5 ms·
I spent much of my late teens and early twenties cursing my thin boned and uncoordinated body, wishing their was some sport in which I would not be the worst, l
by anthomtb 2y ago
I spent much of my late teens and early twenties cursing my thin boned and uncoordinated body, wishing their was some sport in which I would not be the worst, let alone the best. I idolized athletes across all sorts of sports and wished I could become one.
Articles like this make me almost thankful for a lack of physical gifts. An obsessive personality combined with any natural athletic talent would likely have lead to a futile attempt to make a living from sport. Instead, my career is as unglamorous as described in the TFA but the wages are certainly better. And I am probably fitter and get more enjoyment out of recreational sports than most who were truly top-level athletes at some point in their lives. If there's a higher power out there, I am pretty sure they had my back here.
- lostlogin 2y agoIt could be worse, you could have ability and obsessive parents. I’m a radiographer. Several times I’ve scanned kids aged less than 10 for pretty badly injured joints related to sport. Stuck in my mind are two - both completely munted elbows. One did several hours of tennis every day, and all day Saturday and Sunday. The other had much the same regime for golf. Their parents were set on making world famous athletes. It was quite depressing.
- dclowd9901 2y agoIs that not considered negligence or abuse?
- NortySpock 2y agoNo, it's considered an attentive and supportive parent. Abuse and neglect is only when the parent is mean for no return. /s
- exolymph 2y agoColloquially, sure. CPS only intervenes in really extreme cases.
- The_Colonel 2y agoIt's sad how kids seem to be for these parents just a mean to an end.
- jarsin 2y agoIn my opinion, from spending many hours playing with former D1 players, these guys come out of those top tier programs screwed for life. The dream is dead and now they have nothing. Not even the love of the sport they spent 8 hours a day playing from five years old just to get into the D1 programs.
- magpi3 2y agoThe discipline that competitive sports instills in a person still translates into other areas of their life. My athletic career hit a dead end too, but staying with a sport and grinding out progress over the years taught me something that I still use in my forties.
- freddie_mercury 2y agoObviously: sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't. It's not an absolute. It is pretty easy to look at the hundreds, if not thousands, of professional athletes who have no discipline in many areas of their life. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_professional_sportspeople_convicted_of_crimes https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_professional_sportsp...
- nradov 2y agoThin boned and uncoordinated bodies can do well in road cycling and distance running. If you're obsessive enough to execute the right workouts every day then you can get pretty good, although only a tiny number of people make a living from those sports.
- turdprincess 2y agoThin boned and uncoordinated? Rock climbing is your sport! Go to a local gym and try it for a few months and you might find yourself getting really good really fast
- rvba 2y agoThere are those programming championships. Like "top coder"