Sports
Soccer
I played soccer for 10 years (age 4 to 14). I played soccer because I
enjoyed it, but by high school all the coaches really seemed to care
about was winning
. I got fed up with that kind of attitude. Here
I am just trying to enjoy the sport and I have my coaches trying to
convince me that winning is all that counts. After that I decided maybe
I should just move on with my life. I still love the sport, but don't
play much anymore. Might try to get into and intramural team though. If
you know of any let me know, hopefully my schedule can make time for it.
Perhaps one day I'll even coach a bunch of little kids and teach them
that winning is not that important.
Martial Arts
Other than soccer, a sport that I really enjoy is martial arts. All together I've taken about six years of martial arts with formal instruction, and the rest of the time it's just been me having fun. I started with Kung Fu and did that for about four years and got to brown belt. After that, I had moved and couldn't find another Kung Fu school so I decided to change styles. I ended up taking Tae Kwon Do. One of my teachers at my high school also taught Tae Kwon Do so that's how I found it. I did this for only two years because of yet another move thanks to the military. I only got to green belt, but I did have fun.
After that, with all my moving around, I decided to go with
self-training. I'm a big fan of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. I
found a book on Jeet Kune Do (Way
of the intercepting fist), a martial arts style that Bruce Lee created.
I went through the book and got ideas. I like Bruce's thinking with Jeet
Kune Do, to have no set form so it is harder for someone to predict your
next move. Using no way as way,
says Bruce. I was glad that I had
changed martial arts styles so that I could see how the different
martial arts worked, how they taught, and their reasoning on why certain
moves and techniques were better than others.
Exercising
Exercising is great practice and one way I exercise is bicycling. I got a newer bike now, but it's not in perfect shape, but has shocks, which is nicer on my rearend on rides. I also have a bike rack for my car so I can take my bike around to different trails. Now I just need to find people to ride with. Are you up for some cycling?
Exercising the body is only half of exercising for me; you also need to exercise the mind. For this I use meditation. I don't do much in formal meditation practice, but have read a bit on Buddhism meditation and incorporate some of it into my practice.