Hobbies Did you play any sports growing up? I know I did.

bdt2002

Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs superfan
is a Pre-Contributor
Disclaimer: This thread works equally well within the "Sports" category or the "Hobbies" category. As of typing this, I currently have it within the latter. If anyone in the moderation team feels the need to change it accordingly, feel free to do so.

Ah, the wonderful world of athletics. I've actually practiced two different kinds. I've played soccer before, and I've played sky-themed levels in Mario games... okay, but all jokes aside, when I hear the word "Athletic" I don't think of overgrown mushrooms and clouds that all have a face on them.

Sorry, I just wanted to get that out of my system real fast. Getting back on track and field... okay, I really need to stop with the jokes... ahem So getting back on track, I just got done with a late-night homework assignment where I had an opportunity to talk a bit about my time playing soccer in junior high school. Seventh generation Nintendo video games may be my biggest hobby nowadays (and even that's start to wear thin), but for many years before that, playing soccer (I still think we Americans shouldn't have stolen the word "football") was by far my favorite hobby. While I haven't truly played soccer since my junior high days, I've wanted to talk about this for a while now. And I thought to myself, why not make a thread about this for us to enjoy?

There isn't too much else for me to go over here. The main things I want to try and keep any discussions focused on will be listed here. Other than that, have fun, stay safe, and happy posting!
  1. What sport(s) did you grow up playing, or still are playing nowadays? (Feel free to use your own definition of "sports" here.)
  2. How long have you played or are currently playing them for?
  3. This is my personal favorite question: What were your favorite parts about the experiences?
  4. Do you have any fun memories about your experiences? We all love these kinds of nostalgic stories. Or at least I do :)
 

bdt2002

Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs superfan
is a Pre-Contributor
I always thought I was so cool saying chess. People would be all " ches isn't a sport", then I'd be all "but it is tho" and feel like such a smarty pants
Here's an opinion that you might enjoy hearing. Not only do I think chess should count as a tabletop genre sport, but I'd even go as far as to say that it's more strategically focused and thoroughly developed than a number of quote-on-quote "actual" sports. I learned chess in high school when I got interested in joining a chess club. Now was I ever any good at it? Ehhhh...

But that's not what matters here. What matters is that chess, and other games like it, do have some form of competitive environment/fanbase around them, and can serve as a surprisingly good teacher for children about things like strategy building, perseverance, and what I like to call "area awareness".
 

Myzozoa

to find better ways to say what nobody says
is a Top Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Past WCoP Champion
Yeah I played squash since I was ~11



Shabana was as close to a perfect squash player that I think could ever be. His movement was perfect, always on time to the ball. (
).

Shabana's technique was robotically accurate, he could just play patient long rails if he liked, but if he had to attack with intention he could take the ball into the front court on demand w perfect touch. And for the squash player's squash player, he was the best at hitting the perfect glued to the wall shot, forehand or backhand. His opponent Gaultier was a dominant #1 ranked player himself and perfectly capable of testing Shabana, it's a great match where you can really see the best of squash. Both of these players mastered certain techniques which were not fully developed before: Gaultier w the perfect forehand hold->straight kill, and Shabana's top spin forehand drop technique. If you ever wanted to learn abt this sport, this match is a great place to start.
 
Archery is not a sport and I don't care what anyone says to the contrary, but they do it in the Olympics and I used to be pretty decent at it when I was younger. I could pretty consistently score 100+ in a 12-arrow match. My secret was I was one of the only ones in my age group of around 13 who understood how to zero and use the sights, so I was basically cheating anyways. I haven't practiced archery since I was about 16, though. There's no space for it where I live, no open ranges near me except for gun ranges, and I haven't owned a bow in about a decade.

As for memorable experiences, the first time I split an arrow was pretty memorable. It was entirely luck, and it wasn't exactly a clean split (the second arrow kind of sheared off about a third of the first arrow), but the range instructor and some of the other kids in my archery group made a pretty big deal about it. Turns out that splitting arrows isn't really as rare as movies might lead you to believe; several other people in my archery group did it at least once and I ended up splitting I think two more arrows after that over the course of the few years that I practiced archery, but that first time was still memorable.
 
im gonna answer using bullet points

1) growing up i started playing football (or soccer for you americans) but i stopped because well i didn't like it that much , i picked up rugby right after and its now being 10 years since i started playing it , when i was little i was a very skinny half asian and would get bullied a lot and this sport helped me get real friends (some of them i know for 9 years) and confidence and i still plya it to this day , even going to the point of playing in the Italian and Swiss national championship

2) since i answer to it in the 1st bullet point i will just say yes

3) my favorite experience about this sport is just how healthy and bulked you become will playing it , i went from a skinny mf to an absolute unit in 10 years of playing it , real shit

4) my favorite memory is kind of a selfish one but ill still say it , basically i had to redo my first year of high school since i moved to Switzerland , very main character moment but i started working out a lot during covid and when i arrived in august 2020 to my new school i became quite popular , i was sporty , smart and i always considered myself as quite attractive, so i just thank rugby for becoming the healthy dude i am today
 
I played soccer in high school as a centerback and I also ran track. One of my biggest regrets is not taking soccer as seriously as I should have at a younger age. I had good athleticism but my ball skills were not as good as they could have been if I practiced more. I started out as a forward but never thrived because of this and made the switch to defender.
 

McGrrr

Facetious
is a Contributor Alumnus
I played cricket in my teens, but my only enduring memory is losing the regional final because one of our bowlers got smashed for like 26 runs in one over. We played 8 ball overs and he bowled a no ball, so he had to bowl 9 deliveries to our opponent's best batsman. Poor kid was crying 6 balls in as he walked back to his marker to run up again.
 

Bella

not a furry
is an official Team Rateris a Social Media Contributoris a Smogon Discord Contributoris a Contributor to Smogon
Played Baseball for about 3 years when i was younger. Mainly was an Outfielder / 3rd Baseman / Backup SS / 2B. I was not a great hitter but i was basically the best kid in our towns little league at getting walks and was a solid defender, so thats why i got played.
I remember 3 main memorys of that time.
1: I complained to my coach hard about how much i wanted to pitch. Im a lefty and if you know anything about baseball having your 3rd baseman be a lefty is not a great idea. I was actually a pretty solid thrower but my coach (almost) never let me pitch cause his kid was our teams star pitcher. The only time we did was when we had a blowout (explained in the second story) and i just went out because everyone else was tired of throwing. I ended up ending the game for my team.
2: In my first year of playing we had our little playoffs (it was only 8 teams), and we were matched with the tampa bay rays team (our teams were named after real teams in the mlb.) for our first match. We started playing around 2pm. The game ended around 8pm.
Basically their best pitcher was on a vacation with his family and their other pitcher was really really bad. Like, he didnt get out of the first inning cause he gave up 8 runs without getting anyone out bad. We ended up winning the game 55-8.
3: As i said before i wasnt a good hitter but i was really good at getting walks and getting hit. Being a switch hitter confused alot of the pitchers and i ended up getting hit alot. If i got 4 ABs in a game i played, 2 would be a hit by pitch, 1 would be a walk, and 1 would be me striking out. I lead our team and probably the league with HBPs by a long shot. Ended up getting a joke reward called the Ironman award because i was made of iron cause i got hit so much and didnt care lol.
I think the experience was fun. It really was what launched my interest in baseball and was a good learning experience for me.
 

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