Can an Aspie be athletic??

Post Reply New Topic

Thankfully, He Still Hasn’t Found That ‘Plan B’

Tarick El-Abour is described as the first Autistic proffessional baseball player in this article. I am pretty sure there have been and are undiagnosed or closeted autistics in proffessional baseball. I would like to find another source besides a local paper to confirm he is the first openly autistic pro baseball player. Continued success to him.

My father is also an aspie and he runs marathons in spare time. He is now 50 yrs old but last time he finished in 5 hours.

I struggled with motor skills when I was younger and it took me forever to learn to walk, bike, and swim, but since then I've been pretty athletic. I played soccer through school and was pretty good even though I was extremely isolated from my teams.

As an adult, I'm still athletic and I compete in powerlifting competitions and hold some state records. I also had a special interest in juggling and learned to juggle 5 balls and do all kinds of tricks that required a lot of coordination. I actually think my aspie traits have helped me because I'm able to really hyper-focus on what I'm learning and completely obsess until I get it right.

I have a black belt in two different styles of martial arts and used to compete in 5k runs as a teenager. A big part of distance running is mental though. I might not be the best but I think I'm athletic.

In my case, yes. I could be athletic. I don't have any physical or motor issues -- I'm even better than an average female overall, whether it's strength, endurance, flexibility, balance, etc...

Except, I don't have the motivation to be an athlete. I have the means, but no drive nor focus for it.


My problems would had anything to do with two things:
Syncing-- which is for team sports. Something I probably wouldn't figure out soon. Maybe I never would have.
And most of all, time reaction -- which is really important in many ways. Something I couldn't improve well in a long run no matter what I did, no matter how focus I was. Even if it's a bit enough for average, I have this weird upper limit like an unbreakable ceiling I couldn't pass through.

Gained Number Post Count (1).
Lose Time (n).

Lose more time here - Updates at least once a week.

"Not that they'd be Olympians or major league sports hot-shots, but higher-than-average athletic."

by definition, one half of the population is "higher-than-average athletic". and how do you define athletic? strength? agility? speed? a particular sport?

and the solar system contains plenty of autistics.

so, the chances that at least two autistics in the solar system, are "higher-than-average athletic" are pretty high.

and you ask "Can An Aspie Be Athletic"? it's like, which aspie?

some NTs and some autistics can't be "athletic" per se. some of them do not have the potential to be "athletic".

I had the strangest thing happen recently: I was considering giving up sports because I felt uncoordinated and could barely keep up with low level competition (and was dumped outright by one group). Suddenly, I get asked to fill it for a high level hockey game with literally one hour notice. It was like I was a completely different person! I was performing moves I didn't know I could do and while I lost rather badly, I played exceptionally well. Even the referee came up to me after the game to congratulate me on a great game.

I also was nervous about joining a higher skill level softball team as I have struggled in a coed recreational league. Even as the new guy, I am second in batting average on the entire team. I believe I have figured out that it's not because I am naturally uncoordinated but my mind goes a mile a minute, too fast for the slower, recreational leagues so my brain and body are out of sync, I then get frustrated and the ugly cycle begins. When I am playing at a skill level above me, I don't have time for my mind to either wander.

Sounds cool to me.

Sometimes, I do better when I don't "think" so much.......

Sure we can, I'm riding some bikes today. Got a new pack that should be nicer than the Timbuk2 bags in the city for some wheelies.

_________________
"Standing on a well-chilled cinder, we see the fading of the suns, and try to recall the vanished brilliance of the origin of the worlds."
-Georges Lemaitre
"I fly through hyperspace, in my green computer interface"
-Gem Tos

Of course!

Sure, why not? I'm not athletic myself, but I know autistics who are

An aspie can be fit as a fiddle, unfit as a fumble, in between like a fence sitter... of course it's possible but we do face a lot more challenges finding reasons and pathways to things we may like to aspire to. I wouldn't claim to be in athletic form but I am in reasonable shape through changes over many years, I used to be a junkie scacrecrow as I had no knowledge of nutrition or exercise. I didn't really inhabit my body or mind for a long time as I was quite flooded by the stresses and demands and never lost bad habits from childhood but I can say I am on the low levels of 'athletic' and can improve on that eventually.

I'm an international level athlete, I've represented my country a few times. My plan is to go to the 2020 Olympics. I started off in solo sports but have moved into a team sport. I struggle with it massively but am making progress through sheer determination.