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Nominate a famous person you think may be on the spectrum

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SendInTheClowns
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19 Nov 2024, 10:08 pm

My nomination is Rassie Erasmus, a name very famous in international rubgy and currently the coach of the best rubgy team in the world, the most successful coach the Springboks in Sth Africa has ever had, and the most "quirky".

I often watch his summaries of various international games on You Tube and noticed that he stims every minute of them - sometimes by constantly tapping his face; more often by unusual repetive movements with his tongue and licking his lips.

I have read his autobiography, where he gives a lot of space to describing the unusual and unexplained "weirdness" of his (deceased) father - an interesting study IMO of an unaware, undiagnosed AS man, in an era when this was rarely recognised.

Rassie has also talked about relying sometimes on hunches/intuitions he gets about how a particular game will play out - and builds strategies around those for his team rather than sticking only to the conventional coach strategies. (This information isn't in his autobiography, but from descriptions written by others).

However that he's on the spectrum is only my own opinion. I'm a huge fan of his abilities and achievement in World Rugby.



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Today, 2:40 am

Karl Pilkington

If you have any doubts, listen to Ricky Gervais's XFM radio show from the early 00's on Youtube.



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Today, 3:32 am

SendInTheClowns wrote:
My nomination is Rassie Erasmus, a name very famous in international rubgy and currently the coach of the best rubgy team in the world, the most successful coach the Springboks in Sth Africa has ever had, and the most "quirky".

I often watch his summaries of various international games on You Tube and noticed that he stims every minute of them - sometimes by constantly tapping his face; more often by unusual repetive movements with his tongue and licking his lips.

I have read his autobiography, where he gives a lot of space to describing the unusual and unexplained "weirdness" of his (deceased) father - an interesting study IMO of an unaware, undiagnosed AS man, in an era when this was rarely recognised.

Rassie has also talked about relying sometimes on hunches/intuitions he gets about how a particular game will play out - and builds strategies around those for his team rather than sticking only to the conventional coach strategies. (This information isn't in his autobiography, but from descriptions written by others).

However that he's on the spectrum is only my own opinion. I'm a huge fan of his abilities and achievement in World Rugby.


Thank you for sharing that, and I think you are correct. There is asperger's as I perceive it in my life, but also "Ferocious Asperger's," for the big Movers & Shakers in this world, like your Rassie, and certain CEOs, and world leaders.

I think high extroversion + high energy levels + asperger's can be a successful mix in social environments. That creates a kind of Teflon personality, where nothing sticks, and even though NTs find fault in the individual for not adhering to all of the NT norms, he just keeps forging ahead and keeps on going and going. Bottom line, what people care about are results, and to the extent the aspie delivers, no one cares about stimming, those things become "charming eccentricities."


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