Were you athletic as a kid?

[SalsaMTB]

I was athletic as a kid. Started out playing soccer at a young age, then played volleyball in middle school. I played both sports in high school, then played volleyball in college.

The transition to biking was pretty easy, although a little damaging to my ego

I always excelled at sports, so my first time on a mountain bike (after taking a good 2 years off from sports in general) was a bit of an eye opener. I thought I would tear it up, in reality, I sucked, especially compared to my then bf now dh who had been riding for a good 10 years!

[pepe6599]

I've played soccer since I was 5 and I have been into sports. When I was in high school I was one of the very few girls that was a 5 sporter; played soccer, volleyball, judo, wrestling, and track. When I graduate from high school and went off to college I joined the university women rugby and rock climbing team. Even through I was very active as a youngser don't make cycling easier for me infact has made it harder.

[mimitabby]

so far, it looks like bicycling is a bit of a leveler. Many here were athletic, many here were not!

[li10up]

I always excelled at sports, so my first time on a mountain bike (after taking a good 2 years off from sports in general) was a bit of an eye opener. I thought I would tear it up, in reality, I sucked, especially compared to my then bf now dh who had been riding for a good 10 years!

Sounds a lot like me. I can usually pick up a sport pretty easily. I'm usually above average but have never been the "star" on any team - but was never a bench-warmer either. I had no problem riding again; no problem shifting gears, etc. I started out mtn. biking and my "teacher" said I had a lot of guts...I would ride a lot of downhills that most beginners would walk. Then I became more of a roadie. But it's been hard not being able to be at the front of the pack on the road rides and being dropped on the hills. Maybe it has to do with trying to be "competitive" (more like just keeping up) when you're middle-aged with 25 extra pounds of body weight. But I guess that's why I like cycling so much. I see little improvements all the time. I do think having natural athletic ability helps you pick up a sport more easily. Now if I just had some natural musical ability I might be able to learn to play that acustic guitar I bought 5 years ago.

[Dianyla]

I was raised to be very athletic. Or else!!

Swim team, running, hiking, biking. In some ways I'm really grateful for this because I think it has helped me to have more athletic skill for sports I picked up in adulthood (skiing, for example). In other ways I wish things had been different. Overtraining at the critical pre-pubertal joint development age for me caused Osgood-Schlatters disease in both of my knees which still causes me problems today. Not to mention that my parents approach to athletics bordered on abusive.

My dad was into marathons and being a jock, and we were all enrolled in 5Ks, 10Ks, etc. growing up. The only vacations we took were bike tours or backpacking trips. While I remember being stunned and enthralled with the beauty of the Sierra Nevada, I also remember being 8 years old and being forced to keep pace with 4 older siblings and 2 adults while climbing Mt. Whitney. Always pushing past the point of tears til I would get an asthma attack or vomit, and being humiliated for being the "slowest" and "clumsiest". Being berated for being an inconvenience to everyone who had to stop and wait for me to recover so we could push on. Dad's offer to go cycling with me daily after school in Jr High was because I was the "fat kid in the family" which he was tactless enough to say to my face.

Issues much?

Anyways... uh.... Sorry for the whole overshare but I really have mixed feelings about childhood athletics as a result of my experiences. Granted, I now have a very high level of physical and emotional endurance whihc has served me very well in adulthood. But, what price childhood?

[Geonz]

Hyperactive klutz, here. Really, really lousy at coordination things... hated loathed and despised p.e., but needed exercise. On swim team in the summer and then year-round when I turned 13, but always, always bringing up the rear. Swam with younger age groups so I wasn't dead last all the time. However, got *lots* of support and positive feedback for working hard, got lots of good instruction, and learned how to learn difficult things (took five years to figure out butterfly, and now I could teach anybody).

So... after 40 *years* of always being "okay, I like sports and exercise, but it can't be really about winning unless there's a *lot* of strategy" (that co-ed v-ball team was fun for that), a few sportsmanship trophies and twice (count them) coming in just ahead of somebody else in a competition, albeit nowhere near first place but he, *we* were racing, and I'm not sure but one of those the judge might have given it to me... do you *know* how sweet it has been to actually *win* the indoor time trial? It took a long time for me to believe that no, I was pretty good at this (they weren't just being nice)... and I only got convinced when I thought about how long it takes to convince some of my students that they are NOT stupid... they keep saying it... now I understand how hard it is to *believe* it when so many years of not-being-good have laid that groundwork