De Melo leapt out into the Dutch sky, aiming for the Euromast. However the instructors fears in regards to the wind were accurate, they usually landing amid trees in a park several miles away. Any safe landing is a superb one, but they covered the space back to the reception committee on foot.

The trip to the Isle of Man wasn't all about De Melo meeting experts of their field, but additionally serving as one herself. In that role she paid a trip to the Vikings Hockey Club, a neighborhood team celebrating their 100th consecutive win.

"It was very nice to satisfy these people, so enthused, and so desperate to learn," said De Melo, who ran a workshop with the team. "EVEN SUPPOSING I hadn't been playing hockey for seven years or something, I hadn't even picked up a stick. It's like riding a motorcycle. You're always scared that you will fall, but you don't."

Over the process a few hours De Melo passed at the roughly instruction that, while second nature to the pro gold medal winner, is invaluable to the amateur player seeking to improve for his or her weekly game.

"The funny thing is after I started playing poker I USED TO BE far more aware that you are just optimising things," she said. "So I USED TO BE just optimising everything."

She gave an example.

"If you've two-on-one, where do you run if you wish to be the receiver? Do you run really wide, behind the defender and step back out? What do you do? These girls were just running along next to their team mate, not probably the most optimal line of running. So that is what I did. They were like oh my God!"

De Melo admitted that she always assumes people know what she knows about hockey, something that without a doubt applies as much to TT racers and poker players.

Such lessons don't just apply to non-professionals. De Melo herself still takes on board the things she learns and applies them to her life, and to her poker game.

"It's funny," she said, on reflection at the tip. "I became far more conscious about what the true strategy of that also is. I play tennis so much. It's more about if I hit this shot I'll make it one out of ten times. If I hit this shot I'll make it five out of ten times, so I should make this shot. But if I USED TO BE a child it was just hit the ball."

It's hardly surprising that this also applies to poker.

"What poker does is make you acutely aware of the process, it is very clear since you wish to achieve this much as a way to get an edge, you understand? So it made me far more analytic. I live my life more analytically on account of it. It came back in most of these things - skill, training, optimising. It's funny. And it's cool."

Stephen Bartley is a staff writer for the PokerStars Blog. Follow him on Twitter: @StephenBartley.

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