Did people ask why you didn't do sports?

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Like, in your youth - in the teens or even early-mid 20s (rec leagues), did people ask if you did sports and if your answer was "no", did they ask WHY?

I don't know what is it with NT culture, such as it is - but it does seem like young men are virtually conscripted into sport. Like it's to uphold some sort of gender expectation. Here in Canada, that expectation is pretty strong but not as much as our neighbours to the south, especially in the Deep South where they might call you "gay" if you don't play sports

I can still remember in my teens, when my special interests at various times were periodic table elements, the history of Hollywood and the Oscars, and geologic eras... at no time did sports ever enter the realm of special interests. In fact I recall one time on a break at a McJob, my co-workers would look at the papers in the break room and talk about sports articles and stats, and I'd just be buried in my puzzles, comics, or current affairs. They mocked for that saying "ha ha, Jayo's no jock, he's just into the dorky stuff".

For me, I tended to avoid organized sports AMAP, due to a certain PTSD-like sentiment that remained from any involvement in it. It just conjured up emotionally painful images of other kids intentionally throwing sporting projectiles at me, bumping into me, tripping me etc. and then claiming it was an "accident" while peers would laugh and the supervising adult rarely did anything about it

Now i I was good at sports, maybe that wouldn't have occurred as often - maybe they would have been more tolerant of other differences like lack of non-verbal fluency or odd speech patterns. But I digress.

So when people asked me "why" [don't I play sports], I just resorted to telling a half-truth, that I suffered a lasting injury playing sports (soccer) and I just stuck to "Eastern" sports like martial arts. Which was true, I was enrolled in martial arts, and I did suffer a soccer injury but not a long-term debilitating one. But nobody had the right to know the full truth, it was really none of their business - I just wanted to mitigate their judging me.

The analogy I used on at least one other occasion on WP, is that an Aspie wishing to join an organized sports team of NTs is like a Jew trying to infiltrate a skinhead chapter

I "did" sports----but I sucked at them.

Except for football---since I was a short, chubby kid, and people couldn't tackle me.

I did play sports only in a very very casual way as a energetic kid on the playground or streets.

No, but as a female I was asked why I didn't wear makeup or go clothes shopping. At 14 I'd rather be playing with Legos than going out on a shopping spree with my mother or friends.

Nobody encouraged me to do sport. They must have seen me trying to deal with a ball.

When I was young (pre-diagnosis), I had lots of trouble understanding the intricacies of football plays or baseball hand signals, hence the reason I had trouble playing organized sports. Only recently have I put 2 and 2 together.

I wasn't good at most sports but I could hit well in baseball and stole a lot of bases for a fat kid, to be fair I think I looked so fixated on stealing and so not suited for running that no one took me seriously until it was already fait accompli. I was terrible at fielding and throwing though.

I could play hockey well and made a good goaltender and was good at making plays as a kid because I realized I could set up other people to score and didn't need to waste my breath trying to carry the puck. Little kids tend to be selfish, hog the puck and just think about scoring, even the ones who get coached don't like that for fun. I read a lot about the game from a coaching and strategy perspective and when I was able to captain in intermurals I was able to get us to way overperform by doing shift changes every 3 minutes instead of at the halfway point. Scottie Bowman said short shifts meant you could play at a higher intensity so whenever i could get people on board with my logic it tended to produce results.

my PE teachers knew why, when they sent me to the office to do their paperwork for them, instead of into the gym.

In PE, we "studied wrestling" and I was paired off with the other least athletic kid. Unfortunately, he weighed a lot more than I, and I got tired of him falling on me. So, when I thought he was not tripping me properly, I tried passively resisting and sure enough, only he fell. Unfortunately, this did not go unnoticed, and he got teased.

I spent most of my childhood/teen years skateboarding.
I was a high energy kid who needed plenty of physical stimulation. I tried to play hockey one year, but failed miserably. I didn’t understand the social elements and all the girls were terribly bitchy. I preferred skateboarding with the boys.

Nope. Despite being physically abled and do really well at PE. No one encouraged me either.

Probably because it's mostly for males, or that it's hard to practice to because of lacking space and participants to practice with.

Heck, no one questioned why I don't wear make up or girly clothes.

Mostly because of socio-economic norms -- I want to continue biking, skating, play video games, do a lot of arts, keeping up with technologies hands on, etc.
But too poor or scarce of resources to keep it up.
... Unless I'm a male with interest an in playing basketball, which I'm neither.


Instead, people kept asking me why don't I have a boyfriend. Why don't I have a crush or fall in love.
Why don't I desire getting married and worry about growing old alone. Etc.

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Love sport and have played as many as I can. Was the fastest kid at school and took part in county competitions for sprinting. My main sport was football (soccer) and I was one of the best in my school year and also played for a local team outside of school.

My main aspergers issue in sport was that in football (soccer) you need to be very vocal, always letting teammates know if they have space and if you are free, but I never spoke on the pitch. I hate the feeling and sound of me shouting and I couldn't ever bring myself to do it.

I don't know how to play any team sports and I'm terrified of looking like an idiot.

The worst was when I was working we were all pressured to play in a volleyball tournament with other professionals for a fund raiser. I was pretty much dragged to an arena and told I hate to participate. I didn't. I kept saying I didn't know the rules but they said "It doesn't matter, just have fun, just show your spirit!" and all that rubbish.

Nope. I froze like a lump of clay and almost burst into tears.