Athletes or Athleticism

What is an athlete? Webster says that an athlete is, "a person who is trained or skilled in exercises, sports, or games requiring physical strength, agility and stamina." Few would argue that definition right? Right... well kind of.

Let's ignore Webster for a second and define an athlete as someone extensively trained to perform at a high level for a given sport. Sport being singular because very few people are true athletes in multiple sports. Sure people play multiple sports but are they athletes or are they simply athletic.

For me? I'll take athleticism over athlete any day of the week and I'll tell you why.

Athletes know their craft. They've been playing since they were little, coached for as long as they remember, and most will tell you they're experts in their field. They have been trained to outwork the opponent: kick further, run faster and throw harder. They are stronger, bigger and better than the rest and that's why they will win... wrong.

Kickball doesn't always suit itself to fastest, strongest nor biggest. Kickball is a game of situations and those that play regularly will tell you more often than not you play with your brain not with your iron foot.

Track athletes put their head down and run as fast as possible -- I need you to keep your head up and let your legs move naturally while your eyes tell you to speed up or slow down.

Soccer athletes kick the ball far and hard -- I need you to read the situation and place the ball in the most opportune spot to benefit the team.

Basketball athletes take over the game -- I need you to trust your teammates and make smart decisions when the time comes.

Athletes are great at what they've been trained to do. Athleticism is a product of adapting to the situation around you, learning, and then taking those learned skills and applying them in the necessary field. And when it comes to kickball I'll build my team with the latter any day of the week.

The Hangover (Bad Game Wasted)

This has happened to every kickballer in the world. The day of a "BIG GAME" "RIVALRY WEEK" or any cliche to describe the game against your worthiest opponent. You sit at work, in a restaurant or at your moms house picturing all 9 innings play by play, you even know when they're going to score, how you plan to counter, EVERYTHING. You even show up early to watch other games and play it off like it's no big deal. Talk with other teams, talk to your nemesis, all the while sweating bullets. Then before you know it. Like in the movies in the blink of an eye, its the bottom of the 7th and you're down 6-1 and you lucked up on that 1. Each inning was like taking a shot of (insert drink here). You wondering how in the hell did this happen. 1st game you played 2-1, 3-4 2nd game, 3rd game 1-0 in extra innings, 11-10 games, Walk off homers, sacrifices to end games, even strikeouts. Now you're getting blasted and other teams watching, because they heard about you're "EPIC" battles. You drop grounders, you drop pop ups, you walk girls anything you can imagine that could help you lose, does. Two fielders run into each other and don't get hurt, but don't get up and the ball rolls 20 feet for no reason. Just a total meltdown. You play that game over and over for 6 days straight, hence the hangover. So how do you bounce back from this for the next game?

It's only one solution for this. Only one.
You gotta kick the s@@@ outta your next opponent, beat them 15-0 no mercy.

Welcome To Kickball

I've started a kickball blog for all of the fans of "America's NEW Favorite Pass Time". I know people are thinking what can be said about kickball to start a blog. Well stay tuned. We'll be talking about different techniques for pitches and kicks, pitching styles, the different leagues and teams around the world and make comparisons. It's going to be fun for kickballers all over. I'm Rob and I'm hooked on Kickball. Play twice a week, run a youth kickball league in St. Louis and got a Kickball Camp in the works for the winter at an indoor sports complex. It's going down.