Post: #1

I guess this is a weird question, but I want to know if I'm the only one who just sucks at sports.

Growing up, always was the last picked for a team, which made playing them suck. And no matter how much I practiced a team sport I still sucked. If someone passed me a soccer ball I would literally not know what to do with it and kick it away, usually to the other team on accident. Looking back I think this had a lot to do with presence of mind (as in not present) and fear of getting knocked over.

So that was it for team sports after HS. I took a decade and did OK with individual sports like weightlifting and mountain biking and swimming. Basically anything where there was no team or competition. The only reason I did OK with those things is because I stuck with them.

But recently I joined my company's sports team, thinking I would be a lot better now due to all the hard work I've put in on myself (both physically, emotionally, and mentally). And guess what? I suck just as bad as I did in HS. Even worse, all the same fear and embarrassment that hit me over a decade ago came back and I dread every practice and every game with the company sports league now.

Interesting, I kind of extrapolated this to game, watching how others play. We play against many other companies in the neighborhood and I noticed that everyone who enjoyed the sports (not even necessarily that athletic or very good, just enjoying it and hold their own) really is at ease with everything socially - befriending all the players from other teams and chatting up the hot referee chicks and hot girls from other teams with ease, making them laugh - no game needed, essentially natural! All this shit was so hard for me, and in my mind I guess team sports was just some basic thing that was key to normalization & socialization, whereas more introverted nerds, fat kids, etc never got looped into and consequently, we developed game to accommodate for these shortcomings.

Thoughts?

Post: #2

When did you first start playing team sports?
Soccer is one of the most difficult sports to master. I started playing on an organized team at age 4 and a half and kept playing till my senior year in high school. I also have played on club teams. I sucked when I first started but I dedicated myself and even though I don't practice much anymore, I still have a great touch. I think you gotta keep in mind that people who are good at the sport are really passionate about it and that leads to them being comfortable out there. It's easy to chat up other people when you are doing something you love and you feel confident in your skill level. They might not necessarily be in the best shape, but they know how to position themselves and might still have a good touch which can make up for the lack of fitness.
I imagine the same would apply for other sports.

Post: #3

(05-04-2015 08:09 PM)xcfastdude Wrote:  When did you first start playing team sports?
Soccer is one of the most difficult sports to master.

3rd grade

Post: #4

I played pro roller hockey and semi pro ice. I was never great at other sports, but got a gift for skating.

Post: #5

Played alot of soccer when i was younger and was a promising player but stopped after i tore my ACL .

I absolutely suck at basketball and have no interest in it at all, i also suck at any form of skating.

I love playing playing pool and snooker but still a novice.

Now that i've switched to calisthenics training i also include some parkour sport training workouts , that stuff is sick !

I do yoga aswell now which is not really a sport but it's a great way to meet girls and socialize , the male/female ratio is always heavily in your favour.

Post: #6

I wanted to play sports, but my parents would let me join until grade 5. I was already so far behind by that point that even after I joined my mom didn't like picking me up late from the practices and it also conflicted with my paper route. I got to keep the paper route.

I was good at rugby in grade 7, at least at that level. Then in grade 8 I found out that I have a foot problem and was told never to play competitive sports, though still allowed to do PE. So I got into martial arts and bodybuilding instead. I've often wondered if being good at sports translates into better "game" with women.

Post: #7

(05-04-2015 08:46 PM)Tytalus Wrote:  I wanted to play sports, but my parents would let me join until grade 5. I was already so far behind by that point that even after I joined my mom didn't like picking me up late from the practices and it also conflicted with my paper route. I got to keep the paper route.

I was good at rugby in grade 7, at least at that level. Then in grade 8 I found out that I have a foot problem and was told never to play competitive sports, though still allowed to do PE. So I got into martial arts and bodybuilding instead. I've often wondered if being good at sports translates into better "game" with women.

Well good athletes tend to have good physiques, as well as the confidence that comes with having a high level of skill at something. For the most part, the guys who were good at sports would get the hottest chicks in high school. So I imagine it does play a part though it's not everything.

Post: #8

I wreck house at badminton. Smashing birds comes naturally to me.

Post: #9

I was good at wrestling and baseball growing up. "Was" being the operative word. I'm too old and busted up from it now to do much more than bike and lift.

Post: #10

I play division 3 soccer and used to play rugby for about 4 years.

Post: #11

(05-04-2015 07:51 PM)monster Wrote:  Interesting, I kind of extrapolated this to game, watching how others play. We play against many other companies in the neighborhood and I noticed that everyone who enjoyed the sports (not even necessarily that athletic or very good, just enjoying it and hold their own) really is at ease with everything socially - befriending all the players from other teams and chatting up the hot referee chicks and hot girls from other teams with ease, making them laugh - no game needed, essentially natural! All this shit was so hard for me, and in my mind I guess team sports was just some basic thing that was key to normalization & socialization, whereas more introverted nerds, fat kids, etc never got looped into and consequently, we developed game to accommodate for these shortcomings.

Thoughts?

I was a star football player in high school. I made all-district teams as a junior and became a team captain as a senior. I won regional football weightlifting competitions in the benchpress as a junior. I received probably about a dozen offers to play college football as a senior. Most of them came from D-3 and a couple of D-2 schools. I got a chance to walk on to a D-1 team, and took it. I didn't have a great college career, but I did manage to start two games as a runningback.

Despite all of this, I was probably among the world's biggest chumps as an 18/19 year old. Despite being a star high school player and a D-1 athlete, I had no confidence and made mistakes that were shocking in their level of thirst/betatude. It wasn't until halfway through my freshman year (my second semester of college) that I kissed a girl. It would be years after that before I finally discovered firsthand what a vagina felt like. Looking back, I had plenty of chances in high school - I had some status, and several pretty girls were interested in me. They gave me opportunities and I couldn't take them. I could have had an epic social life in high school, but I was far too introverted and far too behind with respect to normal socialization to capitalize on the chances I had.

With hindsight, I look back on this and can partially attribute my failures to my reliance on football. The game was a major part of my identity, and I had so much natural athleticism that I never really had to do much in order to be a great middle school and high school player (it helped that I didn't play in an area with a super deep talent pool - this wasn't Texas or anything). With my introversion, I assumed football was going to be my path to romantic success - I'd be a star, and girls would come to me because I was a star. I used it as a crutch to avoid the serious self-improvement I needed to make in order to develop the personal skills I'd actually need to talk to girls and find romantic success. I thought that the game would do the work for me, but that wasn't a productive mindset. Since I remained incredibly thirsty, highly outcome dependent, and highly introverted (too shy to even make an approach even when girls made their interest obvious), I didn't get anywhere. Girls weren't going to do the work for me just because I was good at football, and my ability on the field was not going to convince them to put up with my lack of game/backbone either.

It wasn't until I started making a serious personal effort as a college freshman to discover and digest the red pill/learn game that I started to see any improvement, and it wasn't until football became a less unilaterally dominant part of my personal identity that I began to actually grow as a person. I can say now that, to some extent, I became the guy you describe who could chat up girls and befriend guys on others teams, but I didn't manage that until years after I stopped playing football. It took years of self-improvement and extensive trial and error for me to figure out how to carry a basic conversation with women and socialize somewhat normally with my male peers.

This is just my anecdotal experience, but my conclusion on that basis is this: I don't see team sports as a basic key necessary for normal socialization. The keys are far more fundamental than that, and team sports won't help you if you've not found them. There are plenty of great athletes in team sports I know who never develop game or embrace self-improvement (even if they need it), and there are many more guys who've never been particularly remarkable athletes at all but had vastly superior romantic/social lives to mine when they were early on in their college careers/finishing up high school.

In fact, there are quite a few elite pro athletes out there whose limited understanding of game puts them at serious risk of exploitation by beautiful, but highly manipulative women. Their stories come up on the forum fairly often - they may look like they're winning with all of their money and legions of pretty girls surrounding them, but you may re-evaluate that conclusion after you see a divorce and 2 to 3 baby mamas leaving them in financial ruin following retirement. Some of these guys have been cruising on their athleticism their whole life - their status as athletes (usually at major programs and, eventually, as pros) meant women came to them, and they always could just do what they wanted. Some of them never see a need to embrace the red pill as a result, and these women take full advantage. Looks can be deceiving.

Team sports can install qualities in you that prove helpful for socialization down the road, but if you lack the fundamental tools to get out there successfully (ex: you're extremely introverted and haven't yet learned how to manage that introversion, you don't understand self-improvement, you're extremely needy/outcome dependent, you use sports as a crutch and never digest the red pill, etc, etc), it won't count for much. Similarly, one can gain all of those tools without having had any significant experience or success in a team sport. In fact, as I outlined above, significant success in team sports can be more of a handicap to one's personal social/romantic development than is often let on.

Post: #12

Three-sport athlete in high school. Was one of the top-ranked players at a niche sport (groupie-less, unfortunately) at my university my first year, then stopped playing.

One of my biggest adjustments to college was no longer having warm pussy lined up from sports.

But then I joined the top fraternity on campus to resolve that, as well as cultivated some "game."

Now I've lost a lot of vertical leap and foot-speed, but can still easily do some office AMOG'ing at internal corporate sporting events.

Post: #13

I played hockey through college. Still play in tournaments and men's leagues. It all depends on the sport though. I became elite in hockey and decent at lacrosse and racquetball, but cannot make a lay up and look autistic trying to swing a bat.

I think most guys have at least one sport they could excel at after putting in some hours. A non athletic kid from high school I know rode the pine in football but won countless awards in cross country. Everybody has their niche.

Post: #14

I'm a pretty passive dude in social situations, but if you put me on the field I'm pretty aggressive. My aggression and agility always made me a bit of a sleeper on any team (pick up or otherwise) I would play on. The enemy team wouldn't anticipate it and I would do pretty well.



I can say I'm pretty athletically gifted.

Post: #15

"My company's sports team", what sport is it, exactly? Softball?

A good suggestion here is to find a sport you're good at and only play when that's what they're doing, for instance, dodgeball or something.

You also come to the conclusion that you're bad at sports without going into any details. No hand-eye coordination? Too slow? Can't hit a ball? These are all skills you can practice at.

Post: #16

OP, I know those feels. I was always picked last in gym too. Ended up hating what we did. I was forced to do sports in middle school. Baseball and soccer. I sucked hard core at both, though I could run very fast (my only saving grace). I stopped in HS and focused on music which was my crowning glory.

Getting into power lifting as an adult though I noticed that I have better coordination and power. I lack control of said power but that's fixed with practice. I wonder if my sports problem was from a lack of muscular development and proper mind muscle use.

Anyone can learn to play an instrument, program, paint, etc. but I found it odd that people just assumed athletic ability was something only the genetically gifted got. With any proper training you can do anything especially sports.

Post: #17

Yes, though I wasn't good at every sport I tried. I found basketball to be the most difficult of the sports I actually dedicated a good bit of time to learning and practicing. But I never played anything serious past high school level, just friendly/casual games.

Post: #18

As a kid I had a triple whammy against me:

(1) I went to school with a mid-june birthday so I just turned 4 before starting school, turning 5 the last week of school. I was always smaller than others. On top of that I was a "late bloomer". Even with that I played a lot of sports with my sporty friends growing up and -always- lost.

(2) My parents are terrible at sports and hurt themselves walking around.

(3) My parents never watched sports or talked to ever about any sports.

As a result I was terrible at most sports though I played them and practiced with my friends who destroyed me being smaller and having less practice.

Funny thing happened: I played a lot of sports for fun at the end of high school, started exercising all the time in college, learned to juggle, learned to box, spent a whole winter on indoor tennis courts learning to do one-handed hand stands.

Now I'm "good" at almost any sport because my hand-eye coordination is great. I'm n my mid-30s now and can play basketball with guys any age, can crank baseballs, play tennis, whatever. I really look forward to an over 40 basketball league someday but I fear in the USA that might be impossible with so many fatasses. I played full court just a few days ago and it was a great time.

I started paying some kids to rebound for me and pass me back the ball a few times a week, this made my jump shot very nice (I live on a college campus and grabbing my rebounds is a much better job than working in the school store).

Post: #19

I was very lucky as a kid in that I was big, 6'4 and 225 at 14 years old, good co-ordination and an aggressive streak.

I played representative (county in the UK) Rugby, Basketball and Cricket. If I'd have known it was possible to earn a living doing it at the time, I'd have definitely gone on to become a professional rugby player...the game was only just turning pro when I turned 18 and players were making less than provincial accountants.

I've trained martial arts all my life, competed and taught. Weightlifting comes naturally to me and I'm incredibly genetically strong, even for my size.

To be honest, now I'm in my 30s I regret not having attempted pro sport; there are very few people about with my size and talent to compete with due to the height bell curve.

It's still fun tearing it up on the rugby field and on the pads at the gym though.

Post: #20

I was a pretty good baseball player, though I don't care for the sport as a whole.

My strength was as a defensive catcher (framing pitches, good arm, quick behind the plate). I probably could have had some interest from semi-big time DI programs if I were a better hitter and had a better build. I would have been VERY slight by SEC/ACC catcher standards.

Basketball....I was also one of the better shooters in my conference but I wasn't very good at creating my own shot.

Post: #21

I've been known to hit the rim now and then. . .





In all seriousness, not particularly. I still play a decent bit of pick-up ball at the gym. I've got a solid jumper and a nasty fade-away, but nothing else noteworthy.

Post: #22

(05-04-2015 11:26 PM)ball dont lie Wrote:  Funny thing happened: I played a lot of sports for fun at the end of high school, started exercising all the time in college, learned to juggle, learned to box, spent a whole winter on indoor tennis courts learning to do one-handed hand stands.

I'm pretty interested in this comment. Were you already good at doing regular handstands? How good did you get at (freestanding?) one armed handstands and/or how long did it take you?

Post: #23

I played county football and national league basketball as a young teen before stopping the football to focus on Basketball (chose the wrong sport as it has pretty much died here now, but was big at the time). I played for my city's national league team and the Midlands, but there was always players that were that next level up from me no matter what I did that were selected for England and went on to turn Pro (most of them in Europe). I also played for my school in pretty much every sport, and would get dragged along to athletics meets by my PE teacher to run 400 m which I'd often win without ever training for it. Also trained in boxing off and on since about 10, trained by family, but never focused on it due to other sports being my priority.

I was very cocky as a kid and a lot of girls liked me, but I was still pretty introverted, and didn't act on my instincts, even though I had a lot of opportunities. Not really a natural in adulthood, but not the worst either.

Post: #24

I was good, not great. I only played basketball growing up. Well little league baseball until I was 12 and I was no good at baseball. I had some small college offers after high school, but turned them down to focus on academics and other interests.

I still play a couple times a week. All my training is towards basketball. Lifting, stretching, cardio, it is all designed to make me better at basketball. I find it a good distraction from this feminist society, I find it a good way to meet other guys, and I find it to be a great goal to continually strive for.

With that said, sports have "jumped the shark" as far as importance in our society in my opinion. It has become more of a soap opera of sorts and I don't think it is a sign of a healthy society. Long gone are the days of sports stars quitting in the prime of their career to join the military. Due to this I don't watch sports very often.

I sports as a double edged sword in our society...

They can be used to teach life lessons and hard work. Also they give you a skill set you can use to socialize for the rest of your life.

But some people lose focus and put too much emphasis on it. Also, those people who are naturally gifted at sports often have it too easy and it makes them very ill suited to adjust to the rest of life.

Post: #25

I was an all-conference running back in a large northeastern state (1000 yards rushing senior year), had a front page "Player of the Week" article in the city's newspaper, and ended up playing in college. I also ran track and field (100m, 200m, and high jump) and wrestled in the off-season to keep in shape for football. Life was easy back then - unlimited supply of girls and popularity, but too young and stupid to take advantage of it.

Football should be mandatory for young guys. There's no better way to toughen up, instill discipline, and learn teamwork.

"I firmly believe that any man's finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle - victorious." - Vince Lombardi