"Lonely" sports and AS

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Do many people with AS find team sports hard and lone sports easier?

I was in the London cross-country team when I was at school. I go running almost every day and I love having the freedom to run where I want, as fast as I want and for how long I want. I love running.

However I was never able to play team sports. I would get too aggressive whenever someone blocked me and I found it hard to work out what the other players were trying to do.

I do not enjoy playing team sports and I find them difficult to understand, but running/cycling/skiing/walking are my favourite sports, I suspect because they do not involve major interactions with other players.

How do you feel about this?

Oh, definitely. Having to coordinate with others and compete against yet another group makes things much more complicated than they need to be. I'd rather compete against myself, or else just enjoy the activity for its own sake. I'm fond of swimming, biking, hiking, and some sorts of aerobics.

People have described my football (soccer) playing as terrible. I tend to chase the ball, rather than maintain a formation.

I do, however, do well at cycling, walking (I don't run if I can help it), table tennis and pool.

The only teams I'm not a liability to are quiz teams or other thinking groups.

((((hugs))))

~LL~

This wasn't the case for me. I was good at sports in general; team & individual alike. Sports are activities in which your goals and expectations are clear regardless of how many other people are around. Unlike most social interaction.

Lol thanks =]

I used to hit people with my hockey stick (accidentally) when I played hockey. So much so that I was banned from playing hockey in school.

I remember how at school I was always made the goalie in football because I am useless at co-ordinating with a team, but I'm great at standing in the way of a ball in flight and hence preventing a goal.

I feel exactly the same as the thread-starter. Skating, snowboarding, swimming, running, cycling, etc work for me. Sports that involve communication never did.

I like karate. You learn together and are a family but it is mainly a solitude sport. I did play softball for a while but it frustrated em when people got mad cause I didn't catch the ball or something.

I've always hated sports. I don't know why. I was never that good, never had the best coordination. I just started loathing P.E class and doing minimal effort.
Team sports were the worst, because if I did bad I let the whole team down, who were people who barely talked to me anyway.

I started out wanting to be involved in sports, but I was terrible at anything that involved running because I seemed to have a trick ankle that would twist and give out without warning. After many ankle injuries I gave up on running sports. I was, however, in spite of ankle problems, very good at roller skating and loved the exhilaration of rolling, gliding around the rink or up and down the streets. There was no competition involved in the kind of skating I did, there could be of course, but I kept to myself even if skating with a group, there was no pressure to perform. I hated field hocky when forced to play in school during gym class. I was so clumsy with the stick and had poor control. Plus, the ankle thing, and even though I told them I had bad ankles, they made me play or get an F. I love riding my bike, but leisurely. I love swimming. Walking, not running or jogging, is also something I love to do.

Growing up, I didn't particularly think of myself as "different", but I did have a very strong sense that "other people" were somehow born knowing the rules to certain team sports and games.

One of my fondest (NOT) childhood memories is from when I was in the 4th grade, which is about age 9 or 10. Our class had been particularly well-behaved, so we got a "special treat." Instead of having science class, we all got to go outside and play a game of kickball. Oh joy.

I knew the basic rules to kickball, or so I thought. When it was my turn to kick, I KICKED the ball, pretty darn far for me, and then I ran around to the different bases. I haven't the foggiest clue what I did wrong, but next thing I knew, a bunch of kids from my team were getting in my face and having a fit. This one wiry little girl named Noel was completely freaking out, "WHAT DID YOU DO THAT FOR??? YOU MADE US LOSE!! !! !" Did anyone ever tell me what I did wrong? Of course not. No one had ever actually taught us the rules to kickball, but somehow they all knew, and I didn't.


I'd rather make myself vomit than have to play a team sport. (I'd love a game of Scrabble, though!)

Actually, i enjoy playing 1vs 1 with someone at badmington (i can't stand the 2 vs 2 versions, that and the rules annoy me, i'd rather spend time just passing the ..... huh.... bird (?) around and only respecting the rules for points... meh) but sadly i can't ever get people for it or that are competent . I'm also quite good at running, never timed myself though, oh and bike is a good choice too (careful in the city though).

Definitely not a good team player. I still run or hike almost every day, most often by myself and love it that way. When I was in school I had to play team sports in gym class. I did not usually enjoy it. I was so nervous about doing the wrong thing and having everyone blame me that it sucked any joy out of the activity. I dodged the attempts to get me on workplace softball teams because I am afraid of the ball and just couldn't take the pressure of performing other than for the sheer fun of it. I love running trails and do enjoy the occasional trail race. Your average trail runners love solitude and they are a really easy to get along with bunch. I also like archery, just mindlessly shooting arrows at the target, not competition.

They say rowing ( or crew as you call it in america ) is a highly autistic sport:

Minimal verbal communication
Doing the same thing over and over
Lots of numbers (imagine 2hrs sat on a rowing machine)
Anti-social training hours

I love(d) rowing

Yes! I loved kayaking, until I broke my shoulder. Perhaps the pain will diminish and ROM will return, then I'll take it up again.

For me it's always depended on the sport. I have always had really poor upper body strength for some reason, so I did really badly at volleyball. Also, I'm far too uncoordinated for basketball and soccer. Baseball I did ok at (I can hit the ball no problem), but not great (throwing and catching were a problem, and I never did figure out all the rules). I really liked it when we did touch football in gym class, and I always loved german ball. We played it at home in the street after school for years - a whole bunch of kids, mostly girls. And I always wanted to play hockey - I think I would have done well if I'd been given a chance. But my parents wouldn't let me as a kid, and it's expensive to do as an adult, so I haven't taken it up, even though I've taken skating lessons.

Mostly I go hiking/on long walks, and do other solitary stuff, but that's because I have no one to play with.