Which Sports? Why Sports?

Are you a sports person? If so, which ones and why? If not, what specific activities could be worthwhile for you?

Three parts to this:

1. My brief philosophy. Why I care.
2. Practical overview. What could normal people do and how do I rate the available options?
3. Review of the major team sports in the US. Brief observations on fandom and the craziness of sports/humans.

Setting the Table

I likely care about 'sports' because I was pretty good at them growing up compared to my peer group and continued to develop these talents. I enjoyed the positive reinforcement I received from playing and winning. Pretty obvious. Motivations have shifted over time, where it's now just a part of what I need to be doing. I imagine this mental shift is pretty important if you actually want to be active over a lifetime, but I'm not going to get too deep into that here.

This review is going to be colored by my experiences and strengths. Your strengths will differ. This whole article on first-hand experience, not reporting on broad research findings here.

In this article, I will focus on comparing different sports in the active participation sense. What is required of you to perform the game well? What attributes are enhanced in the pursuit? I think I am unique in that I'm a bit broader than most in enjoying many different types of sports. That is why I am writing this up. Ok, I also just love sports and want to talk about them. I think they can provide opportunities for people to grow. Mostly by overcoming failure, pain, adversity, etc. In short, becoming stronger. And to play the game well is a great treasure in itself – 'Good Times' are there for the taking.

More practically, we have bodies. It is good to move them.

Alright let's get into it, first with the individual sports as that is what's available/most relevant for most of the people reading.

**

Running and Lifting

These are foundational. Undeniably useful for personal fitness, and easily accessible with tons of information available to learn and organize a program suitable for you. Both very much lend themselves to measurable self-improvement over time with consistent training. This process → outcome loop can become addictive in a positive way for most people that get hooked. Basically every able-bodied person (especially the computer person, which is ~all of us) is better off from having some type of training structure where they run and lift things on a regular basis.

On the other hand, the domains themselves are limited by their lack of complexity. They are single player games where the environment (aside from gravity) does not fight back. The field of play is unchanging and strategy is limited beyond following the steps of your program.

Granted I love each of these and go through phases. Breaking things down a little further, here are some ratings, first in the domain of running (1-5, where 5 is the highest score possible):

Road distance running: 4.0 (mix)

Trail running: 4.5 (spiritual)

Sprint workouts: 4.5 (utilitarian)

Two factors leading to the high rating for trail. First, I absolutely love being engrossed in navigating a tricky patch of terrain while going as fast as I can. Danger lies with every step, which brings out a type of focus and presence for that moment that I find hard to match. And the second factor, less on the competitive side, is that I enjoy the nature aspect and the more chill environment that tends to accompany the trail scene. It's basically therapy to spend time running (or walking) in the woods.

In comparison, road distance running is not as enjoyable for me due to the typical setting. But road running does lend itself to giving absolute maximum effort and bringing the pain by racing against competitors or the clock. Competitive running is the easily identifiable example in my own life experience of seeing people go to another level that they didn't think was possible due to competition bringing out their best. At least in this narrow domain, I believe it is basically not possible to push to a certain level without the competition there to drive you. I won't speculate on how much that generalizes in other arenas.

Aside from that competitive factor, I would recommend more casual runners try out trail running as I believe this change of environment is accessible for most with a little planning and will pay off in the enjoyment factor. Whether on the roads or trail, I need to also say that a fair number of my deepest conversations in adult life have come from running with random guys over many, many miles. Something about the shared struggle, with plenty of time to kill on these long runs, makes for a good conversational dynamic.

Going back to my ratings, sprint is rated so highly because of the immense bang for buck that is there if you can actually be consistent with a training program. Being consistent with it is very tough though. Going long and slow is the more common path (aside from the obvious do nothing path).

Moving on to lifting and other types of training.

Lifting weights: 4.75

Tough to beat. Lift + sprint would be my recommendation for those only interested in maximizing personal fitness and physique. Big downside of lifting is that the environment tends to be stale. Kind of sad to be in there on a beautiful day outside.

Indoor bike training (ie Peloton), Rower, other ERG machines: 4.0

Very practical but has a low ceiling due to the stale environment and lack of variety.

Crossfit or similar intense group fitness: 4.5 avg rating

Higher variance but bringing in more structure can help with the problem of getting started. These are very supportive environments, with people that are experienced in the particular problem of helping beginners get started. Even without that need, the added community aspect can be a huge life satisfaction booster. In general, to the extent you want it, finding friendly people to form some sort of community around these activities is very much available – people want to help and be supportive.

Other Games

By and large, these don't have the targeted personal fitness benefits of running and lifting, but they are generally more fun.

Disc Golf: 5.0

Disc golf is like normal golf (ie "ball golf") except you throw a frisbee in the basket instead of hitting a golf ball in the hole.

Disc golf is simply the best game I've found in my adult years to fill the active pastime bucket. The variety of courses, the variety of shot types, the beautiful vistas, the easy accessibility of the game. It all just lines up for me so completely as a worthy hobby and enriching pastime.

For the newcomer, it's a game that anyone can pick up and complete a round (unlike ball golf, which, granted, requires more skill). Disc golf is a game where you can just show up and play, generally for free. It's a game that gets you out in nature.

It's become a big part of my personal travel. Basically every trip I take, I'll at least check Udisc for the local courses. They are everywhere.

On another personal note, the inability to play disc golf is the biggest drawback I dwell on for living in dense urban areas, and has ultimately resulted in a planned upcoming move to seek more open space.

Climbing: 4.5

Bicycling: 4.9

Both of these are great. I prefer to ride my bike as a leisure activity. For this purpose it is fantastic. Climbing is also great, but I'm limited by experience and only ever doing the indoor climbing gym version.

Climbing is the one activity I've regularly done that could replace a lifting and running routine and still maintain fitness levels in all facets.

Playing Catch: 4.9

This one will speak more to those who grow up around sports, but I sincerely miss playing catch with a ball everyday. I've contemplated making a reddit post for the explicit purpose of meeting people to play catch. Haven't done it yet.

Aside from the relaxed atmosphere and playing games to test your accuracy, it's a top tier activity for spending time with those up or down a generation which also makes it special. This category has a lot of meaning for me. May not translate for others, but It's an instant yes everytime I get the chance.

Golf: NR

Baseball: 3.5

I see a lot of similarities here.

I can't rate golf due to lack of experience. I'm only including to highlight how different it is compared to disc golf from an accessibility standpoint. The expense is the main factor I'm referring to here.

Baseball is greatly aided by playing on a team with your buddies, even though it's an individual game. The issue for me is that the pace is too slow. But similar to golf, the skills needed are similar in that you need incredible focus and precision when it is your time to perform.

Other Categories

I don't have anything novel to say on other sports not listed. But I'm sure they are great too. That's kind of the point of this whole thing. Find a thing and do it. And maybe try another thing too.

***

Team Sports

It's too bad that the adult world basically fails at allowing opportunities to play most team sports (in a setting that is any fun at all). If you're lucky, maybe you can find a good pick-up basketball league, but most likely you're relegated to watching the professionals or coaching the kids at this stage. This observation says something about the world – yes these are games, and maybe there are better 'games' to play. Like working and researching and using your brain to earn money and/or create things for the world. You know, those games with less clear, longer feedback loops, but much greater positive externalities for the world (hopefully).

Or you're just too old and the body doesn't allow it. I don't know.

But let's hit on the major sports while we're here.

Football: 4.5

The novel thing that I want to say is that I think playing football made me a better driver. Yes, like with cars. It may be specific to playing quarterback as I did, although I think this skill translates with other positions as well. Specifically it's the analyzing layers of activity, processing momentum, and seeking positional awareness for every body on the field. You have to predict the future by playing with anticipation in order to play the position well, and that is very good training for driving down the road and identifying possible threats. Your sense of risk and quick decision making needs to be dialed in while playing just like it does when reacting instantaneously to avoid the guy swerving into your lane.

Basketball: 4.9

Maybe I'm a little jaded or unrealistic in wanting to see more beautiful game, Spurs 2014 style-action, at all levels of play. I don't think I have many snob-like sympathies in my whole way of being throughout life, but basketball style of play is one those areas.

You can tell a lot about a person by how they play a pickup basketball game. Most fail the test.

Being more positive, the talent and level of play that happens every night in the NBA is absurdly high. It's a golden age. In basketball, like other areas, skill development is enhanced by the internet and the ability to ape what others are doing and build off it in quicker loops through more exposure to the game.

Soccer, Hockey, Others: NR

Sorry. Personal failings.

Sociology/Fandom

I'm afraid this is an entirely separate topic, but I will opine. My claim is that you need to reduce your level of fandom. Like you need to stop spending the money watching this stuff, and try and find a way to be active and play the game yourself.

In the case that you are doing some amount of activity on your own, then you can have the fan privileges back even though I don't fully understand it. For example, the New York Knicks are playing the Celtics in the second round of the NBA playoffs right now – $600 is the minimum price to get a seat at Madison Square Garden. First of all, that's a bad value for your entertainment dollar. Go to Broadway six times instead. Second of all, it's clear that I don't connect with the 'why' behind so many people willingly paying chunks of money to sit anonymously in a huge crowd to enough of a degree to be sympathetic here, so I will stop now.

Thanks for reading. Now go do the thing you're curious about. Thank you.