Intense focus and Physicality

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Hello, I am hoping to gather some information. I am a writer and as part of the project that I am working on I have begun to research Autism in general and the "high function" end of the spectrum specifically. The aspect of Autism that is most important for the work I am doing at the moment is the astounding focus that Aspies bring to their areas of interest. All of the references to this topic I have found so far have been regarding fairly cerebral subjects - such as statistics, various science disciplines, languages, and things of a largely or solely mental nature. I am interested in larger, gross body movements - like dance or martial arts. Are there any Aspies out there who apply their gifts to the movement of their own bodies? I have seen a few Aspies mention in their posts that they studied the mechanics of facial expressions or the structure of muscle groups but what I am specifically looking for is the whole body movement.

My research is still in its infancy but I have come across repeated references to "clumsiness" and discomfort or unease with body movement. I am trying to understand if that is the result of neurological inhibition (i.e. the brain does not control the body in the same manner as an NT) or if it is the result of an awareness issue along similar lines of interpreting social cues. It is important to me that my characters and the premise behind my plots be truthful to the reality and if I am going to use Autism in the context of this character it is important that it be an honest portrayal.

Any insight or examples you can provide would be very beneficial. Also, I am still trying to fully grasp the uses and meanings of many of the terms I have encountered. If I should ever misuse a term, such as NT, Aspie, etc. I would appreciate if someone would gently correct me. Thank you for your assistance.

I have horrible fine motor skills, but am a good dancer, ballroom type. and, yes, I practiced. I am also a good swimmer and was a lifeguard and swimming teacher. it took me longer to learn swimming than my NT sister took, but i stuck with it longer. most other sports, especially those involving a ball, I do not do well at, as I have visual spatial learning disabilities

Growing up as a teen I wanted to be a ballet dancer. I studied all the positions, immersed myself in classical music, and used the metal radiator in my house as my practice bar.

Since I come from an ass backwards immigrant family, that dream never came to fruition.

In 11th grade someone told me that gymnastics sort of resembled ballet. I'd never even heard of it so I looked into it. You can say it was love at first site. I definitely wasn't in shape for it, but I gave it a shot anyway. I somehow got attached to parallel bars and that is what I specialized on.

Being that I started gymnastics too late, I couldn't develop like I should have. I did win a meet or two, but by 12th grade, I still wasn't good enough to continue on to college gymnastics.

Once again, wasted talent, this time because of the curse of immigrant ignorance.

I don't know if I qualify for this thread as I am not qualified to be termed "high functioning" but I've always been accident-prone due to my almost total lack of proprioception- IOW I have to watch my body boundaries to make sure I don't hit something. I can't seem to do it without direct observation.

You are better qualified for the discussion than I am. I am here asking for your help and to learn from you so anything you have to share is something I would be grateful to hear. This may not directly relate to my story idea at the moment but all knowledge is important and your information may inspire something else.

If I am understanding your situation, you have to consciously consider your body position in relation to your environment and without direct observation and concentration on your part you will inadvertently bump into things. Is it because you do not perceive them or because your subconscious does not assign importance to them or is it because your mind is so focused on something else that there is nothing left to spare for noticing when you are too close to an object? Is your "righting reflex" also inhibited? If your body tilts in a direction will your head automatically tilt to keep your eyes level with the horizon?

Granted you started late and didn't live up to your potential but you still found success. Your intense focused helped with that or did it hinder? What I mean is did your focus drive you to keep practicing and thus keep advancing or did you struggle sometimes with becoming too focused on a single aspect of a movement and as a result the total movement suffered?

So, did you become focused on learning ballroom dancing? You mentioned that you stuck with swimming longer? Would you say twice as long? Half as long? Did you give it up because of time constraints or did your interests change?

to answer your first question, yes. the problem is that my brain can't seem to handle too much complexity at one time, I cannot multitask to save my life. I am the guy for whom it could be said, "can't walk/talk/chew gum at the same time." so I can do only one discrete body movement at one time, and if I have to duck overhead objects/elude laterally-placed objects while at the same time I have to negotiate a path that is not straight, I drop one or the other task. if I get distracted by something else [like somebody calling my name or a bee terrorizing me] I will more often than not trip up. I am accident-prone in part because my righting reflex is dodgy. my reflexes are too slow to function as they ought to in real time. so I fall and trip too often, certainly more often than the average joe. I hope this answers your question.

btw, welcome to WP

That is very helpful, thank you. And thank you for the welcome.

While I suppose I fall squarely in the HFA brackets, I have very similar issues in benign day-to-day things like fixing anything mechanical, organizing my wallet or using a small car. That said, I have a lot of full body coordination where I need it most. It's focused on my legs and core strength, but that's because I trained that way as a cyclist and alpine skier. I'm seriously all about technology, so my typing speed is quite good, but not so when I have to code something. I need good reasons to teach my muscles, but when I find mine, they stay capable beyond the rest of my physiology. I eat as healthy as possible, usually in a bid to get more good sleep and keep my bones healthy, but circulatory and skeletal troubles run in my mom's family, so I've soldiered past more than my share of bumps, chips and fractures.

I'm not sure if this will help you in any way, but I used to train powerlifting, nothing organized though, just something for me. I used to train around 5 times a week. However, due to my obsessive nature im injured at the moment. I still exercise, but only to fix my shoulder..

Does it count that I played soccer from 5 years old to 21 years old? I am clumsy with everyday life though (tripping going up & down stairs, stubbing foot in the ground when walking, running into stuff), but with soccer I wasn't clumsy. Soccer was my special interest early on. I trained all day, everyday. It's all I talked about too. I ended up going very far with soccer and earned my spot on the number one club in the nation and traveled nationwide. I then played in college. I also trained with the Olympic development program (ODP). I don't hear of too many aspies doing sports so I guess I'm the odd ball. Not sure if this is what you were looking for but it's all I got.

I've been a clutz all of my life, bad balance, knocking things over, not being able to catch a ball, and walking into walls. This is all because I sense body motion incorrectly.

That being said, I could see where somebody decided to overcome this as a child and put the focus of a special interest into a sporting activity.

This is exactly what I am looking for. I want to make sure that I am fully understand your situation. In your normal everyday life, clumsiness is an issue. Does that include coordination such as dropping things? When you are in "Soccer-mode" the clumsiness goes away? Is that specific to the activities you associate with soccer like drills? What about just general conditioning training? When you run just to build cardio endurance but not in association with moving the ball do you still struggle with clumsiness or is the activity close enough that it doesn't affect you like when you are walking? Thank you for sharing this with me.

This is useful too. As I understand it, there is a lot of technique involved in powerlifting. Did your obsessive nature focus on the little details of the movement (hand placement, etc.) or did it just push you to train beyond your endurance?

This is really a very helpful discussion for me. Thank you all for commenting. A number of comments have led me to believe that when you focus your attention on a given physical task set (such as soccer or ballroom dancing) the skill and grace you develop is laregly limited to that skill set and does not carry over to more general physical activities. Is that a correct belief?

Does anyone have a different experience?