Is it weird that I'm great at sports?

[Athelstan]

I likely have Aspergers, as many of you may have read. My PCP believes it, my wife believes it, and, most importantly, I believe it. We are waiting for a formal diagnosis with a psychiatrist.

That said, it seems like the only Aspie symptom I don't have and have never had is this clumsiness and lack of hand/eye coordination I keep reading about. How many of you does this impact? Does one have to have this symptom to be an Aspie?

I'm fantastic at sports and always have been. Particularly football; I was a QB, WR, and DB. I can throw a football over 50 yards with accuracy, had great hands, and could run the mile in 4 1/2 minutes. To this day I love throwing balls and rocks. I can hit a stop sign from a block away (not those huge city blocks, mind you).

Is this unusual?

 

[Athelstan]

I never succeeded and spent most of my time on the sidelines because of my social awkwardness, difficulty understand the play book and what was expected of me, and bullying from my peers. I was always a waste of talent.

 

[Athelstan]

I would force one of my only childhood friends and step dad to play catch with me for hours and hours every single day possible as a child and teenager.

 

[lizzy171002]

First: Are you aware that you can edit your previous posts to add text?

Second: I am also good at sports, as my gross motor skills are pretty good. However any detail work requires a great deal of concentration, as my fine motor skills are lacking. Sometimes, if I am not concentrating sufficiently on my grip, my hands simply release tension and drop whatever I am holding. Not always. I don't know if that is an autism thing.

 

[epath13]

I likely have Aspergers, as many of you may have read. My PCP believes it, my wife believes it, and, most importantly, I believe it. We are waiting for a formal diagnosis with a psychiatrist.

That said, it seems like the only Aspie symptom I don't have and have never had is this clumsiness and lack of hand/eye coordination I keep reading about. How many of you does this impact? Does one have to have this symptom to be an Aspie?

I'm fantastic at sports and always have been. Particularly football; I was a QB, WR, and DB. I can throw a football over 50 yards with accuracy, had great hands, and could run the mile in 4 1/2 minutes. To this day I love throwing balls and rocks. I can hit a stop sign from a block away (not those huge city blocks, mind you).

Is this unusual?

I don't think it's unusual. I think you could have poor coordination and not have Autism (or AS) and other way around. My dad was great at sports and he's most likely an aspie. I think I probably could be good at some sports, considering that I was pretty strong for my age (when I was a kid) but I wasn't allowed to do a lot because of a health condition. My younger son is nonverbal but he's really strong for a 6 years old and has pretty good coordination. Unfortunately not a lot of places have inclusion program. He loves gymnastics, and I think with proper training he could be good at it. Now I REALLY hope our insurance can cover horse riding, that's something both of my kids are interested in. So fingers crossed... I think it's a misconception that most aspies the clumsy nerdy types

 

[Vanilla]

I'm not terribly sporty, but I know one Aspie who has had a life-long obsession with playing cricket (and he's pretty good too). He plays often with a local team, as their main bowler.

 

[clg114]

I likely have Aspergers, as many of you may have read. My PCP believes it, my wife believes it, and, most importantly, I believe it. We are waiting for a formal diagnosis with a psychiatrist.

That said, it seems like the only Aspie symptom I don't have and have never had is this clumsiness and lack of hand/eye coordination I keep reading about. How many of you does this impact? Does one have to have this symptom to be an Aspie?

I'm fantastic at sports and always have been. Particularly football; I was a QB, WR, and DB. I can throw a football over 50 yards with accuracy, had great hands, and could run the mile in 4 1/2 minutes. To this day I love throwing balls and rocks. I can hit a stop sign from a block away (not those huge city blocks, mind you).

Is this unusual?

Well there you go, I guess we really are all different. I have two left feet and trip over them all of the time. I have studied and practiced several sports in my life, only to be average at best. I think that being clumsy is a common trait of AS, but not a dominant one.

 

[Cali Cat]

My late husband wasn't clumsy, and I'm pretty sure he was Aspie too, since he was just like me. In fact, my husband had very good fine motor control too. I'm like Lizzy17, I get the "dropsies" sometimes when I'm not concentrating closely enough.

 

[RaphaPower]

I likely have Aspergers, as many of you may have read. My PCP believes it, my wife believes it, and, most importantly, I believe it. We are waiting for a formal diagnosis with a psychiatrist.

That said, it seems like the only Aspie symptom I don't have and have never had is this clumsiness and lack of hand/eye coordination I keep reading about. How many of you does this impact? Does one have to have this symptom to be an Aspie?

I'm fantastic at sports and always have been. Particularly football; I was a QB, WR, and DB. I can throw a football over 50 yards with accuracy, had great hands, and could run the mile in 4 1/2 minutes. To this day I love throwing balls and rocks. I can hit a stop sign from a block away (not those huge city blocks, mind you).

Is this unusual?

I suffer from the clumsiness and the lack of motor skill devolopment but what I found out when I was in middle school I was pretty good at track and doing soccor. Like I barely played cause i was awkward and try to sit out but when I did I was pretty good and everybody was like wow so yeah some of us are good at sports and you are one of them man!

 

[Judge]

Hmmmm. Not sure if I'd consider it "unusual".

Rather I'd just point out that while we may or may not share numerous traits and behaviors, we do so at different amplitudes. One can't use a cookie-cutter to define Autism Spectrum Disorder.

When I was first investigating my own perceived ASD, I thought I also had reasonable physical agility...beyond being considered "clumsy". Certainly not an athlete, but not really a clutz, either. However I discovered my stilted walking as a child as in fact a trait of ASD. However my hand-eye coordination is pretty good.

Or as I prefer to say quite often here, "IT'S COMPLICATED!"

 

[ExplosiveTMT]

I was pretty good at athletics, but not team sports.

 

[RaphaPower]

I was pretty good at athletics, but not team sports.

what kind of athletics?

 

[Ste11aeres]

I likely have Aspergers, as many of you may have read. My PCP believes it, my wife believes it, and, most importantly, I believe it. We are waiting for a formal diagnosis with a psychiatrist.

That said, it seems like the only Aspie symptom I don't have and have never had is this clumsiness and lack of hand/eye coordination I keep reading about. How many of you does this impact? Does one have to have this symptom to be an Aspie?

I'm fantastic at sports and always have been. Particularly football; I was a QB, WR, and DB. I can throw a football over 50 yards with accuracy, had great hands, and could run the mile in 4 1/2 minutes. To this day I love throwing balls and rocks. I can hit a stop sign from a block away (not those huge city blocks, mind you).

Is this unusual?

I don't think there's any Aspie that has every single Aspergers symptom.
Physical clumsiness is not an integral part of Aspergers, not an essential part of the definition of Aspergers.

 

[ExplosiveTMT]

what kind of athletics?

Running races, long jump, high jump, shotput and javelin throws and other things like that.

 

[AdamR]

My Aspie partner (Nadador on these forums) has never been much into sport, but he is an Aikido Shihan, or Master, so he is certainly athletic and capable of precise, controlled movement. His work also requires athletic agility, quick reflexes, and tremendous balance.

Nadador says he used to have a degree of characteristic, though not universal, Aspie clumsiness. Years of martial arts, yoga, rock-climbing, and trekking sorted that out--though he's noted slightly reduced coordination in recent years. Possibly nothing more than the usual decline that comes with ageing.

Were he available to answer, Nadador would surely suggest you look into martial arts, if you haven't before. I do Aikido as well, and at a good dojo, I assure you won't find the disrespect for your other AS traits that you would in a team sport. Aikido is especially good for the mental and spiritual aspects, which can also greatly benefit someone with AS, though as a devout Christian, you may find you would have to translate the philosophy to suit your own path.

 

[Athelstan]

It's funny you guys mention this dropping objects stuff. When I was younger I would have to concentrate on holding objects or I would occasionally drop them. I also had an extraordinarily difficult time learning to hold scissors properly. I remember cutting my hand one day in 6th grade trying to hold the scissors; I could only hold and operate them upside down. I was still athletic, though. These days I don't suffer from these things. It seems like it's been a give and take all my life with AS now that I know why I have always struggled and been different.

 

[Daniel]

I relate to a lot on here... I am a spiller of liquids. A dropper of food. I've fallen on stairs many, many times. I buy cheaper musical instruments or things that I'm okay with getting dinged up or dropped. And the body of my car is scratched and gouged.

I also love playing sports, and I'm generally quite good at them. Both my parents are good athletes at multiple sports.

I played competitive baseball for nine years. I loved pitching and playing the outfield. I started practicing diving catches when I was nine years old and soon after I was doing it in games, too. I loved striking out hitters with change-ups and big, slow curveballs. I became a decent line-drive hitter, though not very aggressive. I also loved throwing out runners from the outfield.

I did not mix with the jock-types. At least the ones I knew were harmless. Nice enough guys, but the older we got the less I had in common with them.

I recently took up tennis after a fifteen-year hiatus, and I'm way better now than I was when I was a kid. I can keep a rally going, direct the ball where I want it, and get serves in consistently. At my previous job, they had a ping pong table, and I got pretty good after a while. I'm considering playing squash this winter.

In the summer, we had a work event where they held a big game of Ultimate Frisbee. I played defense, and I did well enough to be referred to as "The Iron Curtain."

To answer the title question, "Is it weird that I'm great at sports," I like to think we're all equally unique, and ultimately there is no weird!

 

[AsheSkyler]

I don't think it's weird. I excelled at karate when I took it. Great balance, good coordination, and I was working on some good ambidexterity that impressed my instructor instead of favoring one hand or foot. My lungs always sucked, my endurance was poopy, but my strength and precision were good. I've had a lot of fun and did fairly well in other athletic things I've tried, although not well in team sports because shouting sounds too muddled for me to figure out what they want. Which is funny, because I also have the grand talent of tripping over flat surfaces!

 

[Curtis-Cline]

Hi man. Agree with all the good comments you are getting here. No two people are alike, so certain features of Aspergers or HF Autsim will be more pronounced.I would say, Autism is an advantage for solo sports, because you will stick to the routine of repetitive training much better and do things in a systematic way - which can be very productive - plus your brain can probably process certain information far quicker than your competitors.

Team sports are more difficult, for obvious reasons (lack of cognitive empathy + difficulty with the social side of being in a team).If you are athletic go for it. I found running was great, as I could be part of an event like a half-marathon, but I didn't have to interact socially to participate. So I find sports good for joining in an activity with other people - without having to do all that "fake" social bonding (which is a total mystery to me)!

4 1/2 is a great time for the mile (beats my best by 5 seconds).
I also have ADHD - which was great for running in my youth - as I was always driven to keep going, even when my body wanted to quit (was in the top 100 ranking for my age group in the UK for 5k, despite being of average ablity). I was like Forest Gump (in so many ways)!

If you can throw like that, have you ever tried javelin or discus? Sounds like you'd be really great. My throwing is rubbish - really uncoordinated (I won't say "like a girl", as most of the girls could thow way further than me!).

And yep, I find it hard to use scissors or sellotape or wrap parcels and count out coins at a checkout or form sentences verbally (people think I have learning difficulties). As for food and drink...I am cleaning up spillages and breakages all day! Yet - for a living - I'm a professional guitarist and scientific writer/programmer. I can't learn coding or music the usual way - but I play by ear and by visualising geometric patterns on the fingerboard (or patterns and shapes in the code). So it doesn't always make sense what works and what doesn't. My EQ is 22/80 and the Aspergers Test score is 40/42.

I also use exercise/sport to cope with meltdowns (which are fairly frequent and damaging). Went for a 10km walk in the dark two-nights ago, after an "outburst"...I normally find a run or long walk is very helpful.

 

[On the Inside]

I am diagnosed HFA, I also excelled to a point at various sports, mostly individual sports. I raced bicycles competitively, lettered in high school tennis, am an expert snow skier, and love to trail run. I feel that my bodily sensitivity has helped me a great deal in that, I am not sensitive in the way that I hate the feel of certain things, etc, but I believe I have unusual body awareness. That has also given me very good fine motor skills.

I also think that I found it very easy to get totally absorbed in practicing by myself. I spent hours hitting tennis balls against the school playground walls by myself, I could spend hours riding my bike alone, day after day. Activities like these were my sanctuary.

Like the OP, my social deficiencies held me back from truly excelling. When it came time to dedicate myself to something, join the right teams, train with others, get coaching, then I would get interested in something else.