What is the sport for which you have the greatest aptitude? Have you worked hard at it to reach your potential?

34 comments

  1. Taekwondo. Started when I was 14 and now 26, only time I took a long break was during COVID.

    The main reason I feel like done it so long is that it’s the only 2 times of the week I feel completely free, in a way that no other sport or hobby ever has. During class times, I have 0 urge to check my phone (I’m a total phone addict the rest of the day), nothing from the day (was high school, then university, now work) feels important, no worrying about my dating life. It’s the ultimate destressor for me.

  2. Soccer. It’s the only sport I ever played outside of PE, and it’s pretty much the only one whose rules I understand. I’m not particularly good and only played a couple years, but I’m worse at everything else lol

  4. Probably swimming given that I was on my high school team for four years. I was never any good, but I was worse at anything that required me to be on land. To be honest I have basically no athletic potential which was why I never tried that hard to improve.

  5. Soccer. I’m 35, so my best days are well behind me, but I did not work hard to reach my potential. Had several people try to convince me to go the club/ODP route, but I was always burned out by the end of the high school season.

    If the soccer landscape in the US was what it was today back around 2000, I might have tried harder. Back then, there were only 12 MLS teams, league minimum was about $15k, there wasn’t a 2nd or 3rd division, was hard to find soccer on TV, etc. It’s so much better and more accessible now. Much easier to have professional aspirations.

    I also played baseball until about 4th or 5th grade, and basketball until 9th grade. I quit baseball because it was boring. Quit basketball because I’m a 5’8″ white guy and was better at soccer at the time.

  6. Track and Field, specifically sprints and jumps.

    I started my freshman year of high school but didn’t really take it seriously enough until my junior year. I started a new event then and wasn’t quite good enough to continue with it at my Division I college. I kept with it because I seriously thought about trying out for the team but then school happened and I didn’t.

    Now, 10 years after I started track I still jump recreationally and coach high school. I don’t know how much longer I’m going to keep doing it, but I hope I can as long as possible.

  7. Baseball. I’ve always had broad shoulders, and I have pretty good-hand-eye coordination, so whenever we played baseball in gym class as a kid I was always one of the best hitters, after the kids who were really into sports. Never been the fastest runner, but with the distance I could hit the ball I had plenty of time to make it to base.

    Never really worked at it, honestly. It was just a result of my build and my natural talent for it.

  9. Rowing. I used to be pretty darn good. Was team captain and boatswain in college. Won an un-coxed pair race at the Henley on Thames Royal Regatta in the UK absolutely smoking Harvard and Yale.

    I probably could have been faster if I worked out more but I was playing two two season sports so I was already doing *a lot*.

  11. The only two sports I have done even remotely seriously are powerlifting and rock climbing, but I am not nearly strong enough to be even a locally competitive powerlifter or a good enough climber to do anything competitive either. Like I can barely squat 1.5x my bodyweight and topped out climbing at 11b. It’s fine though I like these sports. Oh also I used to run a lot more than I do now but my fastest 5k time was like 22 minutes. Also not very good.

  12. In another life I might have had a shot with baseball. Blew out my shoulder on my pitching arm and that ended that possibility.

    I can hold my own in lots of stuff. I always loved any sort of sports and jumped at the chance to play a new one. They all came pretty naturally to me.

  13. Baseball.

    It’s like golf, the only way to get better is to start playing earlier.

  14. Basketball.

    Worked hard? Not really, just grew up playing it most days of the week during and after school along with various leagues.

  15. No idea. I was never good at sports as a kid and stopped playing when I was 13. When I did I played soccer, baseball and briefly American football.

  16. I always liked Badminton but I would never say I’ve worked hard or am any good at it LOL

    I can probably beat alot of people at TetherBall though. Through much practice at school!

  17. Probably snowboarding. I’m not good enough to compete but there’s not much terrain that’s challenging for me at this point. I try to get at least 40 days a season on the mountain.

  18. Soccer is what I’m best at but I enjoyed lacrosse the most and tried my hardest to reach my potential in that sport.

  19. Golf, swimming, and (if you count it as a sport and not an expensive hobby) scuba

    Golf was sort of forced on my by my parents, but I really started liking it once I realized it was an excuse to smoke and drink on a Saturday morning, swimming was all me, started at a local club team, kept decently competitive until I finished high school, scuba has been a way to bond with my dad who was almost a dive master decades ago

  20. Either softball (first base) or soccer (goalie). I played basketball as well but I wasn’t as good at it. I started playing all 3 in childhood and played in high school.

  21. I reckon swimming and waterpolo since I swam competitively since I was 10 and did it through high school. Though as a tall person I also played some basketball with friends. I didn’t work particularly hard to reach my potential because I was more interested in my studies. For that, I did 17 years of schooling after high school to get my BA, two Master’s degrees, and a PhD. For THAT I worked hard to reach my potential.

  22. Baseball. Had good hand eye coordination, fielding and speed but was too small to be any good. Didn’t work hard at it because I didn’t have the desire nor the knowledge of nutrition and strength training. Had a terrible coach in 9th grade that led me to stop playing. Dude was an asshole. His son was on the team and many practices would eventually lead to him and his son getting into an argument. Played softball many times as an adult and enjoy it but haven’t found a team in my new city.

    Basketball. I grew to 5’9 so no chance at being decent at this one. I got added to a roster one year because the school only had the single sport and we only had like 15 boys in the grade. lmao we didn’t win a single game.

    Never played soccer, hockey, football

  24. Skiing. I first tried it when I was 10, took lessons, took lessons again, gradually mastered the various skills required. I never attemped free-style or anything that requires being airborne, and I avoid any glade skiing. I’m otherwise comfortable going down just about any standard piste.

    I will never claim to be the fastest or most agile skier, but at age 46, I don’t need to be.

  26. Softball! I grew up playing it through high school. I played first base and right field.

  27. Jiu jitsu is the only sport I’ve ever at least taken somewhat seriously. I guess it depends on what your definition of “potential” is. I’m just a blue belt so I can probably hold my own pretty well in a street fight against most untrained people but when I’m on the mats I get my ass handed to me by some very unassuming people all the time. I still have a very very long way to go to reach my “potential” whatever that means.

  28. Soccer and snowboarding but I just switched over to the sticks so I’m back to square 1

  29. Probably cycling. I’ve known how to ride a bike for a long time, but in college joined a competitive cycling team and have been riding religiously since. Done a couple double century races on roadbikes and did a 5-month bikepacking tour on a steel touring bike from France to the Caucasus in 2019 (but this included a handful of strategic train rides…).

    I grew up doing track and being a mediocre TE/OLB in high school football.

  30. Skiing. Made no real effort, no ‘training’, never even took lessons. Won many youth/ junior medals. Every other sport? Solidly average, except hockey where I was awful lol

  31. I kind of juggled both soccer and baseball, focusing as hard as I could on both without interfering with the other. When I was younger I was better at baseball, especially while I grew to 6’5” during high school, and so I focused more on that, but since then I’ve kept playing soccer after a couple year hiatus when I started college and I’ve gotten more coordinated over the years so now I’m better at soccer.

    I sometimes think, and have been told, that I might have to able to get more out of each sport if I had chosen to focus on one and forget the other, like a baseball friend of mine did, but I liked playing both too much.

  32. I guess you could call “radonneuring” a sport

    It’s a form of cycling where how fast you go or who gets there first is irrelevant, you just try to go a long distance cross country without support.

    I’ve done 120+ mile bike rides, slowly and with very frequent snack breaks.

    I didn’t have to work very hard… I just really like riding my bike and eventually went further and further.

  33. I was and am bad at most athletic endeavors. But the one I’m the “best” at is bicying. And by best I mean I enjoy the most. It took me way too long to figure that out, and once I figured out I liked to bike, it took me way too long to figure out the style of biking I’m good at. I mean, I’m an engineer who sits at a desk. I’m short. I’m overweight. I was never going to win a sporting event. But I did discover in my 40s that I rather enjoy endurance events.

    My longest ride to date is 600k (374 miles) which was done in 38 hours, start to finish. That includes breaks for food, bathroom, and even just to rest here and there. Yes… that means I biked through the night. The clock never stopped. Even had a flat 10 miles from the finish. It was all unsupported, no chase vehicle. Just people at check points recording times for me and others.

  34. I remember getting D-2 scholarships for football. I joined the Army instead. Whoops.

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