Asperger's and sports; Athletic aspies?

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My whole family has always played sports, it was just something I've been doing for as long as I can remember. Soccer, softball, hockey (man, did I love hockey) field hockey, lacrosse. My aunt (whom I have suspected of also having asperger's, her son does... several people in my family do) got a full scholarship for lacrosse. I was captain of my field hockey team, MVP and leading goal scorer in the district my senior year. I loved it, even when I hated it. I have always had a natural sense of my own body, I dunno. It's strange. Sometimes I am very clumsy, I often misjudge doorframes and slam myself all over walls, sometimes I just topple over while I'm walking because I forget to hold myself straight up. But I've never broken a bone. I've never badly hurt myself. I just always seem to catch myself at the last moment and know what to do. And if I'm playing a sport I get into this sort of fluid state where I understand my body and how to use my momentum and the momentum of others against them. It feels great.

I think that if it weren't for sports I would have had a far harder time growing up. It really helped me learn how to use my energy the right ways and what ways of touching others were appropriate, etc. and it gave me a sense of belonging to be on a team. It's very clear what you're doing, or at least I always thought so. There's nothing vague about it. You just want to try to win. Ahhh. I haven't played a sport in years and I definitely feel like my mental state is suffering for it. My anxiety is through the roof. I ought to join a bar softball league or something if I could bear meeting new folk...

This is a message to all parents like me who have a child diagnosed with aspergers and who are wondering if their child could be good at sport as all specialised doctors and websites for aspergers mention the problem of coordination, lack of social skills etc.

Well, this is the story of Aaron, my son, who was diagnosed with aspergers when he was six years old. At the start, his repetitive behaviour, his lack of high contact, his anxiety with changes led us to consult our local GP. We have four kids but Aaron was different, he could not understand indirect messages such as expressions, he could not read people's facial expressions etc. After a 10 minutes visit our local GP said that Aaron was fine and that we were over anxious parents and that there was nothing wrong with him. But with time and in comparison to his siblings it became more and more obvious that Aaron was not a typical functioning six year old child. After a long battle through the medical world, we finally managed to get him assessed by a group of child psycholgists in the UK specialised in children with autism. And the diagnosis came without much doubt.

Although the fact that Aaron was diagnosed with aspergers did not bother me at all, it helped us a lot to explain to family and friends that Aaron 's behaviour was not just due to the fact that he was badly behaved or spoilt or that we were bad parents but that he just did not understood the world in the same way as most of us. At that time we moved to France, a country lagging behind in terms of accepting and understanding kids with autism. So we decided not to label Aaron as an asperger kid but to treat him in the same way as any of our other children. He is a high achieving child and I did not want to limit his experiences just on the basis that he has aspergers. I thought that when problems arose we would deal with them. We registered him at a local soccer club where at the start he stood out with his mannerisms and way of walking. He could not get too close to the other kids, he felt uncomfortable. We did not say anything to the coach or to other parents and something truly amazing happened. Quite rapidly Aaron developed tactics to adjust to his environment. He learnt French and English expressions by heart with their definition and each time something did not make sense he guessed that this was likely to be an expression and even started to use them. He did the same with facial expressions and I worked daily with him to look at people in the eyes when he spoke as not looking in the eyes in a social environment was too much of a weird thing to do.

With soccer, in a same way he developed an above average ability through obsessive behaviour. Initially he stood out as he had an extremelly advanced theoretical understanding of the game. At an age when most kids can only look at their feet, he could position himself in parts of the pitch where there was no one and so he could cover the balls when the others could not. He said to me that he saw the game from a birds eye view and during matches he could see the whole distribution of his team mates across the field like on the playstation! Then everyday he worked out new skills and practiced things that he saw on the internet. Then in some competitions there were skills tests like juggling or precision shots and he won several of them to the great astonishment of the other parents who thought at the time that he must have been lucky. Slowly but surely he became more confident and dominant in the team by the way he plays but he was still very quiet and good at listening to instructions which is a trait appreciated by coaches. He decided that he wanted to become a professional soccer player and in the last couple of years, he has worked very hard at it. His progress are amazing and he has now become really popular with his team mates. [You can see his video on Youtube if you google "Sport Guyanais U10 Aaron Gozlan Football (8 years)"].

Aaron still has difficult moments in particular at home but he works really hard to adjust and fit in. He still has a unique vision of the world, which is refreshing for us and his siblings. We keep not labelling him as asperger as where we are now living autistic kids are not accepted in mainstream society even if they do not need any help to adjust. That is the way it is. We have not even told Aaron as until now he has found his own way of coping and he is pretty successful at it. He now speaks two languages, does high level sports competition and...has quite a few friends.

So from my own experience, the capacity of some asperger kids to find their own solutions to problems they are facing daily is limitless. It has been an extraordinary journey to see our child, removing one by one all the barriers and fears we as parents had put on him and on his future.

I wonder does there are aspies athletes to compete on normal sport events not just Paralympic, but the real Olympic Games And winning and showing that Aspies are better than NTs

I wonder does there any aspie on Mundial (Soccer World Cap) or in American Football (Super Bowl)

BTW i recently come across with interview with young skateboarder Jagger Eaton, in my opinion the boy on 100 % is aspie , maybe ADHD but he's certainly not NT's

See for yourself

This is the boy i was talking about, does he not like a little bit Aspie for you?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eQGUhLVYIU

I am an Self Diagnosed Aspie. I have bee 100 percent sure for about 2 days after about 60 pages of The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome by Tony Attwood ( I have since finished). My strongest special interest is in becoming Perfect both physically and mentally. This influences pretty much all of my other special interests which are roughly 20 or so. I get the impression this is a large amount but the book was unspecific regarding any common number. Sorry kind of irrelevant. Among them the 4 most heavily adhere to are, in order, Basketball, Martial Arts, Reading Fantasy (need a Mary sue character or exceptionally strong), and League of Legends. Like the first poster I am pretty absurd in all. Although in Basketball I find can also be wildly inconsistant. I find that it is stress that prevents me from playing at my normal level. It helps to give myself positive self talk, remember what I can do when I am locked in, and move as fast as possible(its hard to worry and run at the same time). I am amazingly confident alone but because of my interactions with people I have very low confidence when around people. When I am locked in my shot is a rival to Stephen Curry. I can shoot from half court at about a 60% clip when practicing alone. And I have developed a special shot I can take running away from the basket and jumping on to my right leg and shoot as I'm turning. I can take that shot at 3 point range at a 90% clip (guarded or not) and up to the white line near half court 65-70 % unguarded and roughly 50 % while guarded. I am also a prolific defender and have success on people up to 6'6" even in the post (I am 5'9"). I also showed similar success in football. Although I specialized in WR on offense and MLB on D although I have since lost interest. Although I had a remarkable ability to catch the ball one handed or even being able to twist my body midair to catch balls thrown up to 2 1/2 - 3 feet behind me. Really would like to talk to any others with an interest in Basketball.

Pro's
zen-like single-minded focus
stubborn determination / doesn't know when to quit
breaks a complicated situation, down to simple parts
builds systems / finds the pattern
occasional lack of social apprehension

Con's
don't want to jump in the air (for emotion's sake) or hug you
offbeat fashion sense
viscous disdain for pedantism

Many of us would make for intimidating athletes, out of pure inertia, meaning no harm or ill-will toward anyone. I think our minds work like those performance video's, where people scrutinize every detail, that would lead to better performance.

I am looking at these con's, feeling that none of them are even substantial.

But, there is a problem with my natural inclinations, here:
athletes are adamant celebrities and spokespeople, more than anything.

I was told that I was physically-overqualified, required an entourage, and was supposed to be using a consumer product, for over a year.

But, physically-overqualified.

You see, the problem was not athleticism.

Autistic golfer dreams of Green Jacket

I take tennis lesson on Saturdays. I enjoy them a lot and am steadily improving.

Scott Garcia mountain climber

Autistic Colorado man tackles 14ers across the stateAutistic Colorado man tackles 14ers across the state

Me!! Well, I sucked at sports through most of my youth, I was overweight, probably eating my emotions. It didn't help that I was on the spectrum and abused by my parents. I'm a yoga instructor who is currently training for the triathlon. But I haven't been able to run in over a month, which sucks, the missing link I only found out about last summer that is the outlet I need is cut off again, but at least this is giving me an appreciation for how much I need running. I'm 35, and already faster than a lot of teenagers. Noticing patterns really kicks off the learning curve when it comes to sports. Maybe this is one way autism is a superpower. Pretty much everything in movement is breath and core. Master these 2 things, and you can do just about any physical activity, regardless of your age.

Hate team-sports, but have always been good at other sports. However, I didn't really like it much, until I found circus. I did that for years, on an elite-level for the last period. It's something about the huge sense of achievement I get from landing a new trick, and adrenaline from doing dangerous stuff high up in the air. That's the first place I've been good at cooperating as well. I did hand-to-hand acrobatics for a while, where it's all about trusting your partner, and loads and loads of touching them! It's the only time that hasn't been uncomfortable for me (except for sexual relationships. Those are fine too).

I am quite frustrated that I can't do it anymore, partly because of injuries but mostly because I get too overwhelmed by the circus world. There's a lot of travelling, partying, financial instability, and so much touching! Gee, those people just love massage-circles. Not for me, thanks! Also, I love the training, but hate being on a stage, which is pretty much the main requirement for being a circus artist.
I just had to choose one lifestyle over another, so I chose the safe but circus-less one.
I still practice my handstanding though, and took up running again. It's quite sufficient.