I Don't "Get" Sports.

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Is it an Aspie thing to not get caught up in the thrill of sporting events? I remember a few years back when the Toronto Blue Jays won the world series, watching on TV as Torontonians filled the streets and there were the usual chants of "We're #1". I remember thinking to myself , "You're not #1, it was the team who won the game and besides that the vast majority of the players come from the United States or the Dominican Republic or wherever".

I just don't get all the screaming and cheering and excitement and carrying-on over sporting events. I just don't comprehend it.

Sounds like a lack of "mirror neurons", which apparently is associated with autism. There's an article on them at wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_neuron

I don't get it either. To me, sport is for fun and not to be taken too seriously, although I have nothing against supporting your favourite team in whichever sport you prefer.

What I don't understand is men who support football. They are seemingly normal (apart from the fact that they are men) most of the year, but stick a football event on and they morph into primates and make sort of 'ooh ooh ooh' noises in unison like you'd expect from a crowd of apes. Can anyone try to explain this for me? Overactive miror neurons per chance?

Alcohol.

I can't refute the hypothesis from my experience.

As a teenager trying to be normal, I did make a serious attempt to be a football supporter.

"What team do you support?" was such a frequent question and harrasment at school, that "I don't" wasn't a good reply.

And at the matches people around me appeared to be having such a good time, it would have been wonderful to lock into the same...

But it is quite possible to be completely alone in the midst of 30,000 other people.

And one wet afternoon on the terraces at Highbury it dawned on me:
"Am I having fun yet?"

When England win the World Cup it is a party happening. It would be hard to believe that even Aspies would see it as normal day.

When I want to Turkey a small team won a football match. It was a big party for them, a whole bunch of them drove down the road like cheering, like an army of Mods. That was something else, I tell thee.

The only sports I enjoy watching are the Olympic/comenweath games, and winter olympic type sports, and fishing.

My sisters husband hoots and holers when footballs on.

Wow! This business of Mirror Neurons is new to me. The NOVA segment that Wikipedia links to seems like essential viewing for Aspies. Here's a link for anyone who hasn't already seen it:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3204/01.html

You know, it makes me speculate on a problem I've been having at work. We're commissioning all this new equipment and as I watch the other guys crowd around the control panel watching another fellow operate the new system, I get the impression that they are picking it up a lot more quickly than I am. Is it because they are better at "mirroring" actions than I am?

Pretty much.

I wrote a story for the site on mirror neurons a while back when it broke. It's interesting stuff. It affects everthing: actions, emotions, socialization, learning ...

I don't think it "explains" autism, as some claim, but it's a big step.

I like basketball. The NBA Conference Finals are here and I'm supporting my favorite team, Phoenix Suns. I use to be obsessed with basketball and that team growing up and still kinda am just not near as much. I don't follow any other sports, play others on occassion.

I just like the sport. I can't explain it, I just do.

GroovyDruid, where can I find that story you wrote?

I deeply hate football (soccer)! To me, it's just 10 000 nazis shouting threats and curses and some dimwits who run after a ball instead of doing something really uniqe for themselves.

I used to play some some sports but really never good at them. I used to watch sports but over the years I have watched less and less sports. I can understand the game and its goals but have really never have got into the games as a true fan or something like that.

For me, surprisingly, I actually fully understand sports.

However, at the same time, I don't classify team sports as sports, I classify them as uneeded timewasting crap.

I mean, sure, I like watching some team sports (basketball only, really, I seem to enjoy basketball a lot even though I'm slightly mediocre at it), but the general idea of team sports just sucks. Usually, team sports lead to not teamwork, but seperation, at least that's what I felt in those years my dad made me play football.

I played soccer for a short while during my high school years, and it was fun and all. The players, of course, were those with developmental or learning disabilities of some sort, since it was that sort of school. I'm not that fond of soccer or any other team sport to actually get involved with it, because I have better things to do with my life. My parents tried to get me into baseball when I was younger, but that I absolutely hated, and I wasn't really good at hitting or catching the ball to begin with. Soccer was different for some reason, maybe foot-to-eye coordination is better than eye-to-hand coordination or whatever.

As far as watching sports, that I don't even get involved with. I find it extremely boring. I do not know why people are so interested in such things, but I just chalk it up to that everyone has their own interests and are different in many different ways. Some people have remarked as to why I don't find Superbowl Day that exciting, and I just reply with something like: "It's just that people have their own interests. Football is not one of mine."

- Ray M -