I’ve always thought of myself as the most uncoordinated person who was still motivated to do coordinated things. With lots of practice and determination, I’ve become quite decent at salsa dancing, swimming and training capoeira, but note how none of those coordinated activites involves balls.
I finally realized when I was a young adult that I don’t do well at any sport or game that involves balls. And the more balls, the worse. The last time I played pool, the only ball that I sank was the cue ball. The last time I bowled, I actually scored an impressive 133, but I shamelessly had the bumpers up. I’ve tried to bowl like an adult before, but concluded that with my special spherically-challenged handicap, I earned the right for extra assistance in my game.
Excluding ball-based activities from my life has not blocked my happiness. I’ve happily taken advantage of many wonderful things in life where I did not have to dribble, shoot, bowl, throw, catch, pitch or hit any balls. Yet, I still practice eye-hand coordination when I paint; so I’m not exactly sure what’s the basis of my spherical challenge.
So it’s quite ironic that this past Saturday, in the heat of the day, I played soccer for the first time. Granted, the field was one-fourth regulation size and we only had 15-minute playing halves with a 15-minute break in between, but I could not be told that it didn’t count as a full game. I wanted to quit after the first half along with one member of the opposing team. We figured that the teams would still be equal. Instead, we were convinced to play goalie.
If ever I find myself in such a situation again, I’ll definitely play goalie again since I’m over all this running back and forth in the heat of the day. Besides, I was pretty good at blocking potential goals, catching a few and swatting away others. I’m sure my goalie efforts helped my team win the game, 5-4.
As I watched the women’s US soccer team battle it out with the Japanese team, I could truly sympathize with their efforts. I marveled at how much they ran around without becoming winded until the very end where they were unfortunately defeated. Everyone at my table seem defeated as well except for me. That’s how I know I’m not at risk at becoming a sports fanatic.
As far as being a ball player…I’ve got a long way to go, but with my humble attitude about my skills, I’ll just have fun with my incompetencies.