Have you ever improved yourself at a certain sport which you were once horrible/average at? What’s your story?

10 comments

1. Swimming, watched a bunch of YouTube videos, started with floaters and then holding my breath and then later a friend record a video of me swimming which was embarrassing cause it’s as if I was fighting with water. From that day onwards I vowed to improve my form. Now I can survive for 30mins at least if the boat cup sides.

2. Working on it now, actually, with a lot of things. Leadership skills, and also physical flexibility and coordination.

   I am VERY hesitant to assume a leadership role for anything because I used to always see myself as a hopeless fuck-up, but my job and the people with whom I work have been helping me build confidence and I’m taking point on more projects lately.

   As far as the physical stuff, I’ve only been focusing on aerobic and anaerobic strength and endurance, but now I’m learning capoeira and it’s hard because I am not a flexible or coordinated person yet.

3. Do video games count? I am the worst at FPS games. I used to be worse but i’m still not great

4. Billiards – 5 hours a day every day of pointed practice. But billiards is a perishable skill. You have to stay up on it. Over time, 8 ball became increasingly boring and .over over to 9 ball which was more challenging. I never crossed over into Snooker. Now THAT is a game that separates men from the boys.

5. Neglected my family to hit hundreds of golf balls every other afternoon.

   But everyone starts out horrible at golf

6. When I was young I was weak as fuck. Imagine the stereotypical skinny nerdy phisique. Nobody in my family has a strong body nor I did like to do sports and stuff. You wouldn’t trust myself to raise a glass of water. I remember one of the most embarassing moment in my teen year when i wasn’t capable of lift myself FROM WATER to climb back on a boat.

   Now I am a certified personal trainer and get complimented on my body from both women and men. And I’d like to highlight this: all without ever using steroids or any shit, not even a day.

   People from 10 years ago wouldn’t recognize me at all.

7. The great thing about martial arts is that the more you practice, the better you get. It’s not limited to how tall or big you are, or how fast you can run; you can always improve.

8. Not a sport but a video game. My sister randomly recommended this one music game to me when I was like 12. I was dogshit at it; literally couldn’t beat songs on the easiest mode. But I loved music and the music in the game slapped and the gameplay was amazing (for it’s time).

   I’d fail 90 percent of the things I tried, and get frustrated as hell most of the time playing but I couldn’t stop; it was so fun beating a song that was a banger and that gave me so much frustration.

   Eventually I moved to normal mode, then hard, and about 2 years later I was playing the hardest songs. I perfected all of them.

   Then a few years later they released a new version of the game with a BUTTLOAD of songs. I basically had to start fresh since the gameplay changed and was even harder than ever. About three years later, I was able to perfect all of them, and started playing more difficult, custom levels. I got to near the top of the leaderboard in my country I even did a few tournaments but never won, though I attribute that to technical issues more than skill. Nowadays I only play casually but most of the skill has remained. I make my own music now and that brings me a lot of my joy in life.

   All this started with a passing curiosity and a bit of fun. If there’s something you want to get good at, I have 2 rules:

   1: Enjoy it. Even if it pisses you off sometimes, or all the time, remember the joy it gives you don’t let the frustration overpower the fun. It isn’t worth it. Savor the good times and let the anger pass.

   2: Keep going and strive to improve. Don’t tell yourself “I’m not getting anywhere.” That’s a lie. You’re always improving. Sometimes you perform worse but that is almost ALWAYS because of your mood or mental state. It’s normal to perform worse sometimes. It’s normal to feel like you’re regressing. You aren’t. It doesn’t work like that unless you take an extended break without even trying.

   Keep going and push yourself, and have fun with it!

9. No, actually. If I wasn’t good starting out I didn’t pursue it. I did make it pro (for one season) in the sport I worked at the most but I’d been playing at a really advanced level from a young age.

10. Swimming. I never liked idea of getting into same pool with countless stangers with poor hygiene.

    Had a life altering experience and decided to start working on that part of myself that rejected life experiences. Decided to start with swimming, visited several adult courses, both beginners and advanced and started really liking swimming.