Growing up, we share some common experiences that make up our childhoods. One of these experiences is playing sports. Whether is was football, wrestling, or soccer, we all were forced to do one or the other. Some of us found enjoyment, and even career’s, in athletics, others decided that they wanted nothing to do with it. For me, I wanted to try it all, with or without my parents forcing me.
My first “sport” was at the age of three when I first had a pair of ice skates strapped to my feet. From that point on the term “Hockey Player” would be defining for me. I was always an energetic kid so I needed a sport that would burn me out both mentally and physically.
During the summer, I started Soccer and Baseball, the fall brought Football. I constantly needed distraction and my mother felt that sports would be more beneficial. Once middle school came around, Football switched from flag to tackle, already being a hockey player, I was ready for the new physicality.
Now, puberty has started to kick in and I’m not, never was, the biggest guy on the field. Because of the new attitude that many of my peers gained, I decided that it was becoming too much. I wanted something more mature and adult, even though I was 13 at the time. This is when I found out about karate.
This was nothing like any sport I had done before. Where hockey and football were relatively loose in their structure, karate was only structure. All the movements and stances are very controlled. The best practitioners focus on accuracy over power. This was totally different to what I’ve experienced in the past. I had to learn control and patience as the main focus.
Now we reach high school, so far, I have competitively played football, hockey, soccer, and karate. Over the summers I swam, played golf and track and field events for my middle school. High school is a different beast when it comes to sports. This is when a persons life can be defined by the sports they play. It can lead to scholarships in college and professional play as a career.
I never aspired to be a professional in any sport. I had other interests outside of sports, but they gave me that chance to interact with people I might not have otherwise. Back to the sports, I decided that I was done with karate and wanted something new. Hockey had just ended for the spring and summer, so I needed something else. My mother suggested tennis; I was hesitant. I saw tennis as a sport for snooty rich people and at the time I was living in Jackson, WY so I knew this first hand. In the end I said yes and found that there was still sports that could challenge me in new ways.
Finally, high school came to an end and I had only done two seasons of tennis. I was still playing hockey and found that my senior year saw me with more free time than I expected. I decided that with my last year of high school, I should try one last sport. The only other one that I had interest in was wrestling.
With all the other athletics I’ve done in my life, this was the first one that required extensive strength training. I was by no means weak, but wrestlers are something else entirely when it comes to muscle mass. I had to play to my speed over my strength. As it were, I had won a few matches for it being my first year, I definitely lost a few too.
Over my 20 plus years of life, I have done my best to be as busy as possible. My parents and family all pushed me to be as best that I can be at everything that I tried. While I never took any the athletics I did past high school, I wouldn’t have made any other choice to how I lived.
