What sports do you still play?

[nofishfisherman]

If any of you are like me you are probably trying to hold on to some of your athletic ways by finding sports and leagues to compete in. Just curious what you guys to do keep feeding that desire for competition?

I was a runner in high school, college, and very little at the club level, and devoted many years to track and field. In college the pounding on the legs started adding up and I opted to hang up the track spikes for good after having to sit out almost 2 complete years due to various injuries. It took me 5-6 years to realize that the human body is not well suited to run the hurdle events for too long. After walking away from track I fell completely out of the running game.

Once I quit track I picked up Ultimate Frisbee since there was a new team forming at my school that needed players. I have now been playing for over 10 years and play at least 6 months out of the year in a Twin Cities Ultimate League. Right now this is my main outlet for my competitive ways.

I also try to maintain some basketball skills as I grew up playing. I don't play as much as I'd like but I do hit the pickup games at the gym as often as I can. Although since I'm 6'4" I always get stuck being the low post guy banging against the guys that are too fat to play any other position so that gets a little old.

I have also tried a few other nontraditional sports. I've played a few seasons of dodge ball in the past. It looks much easier than it is. If you get sent up against a team that knows how to play it can be downright embarrassing. Its also very hard on the elbow to throw nerf balls as hard as you can. For the time I played it was fun but I probably enjoyed the post game beer more.

I figure once I get older I'll settle down and pick up softball but for now I like something a little more physical.

So what else do you weekend warriors still do?

[picksbigwagon]

I hung up my hitops about 8 years ago. Played college basketball and four years of competition basically took the drive and fire out of me. I played leagues in the metro for about 9 years but the constant pounding on my knees and ankle took its' toll. Being 6'7", I too tired of playing agianst the heavier out of shape guys at the gym or lthe ittle cheap shot artists that felt since I was taller, the could just haul off and wail on me. (Eagan Lifetime was terrible the last 6 months I played there).

I know have three kids and have found other outlets for getting out and doing stuff ( hunt and fish, my 10 year old is my outdoor buddy now!). 6 years ago, my wife's sister got married to a golfer, I had never really played it much, never had clubs made for me, but now I am hooked, custom fit clubs, and carrying a 16 hcp, but this summer I am pushing to get to a single digit hcp. The first couple of years I rode in a cart, but now I walk with a push cart. The way I drive the ball, I probaby walk an extra mile and a half compared to my brother in law.

I am currently working out at Koko Fit in the golf specific program, working a lot of core exercises and legs. I just had my 12 th workout strength test and I am up 23%. Mostly in my legs, I was shocked at how weak y legs had gotten in the past 5-10 years......

[TR21HP]

Pretty much strength training with a competition now and then for me. After football in highschool, college then 4 years as a pro I took up softball and played that for 15 years with 3 national champs it was time to get away from the team sport scene and just do bodybuilding. I was lucky enough to walk away from football intact despite my career being cut short by concussions. The Gym provides the outlet for the competitive aspect in my life that still is there.Of course there's always bass tourneys as well.

[paceman]

I ran track and cross country in high school and college. Ran so much I actually got sick of it. So after college I didn't do much running for about 15 years. I still played tons of basketball, softball, volleyball, golf.. Eventually got married, had kids, worked to much. Stopped playing softball, hoops... Now at the old age of 44 I am now getting back into running, but only 3-5 miles a day. haved joined a church basketball league and now play on a co-ed volleyball league, plus golf a ton in the summer. I am a very competitive person and I am enjoying competing in sports again.

[nofishfisherman]

I ran track and cross country in high school and college. Ran so much I actually got sick of it.

That's were I got with it as well. College track was a full time job that just wears you down. Our practices went 6 days a week from September - early June and included the indoor and outdoor season. I'm sure adding a full cross country season would have been even worse. All the other collegiate sports have much shorter seasons so they give atheletes a break. Track and cross country just never end and if you get injured you can almost always write off the entire season because by the time you are able to get back on the track you're so far behind in conditioing and training that its tough to compete.

[CANOPY SAM]

Golf, hunting and fishing. If wood cutting, splitting and stacking were a sport...I would win! Play catch (baseball and football) with my kids and their friends in our yard, and shoot a game of "horse" with my kids as often as time allows.

Still squeeze in a game of dodgeball or kickball with the kids at church from time to time, but normally end up getting drilled in the face, or pulling a hammy...not necessarily in that order.

Used to play baseball, hockey, track, and tennis. Loved em' all! Last time I played an old timers game of hockey I had an absolute blast, but came very close to giving myself an acute coronary infarction.

Not much for competitive blood left in me anymore. More than anything else I simply love to play.

[DrJuice1980]

Do they still have open summer track events in Blaine? I remember running those in high school and they had the old guys classes. Was cleaning out the garage this fall and came across the track spikes and thought about the glory days and maybe giving it a go again. Now I just play Sunday night softball in the summer, double header D-ball, nothing were you need to try to be a super star, just enought to get the juices flowing and try to hit a dinger here and there.

[nofishfisherman]

I use to run in some summer club track events back in the day. A few friends and I set up our own club so we could pick and choose which events we would run. I remember it being pretty easy to set up the club and get entered into the events and I'm sure the meets are still held. Although when I was runnning in them they were usually held at either the U of M or Hamline.

I quit running in them after awhile because in my events (110 hurdles and 400 hurdles) they wouldn't attract very high level talent so I'd coast to 1st place finishes. Only time they attracted better runners was during olympic qualifying years. Runners needed to achieve a certain time to get invited to the olympic qualifying meet and the club races were sanctioned races where the time was certified and could be used to gain an invite.

[DrJuice1980]

Do you have to run in a club? I recall doing it with and without a club. Cant I just show up and throw a sub 50 400 at them?

[nofishfisherman]

I think you can run unattached as well. Its been 10+ years since I ran in my last meet so I'm not sure of the process any more. They use to have info about the races at the raceberryjam HSOforum. If the meets are still being held I'm sure they'd have the info.

I've thought about lacing up the spikes and hitting a meet again but the hurdle races aren't something you just go do on a whim. The risk of injury is pretty high if you don't have the timing, rythym, and flexibility. I'd also be depressed to see how far my times have fallen off. Not sure I want to put an actual number to my lost athletic ability. I use to be in the low to mid 50's for the 400 hurdles, now I'm sure I'm 30-60 seconds above that depending on when in the race I pull my first groin muscle.

[DrJuice1980]

yeah the sub 50 times are probably not going to return. I will be relying on adrenaline and oldman strength to pull me through. I sure hope I wouldnt end up over 60 seconds though. That would be a kick to the ego. Problem is at my age I would be running in the "open" age group and some nerdy distance kid would beat me bad or I might just have to "Train" for the next 2.5 years so I would be in the masters class.

[PierBridge]

Can I assume Texas Holdem, Pot Limit Omaha and Omaha Hi-Lo don't qualify?..

I retired from fairly competitive Slow pitch softball a loooong time ago and went into golf, hardcore, for about 10 years. I burnt out on that and went to strictly hunting and fishing for the most part.

Golf is just too time consuming and extremely expensive. I miss the competitive aspect of sports so I got back into it in the Umpiring and officiating end of things both youth and adult. It's a lot more fun than I envisioned so far and it pays pretty darn good.

I go back and fourth on wanting to get back into golf but I always end up fishing or hunting.

All in ..

[Northlander]

Im like picksbigwagon. I played collage basketball, track and football and after college did some football, softball and basketball leagues. About 7 years ago i got sick of being in pain all the time and quit everything but sand volleyball. I now walk more than anything and take out the mountain bike every so often. Snow shoes are next for me.

Of course fishing and all it brings.

[gr82fish]

Very similar to most of you guys - bball, vball, baseball in high school, any and every intramural event I could join/try in college, continue to play bball, vball(a little softball for 7 years) 2-3x a week for the past 28+ yrs, then sand vball in summer, along with golf, fishing/kayaking, running(mainly treadmill in winter, local streets in summer)and hunting in fall and for this summer my wife and I are looking to buy some good trail bikes to take advantage of the Cuyuna and Paul Bunyan trail system around here.

[Scott M]

I never thought my love affair with basketball would cool off, but it has. I played high school, as much high division intramurals as I could in college, and then came up to play metro leagues with buddies from school. Every year I got older was another fraction of a step lost. A couple years ago I stopped playing the leagues and just went to open gym. Even then, if you aren't playing at least weekly or better, your handles are gone, your jumper is toast, and you don't just run the floor anymore, you find yourself questioning if you should crash the boards or fall back on defense. I never had to play calculated like that before. What really gets me is in the winter, I take weekend ice fishing trips. And when I get back after 2-3 weeks off, I'm back to square one again. No continuity. It's frustrating. I've switched heavily to hunting and fishing, with some basketball on the side as nothing more than a bit piece. That's the part that's hard to swallow. I used to hate playing with the guys that were there to just be accessories, but now that's me.

Oddly enough, the hunting and fishing are better motivators to stay in shape than anything else. I get myself running to build up the cardio before hunting season gets here. I also get myself in shape before heading into the BWCA. If only I could keep that going all year long.

As for feeding the desire for competition...if I'm not 100% invested, I'm not really in a competitive mood. And I do my best to keep competition out of my hunting and fishing. It's hard enough fooling the animals, I don't need to throw my buddies into that lot. I'm 100% invested in hunting and fishing, but rarely if ever do I make a competition out of it.

[nofishfisherman]

I feel ya about being a fraction of a step slower every year. Now that I'm in my 30's I can really tell thigns aren't as easy as they once were. During my fall Ultimate season I willget matched up against teams of high school players, nothing makes you feel older than playing against 16 year olds.

As I've gotten older I've had to learn how to play smarter and not harder. Now when I'm defending those young guys I'll let them run as hard and as much as they want. Instead of chasing after them I play the angles and then make hard calculated cuts. I can still turn it on when I need to and can still run down a lot of younger guys but not as easily as in the past and if I have to do it too often it will usually mean a quick sub out for me to catch my breath.

[fishersofmen]

I feel ya about being a fraction of a step slower every year. Now that I'm in my 30's I can really tell thigns aren't as easy as they once were. During my fall Ultimate season I willget matched up against teams of high school players, nothing makes you feel older than playing against 16 year olds.

Yep. I played a game of soccer against my 15 year old daughters soccer team. It was parents vs the kids. We thought we would smoke them but that wasn't the case. Kids can run around for ever it seems like without getting tired.....

[gr82fish]

Looking back at my 30's, I noticed a major skill/ability dropoff starting at about 34-35, and then again at 43-44. Strange how the body works. Now my skills have just flatlined, and like yourself, just trying to play smarter and pass first, second and even third since the jumpshot has succumbed to gravity and is called a setshot and when the ball is put on the floor it is easy pickings for those youngsters. The competitive juices keep flowing, though, for a few reasons: trying to keep up (with whatever just passed me by like I was standing still), ward off apathy/atrophy, and just because I want to hold on to my youth for another day.

[SkunkedAgain]

Football brought me a lot of injuries. Running brought me tendonitis. Powerlifting reignited my football injuries. I play a lot of ultimate frisbee as well, but am slowly transitioning back to bike riding. My dad had to stop playing basketball in his 30s due to bad knees but switched to biking. He still bikes to this day. It's great exercise, easy on the knees, and isn't competitive.

If I had consistent access, I'd make swimming my daily exercise. I just need to live on a lake full time!

nofish - sent you a PM

[nofishfisherman]

Just returned the PM, we have in fact played together. Small world.

[Redlantern]

I didn't notice this forum until today, so I'm a bit late. I've gotten into inline skating (rollerblading) marathons. Easier than running and you still get to see a lot of cuties wearing spandex. I also try to do a couple of 5k runs a year. I'll probably never be competative but it's fun to give it a shot. The adventure racing is fun, done a couple of them. I should have bought some decent skate skis last fall since we had plenty of snow for it. I'm going to try some single track biking this year and see if I like it.

[chasineyes]

Just noticed this new forum (great idea). Since I turned 40, I have begun promoting activites to my daughters 12/8. We do a lot of hiking, tennis, golf, cycling, camping etc.. in the summer and downhill skiing, swimming, racquetball etc.. in the winter. Nothing better than watching your kids "get it" and then get excited about it!!! As far as team sports (travel), I keep them as far away as possible. Not giong to handcuff the family to an every weekend softball/basketball tournmanet. Just

[Odonata]

I play men's league hockey twice a week, run 3-6 miles often, and walk our hunting property a lot. I did the insanity workout for the duration they request; not a fan of that. I'm 36 and have noticed a few changes in recovery time, but I'm not as active as I used to be.

[Jacques1]

Hockey and Football are the name of sports that i still play for my healthy life.

[jmd1]

I ran track, played football, basketball, wore a singlet. Then i started working full time and my activities turned to heavy lifting, squatting with parts in hand, benching fire pump into place, now just today one of my temporary employees knocked over 300 65 lb bags of cotton seed. so there is no machine to pick them up except the ones at the end of the arm. Stack 6 pallets in a warehouse that is 112 degrees and you will get all the cardio and heart rate you want. My wife tells me we need to go for a walk in the evening, heck it is still 107 degrees outside. I ll wait til december for my walk. Man would i give to be able to go fishing and not have to wear gold bond just to keep from chaffing.