Friday, January 14, 2011

So That Whole Body Thing, How Does It Work?

Photo: Pensiero, Flickr Creative Commons

I really wish I had a better understanding of my own body. I'd never really spent much time thinking about it until recently, to be honest. I'm comfortable with my brain. I know its limits and I'm confident in what I could do with it and I know how to get it to do what I want it to do. If I were to take on an intellectual challenge, I would know what expectations would be reasonable for myself and I would know how to go about achieving those goals. Physical challenges, on the other hand, leave me feeling a little helpless and ignorant.

I've always been a better academic than an athlete. I was never incompetent, but sports didn't come easy for me easy, either, unless my size gave me a significant advantage, which it did in football as a kid. Because of that, I always focused more on school and other mental pursuits. Now that I'm in my early 30s and finally pursuing more athletic interests, I feel a little bit out of my element.

Take tennis. I have coached players who are better at the sport than I've ever been even with my years of lessons who mostly taught themselves how to play. As a senior in high school, I played doubles on a team that made the final four in the state playoffs. It'd taken two years of lessons and two years of being on the team to earn a spot on the starting 7. My partner that year had never played tennis before his senior year and he wasn't exactly holding me back that season. I may have been a little better, but I considered us a pretty well-matched pair that year. That's frustrating to watch natural talent just fly up to match your hard work. Now, I'm a great student. When I did take lessons, I picked up things quickly. I pay attention to small details and have a quick memory, but I honestly can't figure out crap by myself if it involves motor skills. The few things I have learned on my own (top spin on my forehand and backhand, mostly) took way too long for an adult to figure out on his own.

And when it comes to running, I don't even have a clue how fast I could run for any given distance. Could I do a 7-minute mile? Maybe. Would I have an idea of what a 7-minute mile felt like? I have no idea. Why, after a year of running regularly, am I still basically a nine and a half minute per mile runner over any distance longer than a mile?

Of course, I guess none of this really even matters. I'll never make a dime off of my body. I started too late and I suspect I'm not physically gifted enough to even have had a chance if I'd started as a child. I suspect that even if I paid the top running coaches in the country to train me daily, I'd probably not even earn a spot in the top amateur wave of the Peachtree. That's okay. I planned my life to profit off of my brain anyway and I know how to use it for the most part. It'd just be really nice to really know how to use those damn things I stand on the way they were really meant to be used.

8 comments:

Courtney said...

I think there's a certain amount of natural talent that goes into making a good athlete, but it's more mental than physical. The truly great ones have both the body and the mind to make a living out of using their bodies.

Mickey said...

There really is no difference between mental and physical, which is where the concept of coordination comes in. To me, that's what we're seeing when we call someone athletic. While I think of myself as an above-average athlete, I've never excelled at any one thing. I was always one of the better players on any teams I played on, but not enough to really stand out. But my coordination allowed me to be one of those guys you describe who can pick things up naturally. In fact, all my tennis skills are basically just mimicry. I picture Federer ripping a backhand or Sampras serving. And I'm not that good.

Jacob said...

Mickey, you're technically right, but it's an entirely different part of the brain that controls motor functions than the part of the brain that we use when we do what we consider thought and memory. I can visualize what they're doing. It's just really hard to get that to translate with my limbs. I think it's perfectly acceptable to talk about them as if the brain and body were separate because people know what you mean.

Julie said...

My sister is much smarter than me. Science and math came easily to her and I had to study hard to get A's. I've always felt most of the people around me were smarter and I have to work hard to keep up, but I think that's why I'm friends with them. Friends should push you to be a better person. I would think it's the same for athletics.

Never say never. I can think of one way you could make money with your body...

Jacob said...

Julie, if you're talking about porn, it's not great pay for the guys. More supply than demand. Also, I'm not grotesqely large.

Jacob said...

Julie, if you're talking about porn, it's not great pay for the guys. More supply than demand. Also, I'm not grotesqely large.

Sid said...

Last year, June (?) sometime I started running. I'm not really fast. And I'm not sure that with a lot of training I can improve on my time. I am however wondering if I might be a better distance runner. I ran 15km on Saturday and ... well I felt like there was more in me. I wasn't in a whole world of pain.

Chris said...

You should try running some speed workouts or intervals, to help you learn your pace. Maybe one day a week, instead of running three or four miles without stopping, run one mile three times with a rest in between (and time each mile).

No, you're still not going to win any cash prizes (and neither am I), but it's rewarding to see your time and/or distance improving.