How do you explain sports to a non-enthusiast?
Tough to discern in just a few sentences, or rather it’d take a whole collection of different perspectives to fully disclose the importance of sport inside every man, woman and child.
I’ve been around sport since I was tender 5 years old. My father will say it’s more like 2 years old when I picked up a plastic bat and jettisoned a paper cup from off the table to the carpet (full of not-so-carpet-friendly apple juice).
My passion for competition at an early age set me down a course of many failures and successive victories. Whether it was a simple lay-up in a friendly basketball game or learning to curve a baseball past a batter crowding the plate, each action was filled with passion, determination and the growing sense that I had to push through and take down the opposition.
And that’s just the half of it.
Between all the halftime orange slices at a soccer game on down to numerous ice pack upon a pounding muscle strain, the sensation of completion was the most satisfying aspect I’ve taken from each sporting event. Take a step back, if you will, and compare the fulfillment of a game of pickup football, basketball, baseball, soccer or 100-meter race with finishing a grueling long division homework assignment or an excruciating three hour Ethics final.
Now focus on the one area of euphoria (or panic) you felt when you finished.
The growing sense of elation and imminent failure races through your mind and helps construct the building block that is future preparation for improvement. Didn’t fare so well with your jump shot? Spend a few more hours focusing your posture and handling of the ball. Mixed up Socrates with Plato? Separate the two and wrap your brain around the books for a few minutes longer. Or what about the fact that you ran for 250 yards and posted three touchdowns on the scoreboard? Well, there’s a reason there’s a double digit moniker on said scoreboard.
With the digital age receiving a makeover it seems every second, in-house entertainment is depriving many of discovering the power of sport. People blame the increasing child obesity epidemic on terrible foods and disinterest in anything that doesn’t have a look-at-me now online application.
Both arguments hold a bit of weight, that’s for sure, but the real issue is inactivity of the mind and body. Whether it’s a simple half-mile walk around your block or a bruising scrimmage with friends, activity fuels passion for greater things outside of sport. So take a few hours out of your day and reintroduce yourself to what keeps that fire alive inside.
Granted, this article may come off as purely simpleton and information that’s been force fed over and over, but in reality, nothing’s ever that simple. If it were, we wouldn’t have the staggering diabetic numbers our country unfortunately lays claim to.
Worry less about rushing to the computer to update your status and focus more on how the way things used to be when you were young. Everything was fresh, exciting and carefree. That mentality surely banked itself a bit off of seeing who could sprint down the street the fastest. Or see how high you could swing with the “fear” that you might do a full rotation around the swing set.
Even the latter is, in essence, a sport. You tried to defy expectation to your counterpart next to you and make a name for yourself.
That’s what sport truly is. And it’s never too late to light that fire again.
