I hate sports

Actually I don't hate them. I loathe them. I don't mind watching sport occasionally, although I never know what's going on, I just don't want to participate in them. Because frankly, I suck at sports.

My athletic background:

• playing horse in the driveway with my brothers
• taking about 3 karate classes and quiting when I was a kid
  
• bowling(badly)
• marching in the high school band

That, my friends, is as athletic as I get.

In jr. high & high school I tried my best to hide out during PE...take my sweet time changing(Lord, I hated dressing out as bad as the physical activities), stay at the back of the line, stand as far in the outfield(that is the far away part of the field, right?) as possible and a time or two I went so far as pretending to be sick to get out of PE. And as I've gotten older, I've avoided participating in sports type activities altogether. One reason, I'm insanely clumsy. A few examples...

• I've fallen backwards out of the back end of a pickup truck bed.
  
• I've fallen, headfirst, down the stairs in my garage.
  
• I fell flat on my face in the lunchroom at school(while wearing my flouncy hummingbird skirt and point toe flats)
  
• I've fallen out of my chair at work. Three times, once in front of students.
• I am constantly tripping or running into things or bumping my head.
  

The other reason I don't do sports is that I'm always self conscious and never confident in my abilities. I know I'm not good, so I won't try. HEAVEN FORBID someone watch me try anything remotely athletic! I get all hivey thinking about it.

Despite all of that, I have discovered a sport that I enjoy. Disc Golf. OK, so it doesn't involve running, jumping, chasing a ball or moving my body in completely impossible ways, but it is a real sport. There's even a professional association.

Even though it's been around since the 70's, I've only in the last few weeks learned about disc golf. A friend at work told me about it, later another of our co-workers who plays brought some of his discs to school and let us toss them around. While I was a little embarrassed even tossing what are essentially fancy frisbees in front of my friends(who both happen to be the athletic type) I enjoyed it and immediately knew Mark, who is into sports, would be all over this game. Of course when I told him about it, he was. So, since it was kinda fun, since I desperately need to get into better shape before heading to Europe, and since Mark and I don't have a lot of common hobbies, I decided to give disc golf a try.

We spent three hours at the city park on Sunday playing our first 18 holes...I'm not sure they are called holes...I haven't learned all the particulars just yet. We played again this afternoon. My throws are a lot like the ones the reporter in this video makes.

During our second game this afternoon, I improved my score a tiny bit over Sunday's score. Woo Hoo! I tend to throw the disc to the right or the left instead of straight ahead and sometimes it even miraculously ends up behind me and my throws have no power in them at all...BUT...it's so. much. fun! Mark absolutely loves it! Don't tell him I said so but he's not a whole heckuvalot better at it than I am right now, which actually gives me a little confidence boost! After just two games, we're hooked. Yep, I'm actually smiling while playing a sport(and not remotely concerned that my hair looks like complete crap).