I notice that there are very few threads here about participant sports, which is an element of, you know, "Health and Lifestyle," so I thought I'd start one.
I played a lot of games and sports when I was a kid, then pretty much dropped them when I got married. But then, when my son (my only child) got past the point where my support of his activities was necessary I was in a position of having a lot of free time on my hands. So I took up a number of activities (happily), among which were golf and bowling. I was about 50 years old at the time, and I'm 64 now.
It seemed logical to me when I took up these sports (and it still does now) to seek professional help to bring myself to a tolerable level of competence. I took golf lessons, read books, magazine articles, practiced, did a lot of self-examination to correct problems areas, and I'm now a tolerable golfer with a handicap around 12-14.
In bowling, I was not able to find any "teaching professionals," and I quickly saw that most of the people who offered free advice didn't know what they were talking about, so I bought a couple of instructional books, took videos of myself to make sure I was actually doing what I pictured myself doing, and eventually got myself to where I average 185-190 - which is tolerable for bowling once a week.
But I am perpetually amazed at the number of people who play these sports regularly, do them terribly, constantly whine about their bad shots and errors, and yet they NEVER DO ANYTHING TO MAKE THEMSELVES BETTER. And this is the norm, not the exception.
The most obvious example is bowling. How can you bowl once a week for 40 years and never make a mental note of the fact that EVERY GOOD BOWLER IN THE WORLD THROWS A HOOK? And you continue to throw a straight ball, continue to stink at bowling, and continue to whine that you never get any better? WTF?
In golf, I know people who have been hitting the same stupid slice shot for years, and rather than trying to CORRECT IT, they simply hit the ball to the left of where they really want it to go, and hope that it curves into the fairway. And as with bowling, they stink, and they never improve, they never do anything to correct or improve their play, and they always complain when they hit bad shots (basically most of the time).
Why do people become retarded when it comes to participant sports? If they were doing anything else badly, year after year (driving?), wouldn't they eventually try to do something so that they can do it better?
I'm talking about the great majority of people who participate in these sports. Why isn't it self-evident that if you enjoy the sport and you want to get better, you have to do something overt to make yourself better?
I'm sure it's a psychological thing, but I just don't get it.
I played a lot of games and sports when I was a kid, then pretty much dropped them when I got married. But then, when my son (my only child) got past the point where my support of his activities was necessary I was in a position of having a lot of free time on my hands. So I took up a number of activities (happily), among which were golf and bowling. I was about 50 years old at the time, and I'm 64 now.
It seemed logical to me when I took up these sports (and it still does now) to seek professional help to bring myself to a tolerable level of competence. I took golf lessons, read books, magazine articles, practiced, did a lot of self-examination to correct problems areas, and I'm now a tolerable golfer with a handicap around 12-14.
In bowling, I was not able to find any "teaching professionals," and I quickly saw that most of the people who offered free advice didn't know what they were talking about, so I bought a couple of instructional books, took videos of myself to make sure I was actually doing what I pictured myself doing, and eventually got myself to where I average 185-190 - which is tolerable for bowling once a week.
But I am perpetually amazed at the number of people who play these sports regularly, do them terribly, constantly whine about their bad shots and errors, and yet they NEVER DO ANYTHING TO MAKE THEMSELVES BETTER. And this is the norm, not the exception.
The most obvious example is bowling. How can you bowl once a week for 40 years and never make a mental note of the fact that EVERY GOOD BOWLER IN THE WORLD THROWS A HOOK? And you continue to throw a straight ball, continue to stink at bowling, and continue to whine that you never get any better? WTF?
In golf, I know people who have been hitting the same stupid slice shot for years, and rather than trying to CORRECT IT, they simply hit the ball to the left of where they really want it to go, and hope that it curves into the fairway. And as with bowling, they stink, and they never improve, they never do anything to correct or improve their play, and they always complain when they hit bad shots (basically most of the time).
Why do people become retarded when it comes to participant sports? If they were doing anything else badly, year after year (driving?), wouldn't they eventually try to do something so that they can do it better?
I'm talking about the great majority of people who participate in these sports. Why isn't it self-evident that if you enjoy the sport and you want to get better, you have to do something overt to make yourself better?
I'm sure it's a psychological thing, but I just don't get it.
