THE LADY AS A SPORTSWOMAN is just reflections on my years of trying to 'keep in shape' as they say...

THE LADY AS A SPORTSWOMAN


Sports. Athletics. Woman doing Sports: Me. for who? (whom?) proving what? to Dad...to myself....to Mom....to my sisters....to the other girls...to guys....

this is a strange way to record the sports world as I lived it throughout my life, just listing it all...just wondering if I really was enjoying myself. if I wouldn't have preferred to just be on a sandy beach all day, reading a book. napping. eating food cooked just for me. drinking great iced tea...now, there's something I've never done!....the truth is, I have never been that wild about moving my body about in sports!

I knew, always, that doing sports was "good for you". When it's a matter of living in my imagination and just telling stories to myself or reading or singing by myself, or, instead, doing a sport. Well, I would not chose the sport. Sports are what I did because I was supposed to....with the exception of swimming and canoe-ing....which, when I do them, are not exactly sports....

Swimming, for me, is slow, constant breast and side strokes for a half hour to a couple of hours in pleasant, natural water, quietly humming to myself alone with the natural world and no interruptions what-so-ever.

Canoe-ing, for me, is slow, constant paddling for an hour to several hours in pleasant, natural water, quietly humming to myself with an equally pleasant, quiet partner, with the natural world and no interruptions what-so-ever.

Every other possible body movement is more of a challenge and a chore that I often will do willingly, and often find "fun"...but I experience sports...not with great joy....only that peaceful swimming or canoe-ing give me Great Joy!

Here's all the 'sports' I've spent time and lots of efforts 'doing':

Swim team: rotten at this....never came in respectably at all. legs too uncoordinated. tried hard tho. good arm action in free-style and breast stroke....good endurance swimming... in cold water, even....up to over an hour in very cold water, Polar-Bear-Excursions at times!...have usually been able to swim about eight-five laps, and can lose my sense of self in such a methodical lap swim...am down to twenty laps right now...a ways to go! Swim slow and steady....
Basketball team: good point guard. never center. due to right eye perception-of-depth problems... but I was a fiercely defensive guard. scared smaller young ladies....for a couple of years, went to a sports bar and watched NBA games with a friend...fun!
Volleyball team: capable. not brilliant. liked sand play best....
Golf: Dreadful. Horrible Right Hook. made my father quietly cry in his beer....
Softball. Pretty bad. due to the right eye problem with depth and so on. busy in the outfield tho. good catches. can't throw worth a damn. have rarely sat happy throughout an entire Baseball game. start to go asleep around the 7th inning....
Football. watch towards the end of the season with some enthusiasm. trained in this response by my dad, who had no sons....he taught me much. enjoy watching a few games a season. Ditto on the sports bar action!.....
Track team: great sprinter for short distances. fantastic at Women's Hurdles. placed 5th or 7th or something like that, in Small Highschool Woman's meet in the regionals in Illinois...got a cute little brass trophy....lost it, over time....good at broad-jump....favorite sport genre to watch in the Olympics.....
Running: ran up to three miles a few times a week for a long time in my mid-thirties....knees and hips suffered...stopped running. liked it once I'd be running for awhile outside...but it was always hard in the first fifteen minutes or so to get into it....
Sailing...remarkably mediocre at this, tho I loved it and worked on many a sailboat sanding my fingers to the bone to make it loverly! very happy, but very seasick on the water at times...depending on conditions...too bad, too bad....when directed very precisely, am a decent crew member....am good in the galley...but, must have seasickness medicine of some kind on board!....capsized in small craft several times....quite capable of righting the craft and climbing back in...for what that's worth!....
Hand-Gliding: wonderful sport! climb up the sand dune with a very heavy 'kite'. take a big run off a high cliff, balancing said heavy 'kite' while in the harness. FLY in the sky for about forty-five seconds. land like a cat while holding up said 'kite'. climb the dune again. there is something wrong with this scene, but I am not sure what it is....because, that under-a-minute Flight is quite wonderful....quite wonderful....just two days of this, though....
Canoe-ing. Not bad. Not bad. have always been the stern-person. spent most of my canoe-ing life over-compensating for less energetic and less strong-bow persons in my beautiful canoe...my Old Town 1965 canvass-on-wood marvel....beautiful times on quiet waters, and in the Bay as well! Out to Brooks Island in the SF Bay and back, of course...several times! An awesome accomplishment! (she said modestly....)
Rafting: several great trips...can paddle for hours and hours without growing tired...or tired of all the beauty around me! I am really good at rafting. happy as a water sprite! I love Rivers the way I love people...rafted with the kids from our school on the American for eight years straight....
Diving and Snorkeling: deep, deep love for all under-the-water experiences I could get....spent every time under the waters of the California coast, happy and fulfilled and in love with the sea NAUI certified twice....have also spent time snorkeling in Hawaii...same Happiness...and in lakes all over the country.....simply: love under-water. love under-water. love under-water.
Rivers and Lakes and Streams: doing anything on these wonderful bodies of water: fishing, especially....wading...hiking...swimming...a bit of water-skiing over the early years....again...water....must have WATER!....(learned to water-ski in a bayou in Louisiana...with alligators. no kidding!)
Hiking: up hill. down dale. into mountains. out of mountains. along rivers. along streams. around lakes. into and out of camping sites. love the out-of-doors. never want to leave the out-of-doors once I'm there. never mind the dirt and the bugs and the heats and the colds. It's Nature. and I LOVE Nature! MUST TO BE OUT-OF-DOORS!....
let's see...what else did I try....o yes, kayaking. I began in the Kern river with experienced kayakers who should have known better then to start a raw beginner out on the river...I went over almost at once, and, of course, did not know how to "Eskimo Roll" to upright myself....so...down the river I went, upside down. My contact lenses were the first to go, as I had to open my eyes to see the my death approaching in the form of very large rocks. everywhere.
then there were all the fish. wonderful! and very wide-eyed about me floating rapidly by them upside-down....and bubbles. lots of bubbles all colors of the rainbow. and river weeds streaming by...it was very beautiful, considering I was certainly toast. I kept just breathing out very, very, very slowly... then came the eddy. I was flipped over at once by pale, somber men who presumed I was dead. They fell over laughing when I came up smiling and announced that it was beautiful 'under there', and I wanted to go 'scuba driving'! But, there you have it! my one solo kayaking adventure! All the others were with kids from school, in the shark nursery off the coast in Tamlpais...in safe double kayaks...quite stable, and lots of fun to race! my little team often won!
Tai Chi. Qi Gong...are these sports? dance? I've tried Asian exercise/dance forms on and off for years....relaxing...keep me a bit limber....sometimes, these disciplines have kept me well, or made illness less virile....
Japanese Sword Work...my latest craze...on and off....sometimes I wonder what I find in this discipline...I raise my wooden practice sword...pretend to split folks in two...I don't know...martial arts make you strong...encourage confidence...probably wouldn't be doing this one tho...except that I work as a school teacher in an academy sponsored by a Martial Arts School System...so, Kendo....
Tennis. yes, Tennis. I even took Tennis lessons. lots of them. I was especially bad at tennis. I wanted to learn, because I associated Tennis with my rich psychiatrist friend and a way of life that had never been open for me. I don't know why I kept trying. I learned a Lot of techniques, and practiced and practiced. but. nothing, really. my wonderful perception-problem-to-the -right, really got in my way again. I worked on tennis for about five years. then gave it up abruptly....
Horse-back-riding...English saddle...rings and trails and hour after hour of using legs and seat and will and arms and hands to attempt to tell a huge and will-full animal how I want him or her to move with me on his/her back....was learning to jump...ran out of funds... also, I lost my 'seat' - my back problems got worse...let it go slowly and kindly: the love of an animal and me together....
Taking Walks...now, that's something I think I can really do! I love walking and walking and walking...especially during travel...walking the streets of other countries is a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful thing to do with my body! ...and walking out-of-doors...always, the beautiful out-of-doors...still, my back often 'hurts'....
Finally....Dancing!...Dancing is a sport, you know! I've danced so many Dance styles: Ballroom. Alpine. Folk. Latin. Ballet. Modern. Country and Western. Cajun...dancing is something my body loves to do...always with others.....

I think that's it...maybe not! maybe I forgot something! But, I think not....
A life can be a long, long fantastic time for a human body....in the midst of illnesses, bone and joint and back problems galore...there are those many times that I have been moved to 'move' my body here and there in activities. 'sports'...
of course, had I been raised on a farm. or been an adult in a third world country, where survival took all the energy I had, then I probably wouldn't have had all these incredible times moving my body through all these many ways of experiencing both it, and the world around me....

like everyone else who has had the time, the wonderful time, to actually use my body in more than work and survival...I have been a very, very lucky Lady.
Have I been a Sportswoman though? Probably not. Dabbling in that list I just wrote does not make me an expert in any one of those activities...not a one of them, actually...barely competent...just enough to learn to do each. to enjoy the world in and without me a little more in another way...

That's been enough for this lady...
and my body is thankful....