Past And Present Involement In Team And

Individual Sports Essay, Research Paper

Growing up, I was an athletic kid who loved playing all sports and doing activities that were physically demanding. In elementary school, I competitively played soccer during the spring and fall leagues. I also played flag football and tee ball/baseball. I was always busy playing a competitive sport. When not competing competitively, I was playing pickup games with my friends. I biked everywhere around town, shot the basketball around at the park, ran around the block inventing games to play with the neighborhood kids my age. At this age, I was more focused on team games, as I did not involve myself in any individual games. I got involved in these sports because that is what all my friends were doing. I loved to run around and compete and this was a perfect opportunity for me to show off my skills. It was a good way to spend time with friends and make new friends as well.

As I got older and entered high school, some individual sports did excite me. Golf was one sport in particular. I joined the team my junior year. This made a big impact in my life as I am still an avid golfer and love to push myself to get better. I decided to take up golf for two reasons. One, my dad loved to golf and would take me in the back yard and show me how to do it. At this age, it was an important bonding tool between us two because it was the only thing that we could do just the two of us. The second reason was that my friends were taking it up at the same time. We all decided to try it together so it was a learning experience for all of us. We had a lot of fun doing it and I have many humorous memories from our early days. I stuck with team sports as my emphasis as I joined softball teams, and played tackle and flag football as well. These help me express my competitive side and also let me run around and release a lot of energy as I am always on the go. These sports are great for building meaningful and long relationships between people.

Now that I am out of school, I think that I have moved from playing many organized sports and started doing more leisure activities. I like to swim, go for walks, climb the bluffs at Devils Lake, bike and golf. These activities are individual activities, but can be done with a group of people. These activities keep me in shape and are a good way to pass the time. I also like to play pickup games of tennis, basketball and football as well, but these activities do not occur as often.

In the future, I plan to stick with these individual leisure activities and incorporate more into my life as well. The nice thing about these activities is that I can do them by myself and I don’t have to find other people to do them with. It is more fun with other people, but I don’t have to rely on others for me to get enjoyment out of them. It’s not easy getting together six or eight people so we can play basketball or football so these other activities I can enjoy whenever I want to which is a big plus. These leisure activities are also good for state of mind. They give you time to relax, clear your head, and do not cause you much stress either physically or mentally.