are some people with asperger sydrome good at any sport?

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Jerry123
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02 Dec 2009, 11:02 pm

do they learn about sports as they age?



Danielismyname
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02 Dec 2009, 11:07 pm

I played soccer when young, and I wasn't too bad. I played basketball in high school, and I wasn't that bad either.

Nothing outstanding, but I could play competitively.



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02 Dec 2009, 11:15 pm

My son is awesome at Soap Box Derby racing.. he is also a good runner, good at wrestling..
But in way of team sports.... hmmmmm ..... wellll, they do not seem to mix well with aspies.
Team sports for AS: Track, swimming, skiing, & wrestling. Martial arts is not bad because it's memorizing sequences. But sports where you have to read your teammates actions (like basketball) usually does not work. Of course, there are exceptions to every rule.


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02 Dec 2009, 11:29 pm

I'm a professional athlete, although ballet is not a sport. We are considered athletes though. In fact ballet requires more coordination than most sports, to be able to do it right. Also, I don't have to play on a team and communicate with people during a game. I just have to pretend to communicate on stage. It's perfect.



02 Dec 2009, 11:47 pm

LMAO


I did t-ball when I was 5, soccer when I was 10, 12, and 13. Softball when I was 11, 13-16 and 19 and track when I was 17 and 18. I did track once when I was 10 and it was only running. That's all we did in elementary school.



Tim_Tex
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03 Dec 2009, 12:01 am

Depends on the person.


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weeksend
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03 Dec 2009, 12:06 am

Im good at football. It is a team sport but really all i have to do is call out coverages for the line. i dont have to worry about what people are thinking.



pat2rome
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03 Dec 2009, 1:46 am

I did swimming from kindergarten to seventh grade and was very good. I quit because I wanted to focus more on wrestling. I was also very good at that; my sophomore year I would have made it to state had I not torn my MCL exactly one week before the region tournament. I wrestled anyways, and the kid who ended up winning it only beat me by one point when I had a torn ligament.

I had to quit wrestling junior year because of cartilage damage from cross country (which I did from seventh to ninth grade before my knees couldn't take it) and cartilage damage from the MCL tear (it allowed my kneecap to move around more than it should have, which rubbed away some).

I went back to swimming for one final year my senior year, and easily made it back into the top heats for my team.

So to answer your question, yes. :P You just have to pick your sports wisely (for example, I am 5'11 and 125 pounds, I would get destroyed in any sport like football).

Those were the three I excelled at, I played Little League baseball for a few years and sucked at it (I'm legally blind, it was extremely difficult to tell where the ball was). I did score every time I got on base through a walk or getting hit by a pitch, though!

I did soccer for around five years and I was good, not great. I was good enough to enjoy myself, though, and that's what matters.


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werewolf1994
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03 Dec 2009, 3:01 am

I played T-ball and soccer when I was younger, but wasn't very good, I'm pretty decent at basketball and volleyball, and a fast swimmer.



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03 Dec 2009, 3:29 am

Although most Aspies aren't team-sport oriented & can lack coordination, in certain respects, we can play too. Clay, featured in video, is diagnosed w/ Asperger's Syndrome and if you check him out on YouTube you'll find plenty about his AS & surfing. In general, not football player material nor the 'jock-type,' thank G_d. But maybe in other ways?

I'm not competitive and can be miserably uncoordinated - cannot catch or throw a ball and duck when a frisbee is thrown. But I love to play - like run through the snow, dance, that sort-of thing.

Look at Clay!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlvcKjnrY7o&feature=related[/youtube]


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03 Dec 2009, 3:59 am

Shooting pool, motorcycle racing. Done some serious mountain and desert hiking, forty miles a day.



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03 Dec 2009, 4:03 am

I did a lot of sport but I was never good at team-play, I always was a "solist".


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03 Dec 2009, 4:22 am

i liked team sports and was quite good at them, it was a way of interacting with people without having to endure the stress of trying to understand social cues and behaviors and what not.



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03 Dec 2009, 6:00 am

I absolutely hated team sports at school and have never got involved in them since. I liked solo sports like swimming, horse riding, trampolining and gymnastics though because I didn't have to compete with anyone and I couldn't screw up co-operating.

I wouldn't say I'm 'good' at these sports, but I can do them pretty averagely, if a bit uncoordinatedly. I still enjoy swimming and I can swim a mile easily.



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03 Dec 2009, 11:32 am

Team sports no, "individual" sports maybe, for me.

But I suppose an Aspie might do well in a team sport if it was a shared obsession. I've been in a couple of bands which worked out quite well, probably because performing music fascinated me so much that I really threw myself into the role and gave it my absolute best shot (I was also guilty of being quite domineering because my strong enthusiasm led to strong opinions, though there's no evidence that it did the music any harm, and at least I got the chance to do things my own way, which is much easier for me than trying to make sense of other people's ideas). Once you're used to the other people, it's surprising how well you can interact with them.

I don't see any reason why an Aspie couldn't be good at an "individual" sport. I don't bother much myself, but I think that's just the way it turned out. I'm wary of competition because of the way capitalists bang on about it being so essential, but I don't see any harm in friendly competition, in fact I think it can probably be extremely good fun, and how else can we know how good we are at a thing, except by comparing our efforts to those of others?



pat2rome
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03 Dec 2009, 11:41 am

Confused-Fish wrote:
i liked team sports and was quite good at them, it was a way of interacting with people without having to endure the stress of trying to understand social cues and behaviors and what not.


Same here; by the way, I LOVE your avatar.


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