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As An Uncoordinated Child I Knew I Had To Do Something

Thursday, 07 December 2006

As a child I was very uncoordinated, whenever I played sports I could not hit the ball, catch the ball, or just about anything sports related. The only thing I could do was swim ok, and run long distance.

When we had sports at school I was always one of the last to be chosen in a team, nobody wanted an uncoordinated nerd on their team.

I did not like being uncoordinated, and here is how I went about changing that to become known widely as being very agile for my size.... 

First up I took up sports, a lot more sports.

I started basketball with private coaching 3 days a week. I have to attribute this to my much improved hand / eye coordination after doing this for a year.

Next I started skateboarding, for balance and foot work and foot coordination. This changed my uncoordination amazingly. After 6 months I had good balance and never fell off anymore and after a year I had a fantastic balance and was able to do a bunch of street tricks that involve foot dexterity and foot / eye timing, like kicking the board into a triple spin catching it with your foot midair as you jump, and land on it moving in the correct direction.

I was 'curing' my uncoordination. I was no longer so uncoordinated.

I played a ton of other sports at this time too, lawn bowls, indoor cricket, etc.

Years later I went snow boarding and within 3 hours I was snowboarding down the hardest run on one of the Australian snow fields (mostly on my butt), but next day I took on the same slope and was able to take only 4 spills on the way down, which if timed right can be transformed into a forward somersaulting 'trick'. I attribute this to my previous time spent gaining my balance skate boarding.

All in all, I overcame my uncoordinated ways the same way I overcame my physical weakness as a child.

I practised... a lot.

It's funny that as a child these huge obstacles never detered us, but as we get older we start letting things get in our way.

Whatever you want to do you can, just put in the time required and you will get good.

As a uncoordinated kid I never enjoyed sports and was embarrased to go on a field, several years later and I was an all round sportsman and competed at state level for several sports, representing my school.

Years later I have been a professional wrestler, stuntman, and danced in a National Ballet. All that initial work paid off handsomely. Amazing when I think about it really.

No one would believe I was an uncoordinated child. Or rather no one would believe that uncordinated child could do so much.

 
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