I coach 7th and 8th grade girls’ basketball and during yesterdays practice one of the players and I were talking during practice because she was injured and unable to practice. It was interesting getting to know a little bit about the other sports she plays. She mentioned the reason why she is so involved in sports is because of her two older brothers, especially her brother who is only a few years older, and how they always have been physical with each other and are best friends. She even brought up the point that how she wonders how much different she would be if she didn't have older brothers involved in sports. I thought it raised a good question, it was an interesting conversation and had relevance to our class.
I think it’s interesting where anyone in general gets their passion for sports, as I previously mentioned I got my athletic abilities and passion from my mother. I have an older brother as well; he never played the more skilled sports such as football or basketball, but was more of a runner. As I grew older I followed in his footsteps and ran Cross Country and Track in Middle School and on into High School. I definitely credit him as the reason I ever became interested in both sports, and he was also partially the driving force for me to better myself in those sports. We went to the same High School, he graduated from High School my 8th grade year, so coming into a new school where the only reason people knew me was because of my brother I felt in some ways I had something to live up to. In Track we competed in the same events and it was always my goal to beat his personal records in the 5k, 2 mile, mile, 800m, and 800m split. I think if it wasn’t for my brother I would have stuck with football longer and concentrated more on basketball, rather than running Cross Country, Basketball, and Track.
When it was all said and done I did end up beating all of his records, by a lot!
I’m curious as to what role older siblings, parents, friends, or aunts and uncles played on others participation and passion of sports…
-Tony Fritsch
I agree that it is interesting to know the role that older siblings, parents, friends, or aunts and uncles can play on an individual being motivated and passionate about sports. I feel that without motivation from family, an individual will more than likely not play a sport. For every instance I can think of involving friends playing sport, they all had motivation from family. I myself had motivation from my father to play baseball, my friend Nichele had motivation from her mother to play sports such as basketball and volleyball, and lastly my friend Cody Blood was motivated at a young age by his father who was a very athletic individual. I believe that without this motivation from our parents, we may not have been inclined to play sports, and may have gotten into whatever the parents might have been, such as art.
ReplyDeleteTyler Schaefer
As I stated in my introduction growing up I was always into sports, if I would say my hobbies they would always start with playing football. That influence came from none other than my father who I feel shares my same beliefs about the game that I do. And those are that it is without a doubt the greatest game on earth and if it was not a part of my life I don't know what I would do. Although I was not as successful as a player during my high school years, and Tony you can a test to the fact that our high school did not have the best football coach; but regardless my love for the game never wavered. I had an influence from my older sister and her cross country coach to be a member of the cross country team but since I do not like long distance running I never took up that hobby. I have a lot of regret for quitting basketball after middle school and if I had to do it all over again I think i would have put more effort and time into that sport. But in closing I have always had a great family support no matter what I was doing and that will never change.
ReplyDelete~Max Householder
Neither of my parents are particularly interested in sports. My dad is big into cars, and he introduced me to NASCAR at a young age, but as far as stick-and-ball sports, he couldn't care less for the most part. My mom never had an interest in sports. I think my interest in sport is due to my Uncle. He was a star athlete in high school and would play basketball, football, and baseball with me every time we visited. I started out with soccer as my first competitive sport, and although my parents didn't know anything about it, they supported me throughout my playing days. I told my parents I wanted to play every sport I could, and they were supportive and actually were pleasantly surprised that I wanted to be so active in sports. I feel like my playing days as a kid actually engaged my parents in sports. Once I got to middle school, my parents would even give me advice after games, and when I first started they knew nothing about soccer. Today, my dad will actually watch many sporting events with me aside from NASCAR, and it is a common topic in my house with both him and my mom. But I am curious to know where I'd be today without my parents support. They could easily have discouraged me to play since it was something they didn't have a particular interest in, but they supported me throughout and I'm thankful for that.
ReplyDeleteI think that this is a great topic to be discussed. I never really thought about why certain people play sports, but after I did, I realized it’s mostly because of family or friends. I know the reason I started playing sports was because my grandpa would always talk to me about his different sports stories while playing for the Detroit Lions. As I stated in my introduction paragraph, I wanted to feel the drive and determination in my own sports that he felt. Another reason I started sports was because I was always drug to my older sisters sports games, and I wanted to be a part of her team. That’s when my parents started me on my own soccer team. My whole family ended up playing sports and I think it all ties back to my mom, dad, uncles, and grandpa all being very involved with sports. There are a lot of my friends who have similar stories to mine, with most of them starting sports because their family was very sport-oriented.
ReplyDeleteHeather Cox
I can relate a lot to this girl, I think my (three) brothers did have a big impact in my athletic career. Mostly my brother who is just one year older, we always were competing against each other when we were younger as we did play on the same football team when we were in 4th and 5th grade. But I don’t think this always is a competition between male and female like Tony refers to falling in the footsteps of his older brother. I know that my little brother (a 10th grader) has really learned a lot from me, and not to take all the credit or anything but he would be a different athlete if I wasn’t there pushing him. I’ve really enjoyed watching him grow as an athlete and a person, giving him constructive criticism when need be (maybe too much sometimes).
ReplyDeleteAs for my family I think we all have carried the passion for sports, but not always in the same sports. As I mentioned my mom was a sprinter and gymnast back in her day, and my father was an avid baseball player. I, myself a state qualifier in cross country and the 800m dash in high school (as the 800m is basically an all out sprint) it doesn’t seem like I got my endurance from either of my parents. And my love for basketball, you don’t even want to see either of them shoot the ball let alone play (yuck!). As for my brothers, Randy (22) played football, basketball, and track (although my dad would’ve loved him to play baseball), and my younger (16) is following in his footsteps in all three sports, but I couldn’t imagine him doing anything else.
All in all I think parents play a big role in the sports and abilities of their offspring. My situation proves that parents although they would love for their children to follow in the activity they excelled in that isn’t always the case.
-Alyssa Robinson
This topic relates to me a lot actually in my past experiences in sport! I have a lot of drive to compete to my best ability in sports due to competing with my older brother a lot. We have each played our fair share of different sports as we were growing up but we both are mainly focused in soccer. He is more of an offensive minded player and I am a defensive minded player. He was the best player in his age group and set many records. I saw all of the attention he recieved and wanted to out do him in the sport. We played against each other a lot of different times growing up and I always loved guarding him. He would beat me sometimes, but I would stuff in a lot of times too. It was very rewarding because he is one of my biggest role models growing up. Now we play on the same team together and we work really well together. I believe though that I would not have been as competitve if it was not for him growing up. He gave me a lot of drive to better myself at soccer and he made it really fun getting better as well because it was rewarding to see myself get closer to his skill level after every practice and game.
ReplyDelete-Tim McLellan