Hatred of team sports

[arthurfakaya]

I have never had any interest in playing/following team sports, not simply because I'm a bit unco. I don't know whether it is because

• my parents never encouraged me
• I'd be the last person picked to join a school team
• I feared making a fool of myself
• I could never master the rules
• I'd prefer to watch the grass grow than kick the ball
• I just don't get the point, or understand the attraction
• or perhaps it's an autistic trait

The only sport I've been remotely interested in playing/watching is tennis. I also believe that Australian football players are dreadful role-models to children with all their fighting, sledging, and dangerous quadriplegia-inducing tackles in matches. (I don't know if this is as much a problem in other countries.) This hatred of team sport makes me a social outcast.

Am I alone in this?:S

 

[Gomendosi]

I also find I have no real love of sport and wouldn’t play any if you paid me, speaking of which, the salaries are absolutely ludicrous and exorbitant and the fact that a person from one place can go to the opposing team and play for them against their own team, town, country... whatever (loyalty and team, civc and national pride are all for sale).

Also, I find normal male sports are becoming more brutal and the rules are more lax while the brutal sports are actually becoming tamer and more rules are invented to make it safer, look at wrestling for the former as apposed to say, UFC for the latter...
Bad examples maybe, I admit I know not much about sport so I could be off base, but this is only my opinion I am talking about here ; ]

Popular sport is filled with thugs, fame seekers and the money hungry, go put on a special suit and break a world record then retire at twenty to live like a king. Real sport is dead, ask the Marquess of Queensberry!

 

[King_Oni]

I'd like to chip in that I don't care for sports, period. I'm totally uncompetitive... i don't see the point in proving you're better at something. It simply does not make me enjoy it more, but it would stress me out if I wasn't the best. And add in, that I'd be more likely to assault and hospitalize someone just to make sure he's not better anymore, rather than "out-skill" him. Using such a brute force attack would be my way of "outsmarting" them. "You're better at soccer? Here... try that again with two artificial kneecaps".

As a kid my parents did put me on different sports. I've did some martial arts, which weren't team sports in a way, but as soon as competition came in I stopped caring. I did some athletics thing a while, but also; then comes competition and I didn't want that. And I played soccer for a while. But I was always benched during games and pretty much last resort.

The entire financial stuff going on with for instance soccer players is silly IMO. You're good at it AND you have a way to show off (by being on television with that skill)... that apparently creates demand for player X. Get over with it, we're not trading people. And with that I can fully understand the loyalty thing Gomendosi adresses.

Back in high school I used to be one of the first to be picked for any teamsports, just because I was too rough, and people didn't want to be on the receiving end. I've broken noses, ankles and legs of other people in the past. Not neccesarily only for tackling someone, but also for kicking a ball way to hard at a goalie and him (and someones her) not being halfway decent enough to either get out of the way of the ball or stop it somehow. Unintentionally if I played a ball it always managed to find peoples faces. Knocked someone out once too. But I had pretty mild PE teachers who saw it wasn't on purpose... accidents happen, it just was a coincidence they happened a lot by my doing.

As a kid I used to watch a lot of wrestling, still do sometimes, but the more mainstream stuff doesn't really do it for me anymore. I've tried getting into watching MMA and UFC, but that's not acrobatic and too slow. I hate guys on the floor grappling and nothing else. So I sometimes end up checking out more of the backyard wrestling type stuff. Guess I want to see blood in sports. If talking wrestling I still think ECW back in the day (15 years ago or so) was the most awesome thing in wrestling ever.

I'm probably one of those people who would fully endorse something like "the running man", "the hunger games" or "battle royale"... or probably even gladiators. If there's imminent lifethreatening danger, that'll raise the stakes a bit more and make it more interesting IMO.

 

[Gomendosi]

I'm probably one of those people who would fully endorse something like "the running man", "the hunger games" or "battle royale"... or probably even gladiators. If there's imminent lifethreatening danger, that'll raise the stakes a bit more and make it more interesting IMO.

Spot on, I am with you on that one. As well as The Long Walk by Stephen King if that were a national event. It's not simply being bloodthirsty, it's being honest, that is what sport lacks today, honesty.
Put any athlete of today in a replication of their chosen sport from say, 80 years ago and watch them flounder without their special footwear, grass, suit, sights, flights, material or penalties/ bonuses.

Honesty makes a mockery of reality in sport today!

 

[NeverEnder]

I will openly and honestly declare I hate sports! The games themselves, the overly-zealous fans, the culture.

I do not understand the fascination with it by others.

I deplore sports.

 

[Harpuia]

I don't mind watching sports. I just don't like playing them.

 

[Bubblepig]

I never liked sports. It wasn't just the physical side of things, it was stuff like being picked last, being screamed at by teachers, being ridiculed in the changing rooms.

 

[arthurfakaya]

Using such a brute force attack would be my way of "outsmarting" them. "You're better at soccer? Here... try that again with two artificial kneecaps"...I've broken noses, ankles and legs of other people in the past. Not neccesarily only for tackling someone, but also for kicking a ball way to hard at a goalie and him (and someones her) not being halfway decent enough to either get out of the way of the ball or stop it somehow. Unintentionally if I played a ball it always managed to find peoples faces. Knocked someone out once too. But I had pretty mild PE teachers who saw it wasn't on purpose... accidents happen, it just was a coincidence they happened a lot by my doing.

I think I understand why they picked you for their team and didn't want you on the opposing team.:shocked:

 

[Wallimer]

Team sports? Pah. The only Team Sport I despite is NASCAR, and that is because of Autism Speaks. I wish I could watch it without my stomach churning. Others I dislike, but I aint no fool you know?

 

[ospie1322]

I hate sports! I've had it with people forcing me to play them in school. Flying objects always made me flinch, so it dosen't help that EVERY SPORT involves a flying ball. The only sport I like is archery. At least I know the object is always going to fly in the oppisite direction.

 

[alien girl]

i hate playing sports. in jym class, as a child, every once in a great, great while - and thank god for that - i was demanded by the teacher to join the others in some ball game of one kind or another. ugh!
i barely understood the rules. but the worse part was being a part of a team. it was like i was invisible and there were too many people playing and you have to see what the others are doing all the time. reminds me of when i worked in a restaurant and the other cashier made a sandwich for the customer and so did i! i cant see what the others are doing. i need to work alone.
my favorite sport is throwing a fresbee to a dog or dragging a shoelace on the ground for a cat.

 

[Geordie]

I play sports, but I often give a disclaimer:

'The chances of me winning the game with you is less than 20%, because I have limited roles given my clumsiness and my lack of interests in team sports.'

I play football, basketball and volleyball in particular.

As for watching sports, well, I try to watch all sports, but I love basketball, American football and soccer the most.

 

[Bay]

I hate sports! I've had it with people forcing me to play them in school. Flying objects always made me flinch, so it dosen't help that EVERY SPORT involves a flying ball. The only sport I like is archery. At least I know the object is always going to fly in the oppisite direction.

I don't like objects whizzing by my head either. I tried once to take racquetball lessons and spent most of my time crouched by the wall, holding my hands over my head. Got my money back though!

 

[HelloDizzy]

I hate playing team sports. I stupidly joined a baseball team when I was 10 and was surrounded by other little brats, who were running and screaming and understanding the game and all I knew how to do was bat.

I did well in boxing and tennis. But if it involves me cooperating with people.....ha.

 

[2010Dolby]

I have a massive passion for team sports. Especially football. I'm built light so in high school I mostly played D end or tight end. Middle and outside linebacker occasionally.

Half of the reason I love football is because the game is amazing. Adrenaline being pumped for 30 seconds at a time with 2 minute breaks inbetween. There's nothing like it. The thrill of hitting others and the motivation to not get hit. Seperating the men from the boys.

The other half of the reason is because I love that it's a team sport. When you're on the field your team is your family. They are the ones you trust to accomplish your goals and to keep the rest of the "family" safe. It's the most true form of brotherhood you will ever experience.

 

[King_Oni]

Reading the post above me by Dolby made me think about something. I don't know if this is far fetched or if this will spring of into a weird tangent here;

For the past few years so called E-sports have been more common. (Anyone unfamiliar with that term... basically videogames as a sporting event, with sponsoring, prizes, tournamentladders, actually similar to whatever sport you can imagine). The idea itself is fine with me. There's some games I play (or have played) that are being fairly competitive and some people can make a decent living out of it.

The reason I bring up this E-sports paragraph is to define "sports" for my next point.

However; there's quite a few online games that are played in teams. Mostly capture the flag type of things I guess (at least for teamgames), but yeah... playing team vs. team online and not even physical. I think it's in a some sense teamsport as well. And since Dolby brought up the adrenaline factor in sports and I know all to well how online gaming can up your adrenaline a bit, it got me thinking about the inclusion of these kind of games as well.

But to be honest, I hate all those team games, I'm not even social behind a computer screen, teehee. Seriously... the idea of people telling me what to do and having team tactics and even "training" together for a match as such feels way too much of a commitment to me. So even here the common goal you have to achieve by joining forces, much like being part of a soccer team for instance, doesn't really work for me either. I don't really know what it is... there's no such thing as "learning rules" or a lot of "getting distracted", nor is there the risk of injury (by e-sports in general), but probably the notion of just being part of a group doesn't do it for me that much. Oh... and a thing that annoys me to no end, which kinda is a part of playing as a team... headsets and communicating. I hate talking on the phone already, so a headset in general, where people blare and scream all the time in their excitement for the duration of the game isn't going to cut it for me.

 

[buckyboy14]

I'm actually better at sports than most people with Asperger Syndrome, and like them quite a bit. The only sport I'm above-average at is soccer (I can play goalie quite well), but I enjoy playing it, and I love watching baseball on TV. However, I don't care much for going to games; they're just too loud.

 

[Harpuia]

By virtue of having just enough athletic ability to get by in running (faster than the other nerds but still slower than an average person), I was always picked around 3rd or 4th to last, not just dead last. In basketball, I was around middle of the pack due to me being able to shoot well. And in handball I was one of the best shooters, so I was picked after the usual top athletes. Everywhere else it was within the last 3-4. The problem was I was always afraid of the ball hurting me, and it hurt me often. :/ Because of flag football, I have trouble moving both my ring fingers now.

 

[arthurfakaya]

After reading these responses I can't help but form the hypothesis that someone's like or dislike of sport(s) is directly proportional to how rewarding their experience of playing sport(s) has been. The better your initial experiences, the more you enjoy it, the more practice you get, the better you perform, the more kudos you earn, the more rewarding the experience....And conversely, the worse your initial experiences, the less you enjoy it, the less practice you get, the lousier you perform, the less kudos you earn, the more you get bullied, the less you get picked, the less rewarding the experience...

I guess it's a classical reinforcement. We get better at the things we enjoy, and enjoy the things we're good at.

 

[Christian T]

It certainly feels good to read about other people's hatred of sport. Now that I've reached the bottom of the thread, there's not much else I can add, except that motor dyspraxia and asperger's are a deadly mix for any sport, and I must say that the more people encouraged me to like it, the more I despised it. I love disobeying petty social rules, and frightening off spineless little NTs with my uniqueness!