How bad are we at sports?

in reality, all of this has been a total load of old bollocks

How many thumbs?

All thumbs
5
56%
Four thumbs
0
No votes
Three thumbs
3
33%
two thumbs
0
No votes
Pure hand
1
11%
 
Total votes: 9

User avatar
trans-chigley express
Posts: 19238
Joined: 11 Nov 2003, 01:50
Location: Asia's WC

Re: How bad are we at sports?

Postby trans-chigley express » 29 May 2011, 01:33

Goat Boy wrote: I used to be very competitive so I can understand where your mate is coming from but it can be fun as long as you're not a bad loser.


I'm very competitive too, although don't really have the skills to go with it. Fortunately I'm not a bad loser but I'll fling myself all over the place to prevent it. I do get slightly annoyed with people who lack that competitive edge and don't try hard enough as it can spoil a game.

User avatar
Fireplug
Posts: 3627
Joined: 23 Jan 2009, 18:59

Re: How bad are we at sports?

Postby Fireplug » 31 May 2011, 00:39

the hanging monkey wrote:Good at some, shit at others.


This. I was really small at school and while I got onto the fringes of some teams I was never good enough to make up for being undersized. I was a karate instructor by the time I was 17, though, which is where my real effort went. By that time I'd grown (yeah, yeah, fuck off :evil: ) and found I did well at most stuff. I'm awful at any racquet sport, not much cop at distance running, never had any real talent for football and I'm the definition of average when it comes to general athletic ability. On the other hand I still do OK at combat sports, took to skiing like a natural and have been told by racers that I could have made a decent rally or saloon car driver. I can't complain.

sloopjohnc
Posts: 63924
Joined: 03 Jun 2004, 20:12

Re: How bad are we at sports?

Postby sloopjohnc » 31 May 2011, 21:49

I think to be really really good at sports you have to have the usual: good hand-eye coordination, balance, quickness and height or strength. All of them make you great, a combo makes you good.

What I've purposely left out is motivation. I think motivation can make a fair athlete good and a good athlete border on great.

I also think motivation can be converted into other things besides sports, like music or art, and a motivated or passionate person can achieve skill beyond their native talent. You can only go so far without true talent, but lots can be learned vs. natural talent.

I liked sports, and with a modicum of physical talent, have done pretty well at most sports I put my hand to. Obviously, most people gravitate towards success, so the sports I've practiced are the ones I was best at, probably.

Some sports, or aspects, are better for self-practice. Basketball, for example, or even baseball, and lord knows I've fielded enough bounced-back ground balls against garage doors to attest to that. Also, all my friends liked them and were good at them.

But back to the motivation thingy. The only sport my folks made my brother and I do without asking us was swimming when we were seven and eight. I remember those first swim practices I couldn't even make it the length of the pool. For some cock-a-mamie reason I liked it though and didn't want to quit.

I went from an eight year-old dog paddler at best to competing against the future gold medal winner in the 100 meter butterfly, Pablo Morales, in high school. I even had some feelers from Pac 10 schools in water polo, and had an Olympian tell me during a high school camp that if I kept up at it, he could see Olympics in my future. That was a nice compliment, but I burned out on both and decided studying had to take a priority over any sport. I also knew that I wasn't really as good as some people might have thought.

I've been lucky enough to play against future pros in football, baseball and basketball, and while I never thought I was that good, it was nice to know that I could hang on the same court or field with guys like that and not embarrass myself too badly. That was enough for me.

The thing with serious sports is there's a real small window of opportunity and age sets in pretty quickly if you're not willing to put in the time.

Again, it's like music. Those teenage years are the best for learning an instrument or playing lots of sports because you have tons of time to kill and can get good at them.
Don't fake the funk on a nasty dunk!

User avatar
Nikki Gradual
nasty, brutish and short
Posts: 20751
Joined: 16 Jul 2003, 21:59
Location: Marineville

Re: How bad are we at sports?

Postby Nikki Gradual » 31 May 2011, 22:00

Was quite good at most sports. And the more time that passes and the more beer I drink, the better I was.
"He's thrown a kettle over a pub; what have you done?"

User avatar
Polishgirl
Posts: 9513
Joined: 21 Dec 2009, 22:06

Re: How bad are we at sports?

Postby Polishgirl » 31 May 2011, 22:08

Good at hockey ( and generally twatting people with a big stick ), slightly better than average at cross country, fucking SUPERB at pool after several gins, shite at everything else.

I went to a very sporty school ( Cornwall is a bit like that) and our PE lessons were dominated by a small but annoying bunch of preppy type girls. The rest of us faffed around in a fairly muddy, tennis-skirted sort of way. We also had many of those cliched PE teachers - the borderline psychopathic, hearty types who have no people skills whatsoever.

I managed to avoid any further PE tedium when I got to the 6th form. I was the only one to do A Level music, and the only spaces to schedule my two lessons per week included one of the twice weekly games lessons. The only space to schedule my one free period per week was against the other twice weekly games lesson.

I think that is what is techincally known as a "result".
echolalia wrote: I despise Prefab Sprout. It will be decades before “hot dog, jumping frog, Albuquerque” is surpassed as the most terrible lyric in pop history. That fucking bastard ruined all three things for me forever.


Return to “Nextdoorland”