Sports... suck?
My overall opinion of sports was formed by three things: Mom's opinion that only smelly, sweaty, dumb jocks played them; my experience with people trampling me whenever I was in gym class; and an utter lack of understanding for any of them. The few sports I /did/ watch were mostly "minor" ones: Figure skating, skateboarding, car racing, tennis, and the one Mom /really/ hated due to squeaky sneakers on slick court floors - basketball. Still I knew nothing much about the actual sports I watched, just that they held my attention much more than things like Hockey, Golf, Football, and Baseball.
Fast forward over the past decade. All these years I've continued to hold the opinion that sports suck, and what do I do? I start dating a guy who's into sports!! At first I didn't fully understand how he could be since he's not smelly, sweaty, or dumb - not by a longshot. He isn't loud, boisterous, or the stereotypical womanizer going after cheerleaders. What gives?
I figured my opinions were grossly misinformed and unfair. So I followed him to a table tennis game. He explained the rules, the skills needed to make the ball do certain things, and the physics behind it all. Interesting enough. He jumped into the game then, and as I watched the concentration on his face, and the movements he made, I realized that despite the game's simple appearance, this was not a simple game of pass-the-ball. When I got a chance to play also, my realization was settled. This was not as easy as it looked! It is, however, quite fun. I was hooked.
Next up was golf, one of his favourites. Golf is one of the few sports I had actually thought about before judging it to be stupid. I could never understand why people would want to stand outside beneath the hot sun and chase after little balls they attempted to hit into little holes in the ground. But after seeing how fun table tennis was, I figured my boyfriend must have his reasons for enjoying the whole experience. And, I do admit that I'd played MINI golf once and really enjoyed it. Well, I won't ever get into regular golf. I now appreciate the physics behind it, and I can now watch it on TV and enjoy the skills I see. I also share in his excitement over how he and his buddies do on any given day. However, that's as far as it will ever go. I still don't like the idea of walking miles under a hot sun or chasing after little balls, and that happens to be what the game is all about! Miniature golf, on the other hand... an hour, maybe two, on a little tiny course with all sorts of interesting holes... yeah, now THAT is my idea of a fun outdoor sport!! I get all the perks - some time outdoors, the challenge of aiming the ball, hitting it just right, the strategies required to get around the astroturf's inconsistencies, curvature in the ground, and seeing through the hair that's always finding its way into my eyes. FUN! And luckily for me, he enjoys miniature golf also. It might not offer the same types of challenges to him as the other form of golf does, but he enjoys the creativity behind the various holes, and the newer challenges introduced by them. (This is one of the things I really really love about this guy - he's into so much with so little bias that we can /always/ find something to do together which we both enjoy.)
Another of my favourite sports (at least to watch) is car racing. Most people know it as Nascar. I don't care if it's Nascar or something local. The idea is this: A bunch of vehicles race around and around for a while at rather high speeds and attempt to pass each other to gain the lead without smashing into each other and causing accidents. Even before understanding the physics and reasons behind the aerodynamics, tire pressure, sheet metal, plastic-filmed windshields and mesh windows, I was attracted to racing. This is actually kind of ironic to me. First, they go around in circles, over and over and over. Second, until recently, I was probably one of _the_ most nervous drivers on the face of the planet. Watching cars race at high speeds is like watching a suspenseful movie where some guy hijacks a school bus and is chased by a bunch of police cars for an hour. I can barely go around a gentle curve at 40mph. How can I endure the sight of cars travelling around tight corners at speeds in excess of 100mph?! Yet it's exhilarating! And now that I drive, I can appreciate the subtleties in speeds, steering, and control. And after we went to a local race, I found it a hundred times more exciting. Being there is far better than watching it on TV, let me tell you. You get to feel the rumbling of the tires pounding over the ground. The smell of rubber and spins is everywhere. Engines pour their sounds into the airwaves. Smoke occasionally kicks up and fills your nostrils. The barely-audible booming of the loudspeakers rattles your eardrums. You get to eat Fried Dough and french fries. You can focus your attention on any part of the track, not on whatever part the cameras decide to show you. Indeed, TV doesn't do it justice.
Finally, there's baseball. I've yet to watch a full game, but since I've yet to learn the rules and skills behind it all, I know that one day I'll fully appreciate baseball, too.
It seems, then, that my previous views about sports were pretty much unfounded. Perhaps some or even many jocks fit into the stereotypes I was exposed to, but I now know that sports are not only for people of that type. There is actually a lot of science, skill, and excitement involved in many of these things. Perhaps this is why us humans have included sports and games in our lives for so long.
Fast forward over the past decade. All these years I've continued to hold the opinion that sports suck, and what do I do? I start dating a guy who's into sports!! At first I didn't fully understand how he could be since he's not smelly, sweaty, or dumb - not by a longshot. He isn't loud, boisterous, or the stereotypical womanizer going after cheerleaders. What gives?
I figured my opinions were grossly misinformed and unfair. So I followed him to a table tennis game. He explained the rules, the skills needed to make the ball do certain things, and the physics behind it all. Interesting enough. He jumped into the game then, and as I watched the concentration on his face, and the movements he made, I realized that despite the game's simple appearance, this was not a simple game of pass-the-ball. When I got a chance to play also, my realization was settled. This was not as easy as it looked! It is, however, quite fun. I was hooked.
Next up was golf, one of his favourites. Golf is one of the few sports I had actually thought about before judging it to be stupid. I could never understand why people would want to stand outside beneath the hot sun and chase after little balls they attempted to hit into little holes in the ground. But after seeing how fun table tennis was, I figured my boyfriend must have his reasons for enjoying the whole experience. And, I do admit that I'd played MINI golf once and really enjoyed it. Well, I won't ever get into regular golf. I now appreciate the physics behind it, and I can now watch it on TV and enjoy the skills I see. I also share in his excitement over how he and his buddies do on any given day. However, that's as far as it will ever go. I still don't like the idea of walking miles under a hot sun or chasing after little balls, and that happens to be what the game is all about! Miniature golf, on the other hand... an hour, maybe two, on a little tiny course with all sorts of interesting holes... yeah, now THAT is my idea of a fun outdoor sport!! I get all the perks - some time outdoors, the challenge of aiming the ball, hitting it just right, the strategies required to get around the astroturf's inconsistencies, curvature in the ground, and seeing through the hair that's always finding its way into my eyes. FUN! And luckily for me, he enjoys miniature golf also. It might not offer the same types of challenges to him as the other form of golf does, but he enjoys the creativity behind the various holes, and the newer challenges introduced by them. (This is one of the things I really really love about this guy - he's into so much with so little bias that we can /always/ find something to do together which we both enjoy.)
Another of my favourite sports (at least to watch) is car racing. Most people know it as Nascar. I don't care if it's Nascar or something local. The idea is this: A bunch of vehicles race around and around for a while at rather high speeds and attempt to pass each other to gain the lead without smashing into each other and causing accidents. Even before understanding the physics and reasons behind the aerodynamics, tire pressure, sheet metal, plastic-filmed windshields and mesh windows, I was attracted to racing. This is actually kind of ironic to me. First, they go around in circles, over and over and over. Second, until recently, I was probably one of _the_ most nervous drivers on the face of the planet. Watching cars race at high speeds is like watching a suspenseful movie where some guy hijacks a school bus and is chased by a bunch of police cars for an hour. I can barely go around a gentle curve at 40mph. How can I endure the sight of cars travelling around tight corners at speeds in excess of 100mph?! Yet it's exhilarating! And now that I drive, I can appreciate the subtleties in speeds, steering, and control. And after we went to a local race, I found it a hundred times more exciting. Being there is far better than watching it on TV, let me tell you. You get to feel the rumbling of the tires pounding over the ground. The smell of rubber and spins is everywhere. Engines pour their sounds into the airwaves. Smoke occasionally kicks up and fills your nostrils. The barely-audible booming of the loudspeakers rattles your eardrums. You get to eat Fried Dough and french fries. You can focus your attention on any part of the track, not on whatever part the cameras decide to show you. Indeed, TV doesn't do it justice.
Finally, there's baseball. I've yet to watch a full game, but since I've yet to learn the rules and skills behind it all, I know that one day I'll fully appreciate baseball, too.
It seems, then, that my previous views about sports were pretty much unfounded. Perhaps some or even many jocks fit into the stereotypes I was exposed to, but I now know that sports are not only for people of that type. There is actually a lot of science, skill, and excitement involved in many of these things. Perhaps this is why us humans have included sports and games in our lives for so long.
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