Asperger's and sports; Athletic aspies?

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Hello all,
I received my official diagnosis today... Long story for some other time perhaps. I've been worked up all day and I can't sleep, so I've signed up just now hoping to satisfy a curious question that's nagging away.

During the assessment today, I mentioned the sports I play and was asked about them. As much as I dislike some of the people that play sports, their attitudes and the social situations they lead to, I have always loved playing sports, and without bragging TOO much, I've always been up there with the best at whatever it is that I did. I was the fastest sprinter in school athletics (no good over distance ), I started playing soccer and was a great winger with a powerful shot. I played cricket and was an extremely fast bowler as well.
I would practice by myself or with my little brother all day, every day, until after dark. A bunch of awkward situations eventually occurred and I started to hate the aggressive attitudes of people that I encountered so I gave up all sports to concentrate on my musical hobbies.

I started playing indoor soccer or futsal a while ago and I'm having a blast with that. Last year I started playing lawn bowls, similar sort of story there, gave it up to avoid certain people. Just recently, I started playing bowls again after much procrastination, and I've since gone on to win the club championship for pairs with another man who has been friendly towards me and taken me under his wing. I also study T'ai chi ch'uan and have an interest in martial arts.

On to the point I suppose... The Doc was surprised to hear that I was actually good at sports, I am the first example he has heard about. I can find very little online about famous aspie athletes, other than that it is apparently something we don't tend to be very good at, especially team sports. While I do have issues with the social aspects of team sports, the coordination aspects I've never had any worries with, in fact quite the opposite. I am extremely clumsy around home, I walk clumsily and bump things, spill things and generally fumble my way through life. I do have times during a game of something where I'm hopeless, clumsy and generally poor all round, but then the 'hyper-focus' kicks in, and I become unstoppable. I can be extremely inconsistent, but can generally be counted on to do something amazing at least a few times per game. I would be very interested to hear from anyone else that is an aspie and is also a decent athlete or sportsperson... Surely I can't be the only one?

I've also been thinking about the concepts of hyper-focus (specifically in relation to the autistic community), the idea of being 'in the zone' and the new term 'flow'. I believe these terms are just describing the same thing. What do you guys think? Do you use any specific technique to get into 'the zone' during sports or some kind of creative activity? I'm working on a way to take that ability that I have to produce these performances and apply that to every day life... Anyway.... It would be really interesting to hear your responses and expand this further

Welcome to Wrong Planet!

Team sports and I don't get along except sometimes in a spectator relationship. But, I was quite good with Taekwondo when I was a teen. It has been said that individuals with Asperger's Syndrome (AS) and other autism-spectrum disorders (ASDs) are better at individual sports instead of team sports, but I can understand how an individual-sports player, combined with a special interest in a team sport and an ability to apply known skills to a team could work out quite well.

Still, I found these individuals who play sports:

--Jessica-Jane Applegate who is a Paralympic swimmer with ASD
--Luca Brecel who is a Belgian professional snooker player with ASD
--Todd Hodgetts who is a Paralympic shot putter with ASD
--Clay Marzo who is an American professional surfer with AS
--Jason McElwain who was a high school basketball player with ASD

Lionel Messi who was chosen the best football player of World Cup 2014

There's always exceptions. I was always a very fast runner and have started doing my jogs again now that it's winter, but I never had the coordination for team sports.

what is the story with Messi? From what I understand, there was a rumor that he is an aspie started by an Argentinian coach who knew him or something like that. As far as I can tell, there is no official word, though I do strongly suspect it is true. From the look in his eye to the way he moves and single handedly does exactly what he needs to do in order to win. Not that I follow Messi strongly or think that I am as good as him, I think I have a very similar way of playing. I have horrible defensive awareness, and when not on the ball, I don't intrude into others personal space and shy away from the game at times. When on the attack, I sneak around and through the defense and have a very clear idea of exactly what needs to be done in order to score. I'm terrible at marking players in defense but I'm also impossible to mark on the attack, focused only on scoring. I'm enjoying the 5-a-side I play at the moment, I do wish I could make a comeback to the outdoor game but at 23 and with no social connections to vouch for me, I don't think I would be picked to play in local club teams and all the 'humaning' that would come along with it.

I have always been ok at sports (especially soccer), so when I first heard about Asperger's Syndrome, I thought I couldn't have it because of the supposed difficulties many people with A.S. have with co-ordination.

However, I am hopeless at dancing. I find it very difficult to copy someone else's movements. Plus, I find with sports there is more of a clearly defined purpose (hit a home run, kick the ball in the net, run really fast etc!) whereas with dancing the purpose is much vaguer (get on the dancefloor and express yourself!) if that makes sense.

I had never heard the rumours before about Lionel Messi having Asperger's, but I am skeptical. These speculative diagnoses can undermine the credibility of the A.S. diagnosis a bit.

It seems far more common for famous sportspeople to have ADHD (like Michael Phelps) or even Tourettes (like Tim Howard).

I qualified for three National Championships in cycling when I was younger, (you have to be in the fastest 120 in the country to even get in).
Cycling was good as it didn't involve working with other people to the extent of team sports.

I'm good at sports *that I'm interested in.* As with academic pursuits, I'm terrible at the ones that I don't care about. I can be somewhat clumsy just moving around because I tend to be in my head rather than paying attention to what my body is doing, but when my brain is engaged and I care enough to practice, I can get good.

I have crappy fine motor skills (as is the case with almost all people with AS), but I have a natural talent for compound lifts and gaining muscle.

I like to play sports but I'm very awkward at it, awkward as in stiff. In basketball I tend to have a firmly planted foot which I pivot around (I don't realize it but I'm told I do it always), tennis I'm not the most agile but I have a huge reach and height advantage that keeps me competitive. I was horrible at swimming but I like to do it. We have a flag football team here and I was a part of it but everyone was too aggressive and just about everyone has incurred some major injury so I quit that. So I'm sports minded but just not the "first pick" on the team as it were.

I have extremely good hand eye coordination and throughout my life I've been able to hold it down in sports in which that's a factor, me playing sports is weird though because aside from that I have nothing.

I played baseball growing up and was always a high-level technical hitter and could play anywhere in the outfield acceptably at the high school level; I could have probably played at a D3 college if I applied myself, but I went to a huge D1 university and most definitely didn't apply myself there in the first place, so that was the end of that.

Um, I'm a legit ping pong player? (you'll get a war from me in ping pong, that's depressingly probably my best sport).

I'm a vaguely useful basketball player in pickup games, I can't dribble at all and my shot is fairly sh***y, but I can pass and play defense and I understand basketball, so there's that. Hand-eye coordination doesn't help too much with that aside from defense, nor does being 5'8", but I do the best I can.

I got into Olympic Weightlifting a few years ago. I discovered I had a natural tendency toward strength, so I got hooked pretty quickly. It was also a panacea of sorts - I found that I always felt better, happier, on days when I was able to lift heavy weights. It calmed my brain and body, and I felt accomplished.

I had shoulder surgery back in August, to repair a torn rotator cuff tendon, so I haven't been able to lift in a while. These past few months have been a huge mental struggle. Thankfully, on Monday I finish my long stint of physical therapy, and I'm hoping in the next few weeks I can put a barbell over my head again.

Woohoo! I've been out of training for a year (aikido) due to a back injury, so I both sympathize and rejoice with you.

I played on my school's soccer team in high school as a defender

I made the track teams 4X400 team and we made it to the Southern Ontario championship

I was also on the cross country team for three years


Yeah, I can run, both fast and seemingly forever, but that's about it

I've always played a lot of sport, both individual sports (javelin/discus/shot/sprinting to regional level) and team sports including rugby union to international level. Obviously I felt really awkward when it came to the post-match socialising and where possible, quickly left after the 'woman of the match' award was given.

I've recently taken to olympic weighlifting and powerlifing which I'm contemplating competing in. In November I discovered I have hypermobility syndrome so should take up pilates really too...