Aspies and Athleticism

[Phanelope]

Just reviving an old thread.

My son is extremely athletic. He has amazing upper body strength, flexibility, dexterity etc. but he can’t do team sports or sports with rules (e.g. taekwondo). He’s the type of kid that could win ninja warrior.

And despite being really good with his hands and good at drawing and guitar, he has atrocious handwriting.

 

[Progster]

I'm not very good at any sport and I have never liked team sports, but like individual sports, or recreational sports such as swimming, running and cycling.

At school, the PE teacher used to choose a captain, and then let the captain pick his or her team. The captian always chose their team according to social allegiance and popularity rather than ability, and I was always left till last, together with my friend with dyspraxia. I did quite well at cross country running, simply because I actually ran, on my own, rather than sauntering round the course chatting in groups, as the other kids did.

 

[DCA]

Agree about the PE issue. I was usually one of the last kids picked too. I hated when team captains were told to pick their teams. Always a small bit of humiliation & how much I actually mattered. I did try for soccer in grade school, but didn't stick with it -- I quickly became bored I socially isolated from my teammates.

In my early 20's though I did get into good physical shape as I intended to make the Army a career at that time. I didn't stick with it, & even when I was in shape & we did team sports, I still wasn't very good at it...