"Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it." – Mary Oliver

List #17: Sports I’ve Done

Time for another list. This list only includes the sports I’ve competed in, not those I’ve played in PE class at school or pottered around with socially.

Playing in the Club Championships when I was about 15.
  1. Tennis. This was my main sport from 12 years old until the pandemic. I played in the school team and also club competitions. As a fifteen and sixteen-year-old I played junior competition on Saturday morning, senior competition on Saturday afternoon, and then pennant on Sundays. I also practised or had lessons during the week, playing 5-6 days. I was playing on a Senior Saturday afternoon team before the pandemic. I haven’t picked it up again since the lockdowns were lifted. I love it, but from an injury perspective, combining it with marathon training would be hard. I’d also need to find a new club now that we’ve moved.
  2. Distance running. I spent about three years in the cross-country team at school in a fairly uncommitted way. I did the Couch to 5K program about ten years ago and have just kept running since then. I run cross country for a club in Melbourne now and do a few road races yearly.
  3. Swimming. My friend and I did one year on the school swimming team which was a laugh. Let’s just say we were not breaking any records. I also did a year of squad swimming when I injured my wrist and couldn’t play tennis.
  4. Hockey. This was another sport my friend got me into. I played in the school team from year seven to nine. I decided not to keep going when my mum wouldn’t buy me a mouthguard or shin pads. She argued that she played hockey at school and didn’t need any protection. I invited her to come and see how hockey was played now, but no go.
  5. Netball. My mum played netball when she was younger, and I did, maybe a season of club netball? I never really got into it but whenever the school team was missing a player they’d rope me in because I lived next door to school and could sneak home and get my sports uniform at lunchtime and be ready to play the after-school games.

What sports have you competed in? What was/is your favourite sport to play?


Comments

14 responses to “List #17: Sports I’ve Done”

  1. Wow! I have competed in exactly zero sports, so colour me very impressed.

    1. Me, too! Zero sports for me. I am clumsy, not particularly competitive, and annoyed with cheerleading and coaching, so I am a real buzzkill.

      1. You made me laugh. My dad hates competition but my mum is super competitive so I think I take after her.

    2. I am not very flexible so I’m impressed by your yoga instructing.

  2. Oh wait, does recreational slo pitch count? Probably not.

    1. Hey, I just made my rules to make this post manageable. You can count it

  3. I love that you snuck home to get your gear at lunch. So handy. Wow, you are quite the active person. My folks put my brothers in sports, but unlike my sisters I did play a few seasons of indoor soccer when I was really young. The time my grandparents came to watch, I scored a goal . . . on my own team’s goal. Oops. When my folks realized that I was gonna be crazy tall, they put me in basketball. I didn’t excel at that, but I played for a few years from 12-15. In college, I played club lacrosse. It was very low key, and I’d never played but my bestie taught me. We played catch in the hallways of our very old building – very high ceilings. Oh, I competitively Irish danced (and wasn’t much of a competitor in that either, shock) from age 6-14.

    Too bad watching sports doesn’t count, because that’s my strong suit. I love watching my kids’ sport teams. 😉

    1. Oh dear, an own goal is unfortunate. You’ve played a few different sports. I would have loved to have a bit of height when I was a teenager playing tennis. I was thin and not tall plus one of the youngest in my age group because the cutoff was Dec 31st and my birthday is in December. Until I ggrew and got stronger at 16 I had to rely on speed and getting everthing back. some of the other girls were likewomen at 13 and veru intimidating.

  4. I am SO unathletic and it is one of my regrets in life (but I’m just not built for it/coordinated, so it’s not the same as a real regret). I played baseball for a few years as a kid (I was terrible).
    My husband was in a lot of sports as a kid and our son is VERY sporty (good at everything he tries and a magnet for anything active). I live vicariously through him.
    I go to the gym regularly now, though, which has been amazing!

    1. I think the fact that you’ve picked up some physical activity that you enjoy as an adult when you didn’t grow up playing sports is fantastic. My SIL always complains that she never got the opportunity to play sports when she was younger and made sure her kids had every opportunity, but I always say to G that there’s actually nothing stopping her from doing some kind of sports now. Doing sport as a kid is no guarantee that you’ll continue into adulthood either, it’s easy to fall out of the habit.

  5. I am also terribly unathletic. They are not many sports I’ve done. Plus I grew up in a really rural area of the United States and they were very limited sport options. Like we did not have soccer or swimming or hockey,etc! I was in softball and I tried basketball and volleyball in elementary school. I also did track until I was eighth grade. But I was pretty terrible at all of them so I found other ways to be involved, like take stats for basketball on football as an adult, I discovered distance running and while I’m not fast by objective standards, I’ve enjoyed getting faster and competing against myself. Fast forward now, and my children you should try so many other activities! Both boys do free, tennis lessons, a couple of times a month if we sign up in time (since it’s free, registration is limited to a certain number), soccer, karate, basketball, and T-ball.

    I wish I had learned how to golf when I was younger because it would be a great lifetime sport. Maybe it is something I can learn when I retire though. I just don’t have the time to devote to it at this point in my life.

    1. I’ve tried golf once and am not a fan but my mum plays three times a week. She only took it up in her 60’s when she got a shoulder injury which meant she couldn’t serve in tennis.

  6. Oh I didn’t know you played tennis. Me, too!

    1. I hope to go back to it when I have a lull in my training cycle. Maybe do minimal training for a term and do some cardio tennis.

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