Great Reading

I just picked up Age Is Just A Number by Dara Torres. Absolutely fantastic. All of the issues of picking up and trying again as well as feelings of when and why to walk away are laid out in entertaining, inciteful prose.

Check your local library before hopping on Amazon. This recession still lingers.

Like Mike Part II

The fear of being finished and finite is expressed here in all it's raw honesty:

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=4465373

Can you find another 'equal' to the thrill and challenge of your given sport? Will the future you ever compare to the past one that was heralded by all? Is 'loving the game' rhetoric for 'loved what the game gave me'?

Lest We Forget

Did all the great ones attempt to throw their hat back in the ring? The more iconic the athlete the more we forgive and forget any smears to their legacy:


http://msn.foxsports.com/editorschoice/pgStory?contentId=9776478#sport=More%20Sports&photo=9953096

The ladies

The desire to return to competitive sport is gender blind, though being able to snap back from producing another human being almost seems challenge enough.

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tennis/news/story?id=4494731

Like Mike

Ok, Mike. We gave you the benefit of the doubt for so long, because you were so damn good and we loved you. But it seems not even you can escape the memories and longing for what used to be:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=aw-jordanhall091209&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Proving others wrong drove you to perfection. Being competitive and beating opponents fueled your work ethic. Other than the fact that the golf course hits par everyday, where did that motivation and energy go now that there's no longer a test of betterness looming right around the corner?

Super Quitter

The word 'quit' has such negative connotations. Almost as bad as 'giving up'. In either case, there is the stigma of being defeated. Of not being good enough or willing to work hard enough to make the cut to continue. What they don't tell you or maybe are afraid of looking at themselves, however, is the reason WHY someone endures the life of a competitive athlete is often because they don't know what else to do. The devotion to their game becomes one of desperation. They choose the put-ten-times-in-what-you-get-out and like it life because they percieve it to be the only option available. The hard they take so much pride in becomes familar and safe and comfortable.
The choice to move on is not about surrender. It's about believing you have something else to offer. It's about making the hundred and sixty so hours in the week your not playing or training more meaningful than the eight or so that you are. It's about convincing yourself that you are more than what the world has heralded you for. What you will find, if you dare to look, is that the greater world at large sees you much differently than that world you inhabit those few precious hours. It seeks to uplift Clark Kent and derail superman. Superman needs a villain or some sort of impending doom to appear. Clark wakes up everyday, put on his glasses, and embraces life. There's no need for capes and tights to get the job done.

Smashing the Flex Capacitor

Athletes never live in the present. They're either focused on re-creating the successes or experiences of the past or driven to make next season their best. This failure to live in the present is especially taxing to athletes attempting to walk away. They continue their accustomed training pattern, just in case they strike up the nerve (or the ordinariness of the world impresses the need) to suit up again. As the days pass on and they've shrugged off the awkward idleness of the competitive season, the intensity and/or frequency of their workouts adjust accordingly. Without a coach or game dictating what they should be working towards, the post-competitive athlete must either find another cause or slow themselves down enough to begin to focus on enjoyment of the present. The discipline and routine that made them an above average athlete must now be re-channelled into becoming like all those easy-going, uncommitted folks they looked down upon for so long. The fact that all those that found joy and contentment in the everyday had things figured out all along is a staggering shock to the psyche. You watch from a distance and wonder what it all meant, questioning all you had done and were; longing for the first time to be something you're not sure you know how to be.