Easy and Elegant Life

The Search for Everyday Elegance and the Art of Living Well.

The Sporting Life

(This photo is not mine. Please let me know if I should take it down.)
(This photo is not mine. Please let me know if I should take it down.)

I have a good friend, JW, who told his two sons that he didn’t care what sport they played as long as it was one they could play for life. I love that philosophy. He (now past fifty) and his wife regularly play tennis. His youngest son has just taken up golf.

My son, all seven years old of him, just sprinted out of the car, up the stairs, through the pro shop and onto the indoor courts. It is the last day of tennis camp. He has already made us promise that he can take the fall session. I think, and hope, that he has found his life’s sport. (And he’s gotten his older sister intrigued by the idea….)

I know runners, bicyclists, swimmers, golfers, soccer, and tennis players, all of them middle-aged. My fencing coach in college was well into his early 70’s when I started as an 18-year-old. I remain amazed and encouraged by all of them. With my increasingly bad knees and “micro-lung” (what  STPT Instructor McGuire called my constant shortness of breath), I’m not sure what my life’s sport will be. But I’ve tried a lot of them!

What’s your sporting life look like?

9 thoughts on “The Sporting Life

  1. Chris, anyone can walk and lift weights and they will be able to do so for their entire life.

  2. Cycling, both aggressive road riding and the leisurely neighborhood circuit with my wife on our complementary cruisers. I expect to be riding with my wife for decades to come.

  3. I am 57 and just last year took up tennis and love it. Never played sports or even watched them before, except for running and lifting.

  4. Walking and yoga. Having just turned 60, I find that together they make a nice regimen.

  5. I’m a runner. I can do it by myself, wherever, whenever, it’s as non-competitive as I want it to be, and Lululemon togs are the icing on the cake!

  6. When weather and child permit, bicycling and cross–country skiing. I hope to be in the midst of one or the other when I finally keel over.

    Best Regards,

    Heinz-Ulrich von B.
    averageguysguidetostyle.blogspot.com

  7. Hi Chris – Iain has just started karate and I feel the blood stirring again. I find myself doing my old katas at odd moments and occasionally leaping out of the closet looking for Kato.

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