Adult rec leagues connect players to childhood
Adult recreational sports leagues connect adults to their childhood. Memories of watching the clock for recess and playing with their friends runs wild.
(Photo courtesy free=stocks-photo/pixabay)
Do you remember sitting in class during elementary school waiting for the bell to ring for recess?
No matter how old you are, this is a memory that is locked into the heads of almost every person in America.
When that bell rang and everyone charged outside to get to the playground, I knew exactly where I was going.
I was going to the basketball court to play pickup basketball with my friends.
The feeling that you have counting the minutes and seconds until recess fizzles out once you hit middle and high school.
But, the anticipation of going out and playing a sport or a game with your friends doesn’t have to die once you leave the playground; that’s why they have adult recreational sports leagues.
Those who compete in adult rec sports leagues often get stereotyped right away.
They’ll get looked at as a person who peaked athletically in high school and are looking for an outlet to unleash their athletic prowess.
However, it should be looked at for what it truly is, adult recess.
You’ll see posts on social media all the time that say “If I filmed my highlights from recess in school, I’d be a division 1 athlete by now.”
That’s a bit hyperbolic, but the point still stands. Games of pick-up basketball or football during that 15-minute break from class were often the highlight of the day.
Some of if not most of the best players to play in these games during recess didn’t even go on to play competitive sports.
Why is that? I’m not sure, I could think of two or three kids back in elementary school who would put up 30 points a recess but never played a minute of real basketball.
Maybe they just used sports as an escape or an outlet. At the end of the day, that’s truly all recess was.
The same can be said about adult rec leagues.
Whether it’s basketball, softball, flag football, golf, disc golf etc. it’s an escape from the mundane parts of day-to-day life.
It also gives you an opportunity to see and be around people once or twice a week that you may not always get to see.
Are there exceptions to the rules where some people take things way too seriously? Sure, I mean, everyone wants to win in a competitive setting.
Working all day and being able to get off knowing you have a game on the field or the court will have you staring at the clock, waiting for the work day to end.
It’s a connection back to our adolescence and a simpler time watching the clock waiting for recess.
It’s something that I think should be encouraged among adults and not looked at with a negative connotation.