When I was in elementary school, PE was my worst subject. I flanked the fitness tests, I could hardly run, and I especially hated team sports. You know that feeling, when they pick up basketball teams, and the only last two people left are the obese girl with a broken arm and you? Yup, this was my life.
And then something changed - I started playing tennis. It took me forever to get a hang of it, but I started to enjoy it. What a strange feeling - to play a sport and not to suck at it!
Highschool was another turning point. Our PE, Avi Zilberman, was a mean, menacing, professional basketball player who told us upfront that we were a bunch of pussies ("choir boys") and he'd make men out of us. The chances looked slim - we had a few athletes in class, but most of us were total nerds. We had PE classes twice a week, and it was always a torture. Classes started with running, and then usually push-ups, sit-ups, chin-ups, etc. These exercises looked impossible to me. I could do maybe a couple of push-ups and sit-ups, but 0 chin-ups. But Avi insisted we keep trying and trying.
At the end of the year, I suddenly found myself doing 10 chin-ups with no problem. I ran 2 km in an amazing 8:15 minutes, and I was the school champion in sit-ups. I can't even begin to describe what it did to my self esteem. Yes, I was far from being a "stud", and couldn't fight my way out of a brawl, and yes, I still sucked in all team sports, but finally I achieved a level of fitness that looked impossible just a few years before.
My team sport skills remained pretty subdued over the years. I played basketball once a week during my army service, and 5 years of practice still left me with no coordination and a complete disability to get a rebound. It's funny how guys 6'' shorter than you can jump above you and take the ball. I played indoor soccer in college for a semester - it's the kind of game where there are 10-20 goals on average. I scored 0 during the entire time. But I did find my niches: tennis, squash, weight lifting.
In the last few years I found a new passion: volleyball. It's the first time I play a team sport and actually enjoy it. I'm still at the recreational level, but constantly improving. I've tried to move to Intermediate a few times already, but never made it. I hope that either they'll get tired of failing me or I finally improve enough to pass. Either way, it's a lot of fun.
Tomorrow we have the big annual tournament. I played in it for the last two years in two different teams, and yeah, I'm not the best player in the team for sure, but I can tell you one thing: my team always wins! We won the 2009 cup and 2010 cup without losing almost any game, under the name "Ball Busters". This year our team is the "Cock Blockers". At 6', I'm the shortest guy on the team - I think we're going to kick some ass! Wish us luck!
2010 winners
