Do you play a sport or just support the players?

@pandaeyes (2065)
March 4, 2010 9:22am CST
Next door to me the two ladies who live with their mother ,play sports every weekend. They play Hockey and Netball. I think one sport stops during the summer and the other during the winter and there are times when both sports are still active so they are quite busy at those times. I think that is quite unusual for ladies who are nearly 50 years old. Most people of that age only watch sport on television or go to watch their favourite football team play. Some people have all the sports clothes but don't ever play themselves. We go running for our sport and we used to cycle and swim when we were younger but neither of us support a sports team. So do you still participate in a sport or are you happy to just support a team with cheers and maybe by buying their merchandise?
4 people like this
14 responses
@ronaldinu (12422)
• Malta
4 Mar 10
I used to play soccer with my friends and sometimes I play the odd game with my colleagues. But I am not much of keen footballer nowadays. I prefer watching soccer on television. My favourite soccer team is the Italian team Inter whom I follow every weekend. I do buy their merchandise, especially the tshirt. Lately I am realising the importance of doing regular physical activity to keep healthy thus I am walking about an hour a day.
1 person likes this
@ronaldinu (12422)
• Malta
4 Mar 10
even in my country, rugby is still in its infancy but the crowd seems much more warmer and friendly than in football matches
@pandaeyes (2065)
4 Mar 10
Its amazing how even walking for 30 minutes can help to keep fit. At work the men would go to play football in lunch hour. Most of them followed a London team. One man decided he had had enough of the violence at football matches because he had started taking his son to watch games, he became a rugby fan instead because the crowds were more peaceful.
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
7 Mar 10
When I was a young woman, I was very involved in sports. It started when I was five years old and I played T-Ball for the first time. When I was nine years old, I joined a swim team for the first time (I continued swimming through high school on the school team for six years 7th - 12th grade). Also, when I was nine years old I joined a basketball team for the first time. All of that said, my career in competitive sports has been null since I graduated from high school. I will still occasionally do recreational sports, but I haven't competed in 12 years. However, I would like to change that now, I want to train to do a triatholon.
1 person likes this
@23uday (2997)
• India
5 Mar 10
hi friend, I like to play sports cricket,football,badminton,basketball and the tennis. I even support the players of my favorite sports persons.I play the sports and supports the players.The world famous game is soccer.I think everyone likes the soccer game even i to like the game.I encourages each player a good game. have a good day.
@pandaeyes (2065)
5 Mar 10
Soccer is a very popular game. I think it is because all you need to play it is a ball and some players. You don't even need a purchased ball,you can make one from rags. I often used to see children playing with a 'sock ball' made from rolling them together and sweaters or coats put down for goal posts.
@ghieptc (2522)
• Philippines
5 Mar 10
Well I love to play sports like volleyball, badminton, tennis and I was expecting that there's a womens football here, and I want to join on it. I'm support players to like some basketball teams and soccer teams, and I enjoy watching sports with my friends occasionally...
1 person likes this
@pandaeyes (2065)
5 Mar 10
We have womens Rugby where I live. When the kids used to go to min rugby, the women were playing on another part of the field. The womens football is definitely becoming more popular since girls were allowed to play football in school. When I went 30 years ago, the only rough sport girls could do was hockey.
• India
5 Mar 10
I will be a player..............
1 person likes this
@pandaeyes (2065)
5 Mar 10
You like to particpate the most. I wonder what sport you like to play?
@junil_jk (496)
• India
5 Mar 10
nowadays i don't play much but i do play sometimes. i used to play a lot of soccer and i also support teams and players. i still do. during my schooldays i used to play my heart out everyday during playtime after school. in fact, playtime was my favorite time during my schooldays in boarding school! i still cherish those memories and think about them frequently! now i'm more into supporting and watching teams and players. but given the opportunity or chance, i'd still love to play very much!
@pandaeyes (2065)
5 Mar 10
Yeah I liked play times too. I think that you have to have a balance of fun and work. Some people have enough fun just by watching football or cricket but for me, I have to be doing an activity to properly enjoy it.
@patgalca (18181)
• Orangeville, Ontario
4 Mar 10
I would love more than anything to be able to participate in sports but because I have fibromyalgia, it is pretty much impossible. I love watching my girls play soccer and would so love to play on the women's team but a few minutes out in the front yard with my daughter can result in pain. I've also played basketball with them in the driveway. You can't image how much pain throwing a basketball can bring to the shoulders. One daughter also participates in Taekwondo. Not something I would want to do. In fact, I don't even like going to her tournaments. I've been to two and both times she got injured and it was hard to watch from the sidelines. We are not allowed to go to them when they get hurt. I used to love NHL hockey games and professional baseball but because our local teams haven't given us much to cheer about the last couple of years, I kind of lost interest. Perhaps the Olympics will renew my interest in the Toronto Maple Leafs. I used to go to a lot of their games as a teenager but unless you are lucky enough to get free tickets from a contact, the cost to go is too rich. I didn't really participate in sports as a kid, outside of school anyway. I played in gym but never made it on the school teams, except for track and field. I was on the relay team. I took gym in high school for the mandatory one year. Didn't much care for it then.
1 person likes this
@pandaeyes (2065)
5 Mar 10
At school in the UK you get generic sports. No one specialises in anything. When I was in school the teacher chose teams based on who could already manage the sport. So she tested us all in track and field sports and if you could do it well ,you were in. It seemed a very haphazard arrangement. The swimming team was mostly made up of people who swam for local clubs anyway as the swimming lessons were so basic. I think it explains why sport in the UK is so difficult to keep up. If parents are willing to fund everything and rush about the country trying to find facilities,then lucky kids, else even if you were the best runner in the world, you would have little chance of progressing. My sister in law also has fibromyalgia and had to give up her beloved horse riding.
@Hatley (163781)
• Garden Grove, California
4 Mar 10
pandaeyes fifty is not old, old age is in your 80's not your 50's this is the prime of ones life why should those ladies not be able to do sports,its old fashioned to think at 50 you will be shriveled old crone, not true. I am 83 and slightly handicapped so my sports consists of sitting back and watching my favorite nba teams play basketball or my favorite Angeles play baseball. I participate by cheering and thumping my feet. cheers and God bless.
1 person likes this
@pandaeyes (2065)
4 Mar 10
LOL I know it isn't really . I'm only just about 18 months younger than those ladies. Quite a lot of people here do treat being over 40 as the downward trundle though. I find basketball quite confusing LOL we don't really have it on TV here. Baseball looks very much like rounders that we used to play in primary school.
@ladym33 (10979)
• United States
4 Mar 10
I prefer playing sports over watching them, but I have not played any since my first child was born, I used to play on 2 softball teams and often played drop in vollyball, and I love to play tennis. Unfortunately I don't have anyone to play tennis any more, my kids sort of play with me, but they constantly miss hit the ball and we spend most of the time chasing balls so it is not really fun for me. I like to watch football and sometimes tennis, but I am not really in to watching many other sports.
@pandaeyes (2065)
4 Mar 10
I expect you will get more opportunity to play tennis with them when they are older. My neighbours grand children would play badminton and I suppose there is more chance of the shuttlecock being hit back. There are those bats with velcro on where you throw the material covered balls and the other person must catch them on the bat. That looks like very good practice for just learning to get the ball and the bat to the right place for aiming . My brother and I would play mini tennis in the apartment with a little rubber ball and two wooden bats as we had a long corridor between the rooms that was ideal.
@kialele (126)
• United States
4 Mar 10
I like sports more than watching the game. it is kinda boring to watch the game without actually playing it.
1 person likes this
@pandaeyes (2065)
4 Mar 10
Sometimes I would agree although I wouldn't want to be in a rugby scrum or a boxing ring no matter how much chocolate you bribed me with :) I don't really watch football anymore but when i still lived at home we had it on TV a lot as my dad and brother liked watching. I knew lots of the players and team colours but I cant tell one from another anymore.
@olisaur (1922)
• United States
4 Mar 10
I have never been interested in sports- P.E. was always the class I dreaded in school, lol. w
1 person likes this
• India
4 Mar 10
i do both . i am a big big cricket fan . i used to play almost daily . i will play with my friends in my college . i love playing cricket . and in the weekends i will be surely playing cricket . i also watch cricket . i will evn bunk college to watch matches if india plays . i am a big fan of dhoni and i have a lots of t shirts with his name and his number .
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@pandaeyes (2065)
4 Mar 10
My brother likes cricket too. At school the boys played it in the summer only. Its too wet and cold to play in winter here. I think the Indian Cricket team are very well respected all over the world.
@hofferp (4734)
• United States
4 Mar 10
I'm 60, and at this age, I mostly support the players. However, I just started playing basketball with a bunch of old ladies (oh, that would be me) and my feet, and now after today's game, my knee, hurts. I also play golf, when the wind's not blowing, it's not raining, it's between 70 and 90 degrees, my elbow doesn't ache, my teeth are brushed, my golf shoes are clean, my hair's combed, etc. In otherwords, everything has to be perfect!
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@pandaeyes (2065)
5 Mar 10
I have heard that golf involves quite a lot of walking. I think that it is good to get out and about even if it is just a walk to the post box and back. My very old neighbour was 80 when we moved her 20 years ago and she walked to the shops 3 or 4 times a week and mowed her (long)lawn and cut her hedges. She is still around,her daughter who often stays at the house ,is far less active. She said that since she learned to drive,she hardly walks anywhere. When we had 3 weeks of snow she said she was surprised how good she felt 'having' to walk in town and back for shopping.
• Philippines
4 Mar 10
I love to do both. I played sports and feel like I am one of those being admired from adoring fans upon hearing them cheer. But, it is not the main reason. It is my way of keeping myself fit. Likewise, I am also a big fan of famous players and as a way of supporting them I would love to buy some of their stuffs.
@pandaeyes (2065)
4 Mar 10
It's easy to admire athletes when you have tried their sport and know how hard it can be. I like to watch the cycling for that reason. We don't have much cycling on TV but the tour de France is always televised here. Since we started running, I have become more interested in watching the runners but I am certainly not up to their sorts of speeds or endurance.