The other day I took my son to play golf, which has become the thing we do on the weekends lately. He’s been into the sport, big time, ever since we watched the Masters this past April.
I’ve loved how he’s taken to it, as I love to play too and have since Tiger Woods first turned pro back in the late nineties. Even though he’s only been playing for a couple of months now, he’s already improving, hitting shots he couldn’t when we first started. It’s so much fun.
One time, on the drive home, I asked him what he liked so much about golf. His reply has stuck with me: “It’s the only sport I’m half-good at.”
I assured him what he said wasn’t true. But, as you might imagine, it stuck with me because I felt a little sting of recognition — I remember feeling like that when I was his age, too.
When you can do physical things well, it makes you feel good, you know? You feel strong, you feel capable, you feel alive. And when you can’t — especially when your peers can — it’s more humbling than we’d like to admit, isn’t it?
However: when you do find that thing you can do well — whether it’s running, or cycling, or playing tennis or pickleball — it’s like your wings expand, and you can finally fly.
I thought I’d ask today: what was your experience with sports like, especially growing up — and what did it feel like when you found the thing you could do?
— Terrell
I grew up in Alberta, Canada so there was only one sport - ice hockey. When we moved to the states, the opportunities to play were meager so I played off an on. As I grew older, I played racquet ball and handball and ice hockey in local pick-up games. I started running in my late 30s as cross training for hockey and when we moved to SoCal running was my main physical activity.
I think that with any physical activity to be really good at you must work hard to achieve a high level. I remember my dad (an avid sports spectator commenting about bowling - "it's like shaving, if you don't do it every day, you look like a bum". I am "good" at many sports and enjoy physical activity - I don't fall into the trap of comparing myself to elite athletes, which can be detrimental to your mental outlook to a sport. Unless you can put in the time and effort to be an elite athlete, enjoy the level you can attain.
From trying something that I thought I wouldn't like to striving for Worlds. Big leap. All started in Anaheim at the FIT in 2023.
Ha, as you know I have big goals with DEKA this year.
Funny thing was that I expected to NOT like it. Tried it because, why not? I thought it wouldn't be my thing because I was in love with "traditional" OCR out running trails and all the crazy obstacles. Then I did it and was like hey, I am actually decent at this, then when I discovered that I was not getting too much faster, landing me too high on the leaderboard, I was like hey, I can carry heavy stuff even if I can't get faster. So Ruck division. Lean into the strengths.