Do you play Rugby or other team sports?

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I see there are a bunch of people who play soccer. I always hated team sports, for the obvious reasons, but 3 years ago I decided I wanted to try to play one. It was way outside my comfort zone (in many ways <grin>). I ended up playing with the San Francisco Fog Rugby Football Club, and it's been strange and amazing. They are the most supportive people and best friends anyone could ever hope for.

I should say that I have the typical aspie sensory processing time-lag, that increases with stress and complexity. But I don't have general dyspraxia.

I'm a lock forward, so most of what I do is set-plays, rucking, & tackling. Sometimes crashing. I can get by without having to make quick decisions based on complex sensory input, though knowing the state of play can get challenging. Playing touch and 7's is a whole other world that I haven't been comfortable with because there are lots of quick decisions, passes have to be instant and adjust for all kinds of conditions. It's just a mess (to me). Plus there are tons of nonverbal cues. Not pretty.

This summer I figured out that I have Asperger's syndrome. I knew I had some neurological and personality peculiarities, but I thought they were each separate, and other things I thought were normal <grin> but they aren't. I had my own awareness of how my brain works, but discovering Aspergers information was like a Unified Field Theorem, and everything made perfect sense.

We had our first practice tonight, and I was able to apply my new insights. I played the best touch I ever have, about average in the team. That is a huge improvement. I caught every pass, and the throws that didn't connect were because the receivers weren't running onto the ball the way they're supposed to. I had two 'deer in the headlight' moments when a team-mate did something unexpected, and I had to think it through, by which time it was too late. And this was all at night under lights, which wreaks havoc with my vision (bright/dark contrast).

I found that I can keep track of exactly 2 things. Add a 3rd, and one or both of the others skip in and out. The ball and one player, for example. But I can shift which 2 things without problems.

Muscle memory and reflexes aren't effected by the aspie brain wiring, and if I pre-think an action, I can do it by reflex. I can even pre-think exactly 2 actions, and make only 1 simple decision, with an undetectable time lag.

So I'm curious if other people who play team sports have invented these sorts of tricks, and I want to know what they are ! !

Hmm, nah... I'm soo bad at team sports that I don't play and if I did play my team would perform better after I was sent off! Truth!

I'm a big rugby fan myself, although I haven't actually played it. It did cross my mind to give it a try (no pun intended) during High School, but I decided not to. I guess given my size, I would probably play scrumhalf. I did play cricket though, for a club and for my High School. Playing for my club was a nightmare, but for my school was just great. Pity I'm not so good at sports. But I do hope to give rugby a try one day.

Not on a regular basis like most kids around my area do (e.g soccer teams). However, I am going to be taking Team Sports next year (it's an elective in the PE department).