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Jul 19, 2024
1,327
5,349
Indiana by way of Paris, France
Played a lot of football in my younger days. Got a creaky knee with a nice scar from surgery to prove it. My oldest is LOVING playing flag football and thinks he might want to move up to playing tackle. Not sure how I feel about that.
American football is nuts. Let him play. Builds character. If not sign him up for fencing lol. 🤺
 

Rossi320

Part of the Furniture Now
Jul 4, 2023
588
919
Northumberland county, pa
Ok I love football and college football (more like tailgating and all the activities) was never brought up with it until later in life....it is a time to get together for me.....I don't care who you are as long as you play good ball or swat your best bat!
 
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Rossi320

Part of the Furniture Now
Jul 4, 2023
588
919
Northumberland county, pa
For me school is starting up, I just don't want my boys going through what I did....guess I don't or shouldn't be the dad that lives his life through them....trying to let them be.....where is my pipe and a nice strong blend
 
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mortonbriar

Lifer
Oct 25, 2013
3,048
6,621
New Zealand
I played 2 years each of tennis, badmington, field hockey, volleyball, rugby and soccer. I enjoyed them all in the moment, but I am just not competitive in that way. Surfing, skateboarding, snowboarding were things I could do without a team. I can work in a team, but if I don't have to I won't!
 

Briar Lee

Lifer
Sep 4, 2021
6,958
23,516
Humansville Missouri
Among dairy farmers of the Ozarks ball playing was, if not considered a sin, at least a vice. I had baseballs, softballs, footballs, all kinds of balls, but nobody to play ball with.

So we became dead shots, first with BB guns at age 6, shotguns at age 8, and our own .22 at age 10.

The greatest tragedy of my life so far has been the shooting sports have been eclipsed by the idea of guns as a weapon.

When I was a boy guns were sporting goods, each one cherished, and a lifetime possession to be proud of.

When I walk in any gun shop today it looks like an armory for civilians, which it is.
 

Servant King

Geriatric Millennial
Nov 27, 2020
5,867
35,143
40
Frazier Park, CA
www.thechembow.com
Played a number of different sports over the years. Football was probably the worst of the bunch, as I was a tiny, scrawny kid, yet couldn't run particularly fast. These same shortcomings held me back when it came to basketball, but I was a little better at that because I learned how to emulate my favorite player, Robert Horry. Play good defense, shoot the 3, good passing etc. I prefered tennis. Had a good serve, and a decent backhand. I still play when I can, although it's been a number of years. Didn't play baseball for long, a handful of years as a kid, but I was much better at it than all the other sports. Had a good arm, so I could count on being put either on the mound or at 3rd base. Went into a slump one time, so I taught myself how to switch-hit. That made me a little bit more useful still.

But the one I have always done the best at was golf. I still play from time to time, and it's one of those things where I can go for months at a time without practicing, hit a small bucket of balls at the range the day of, and go out there and play only a notch worse than bogey golf. My paternal grandfather taught me how to play when I was only five or six. Wish he had smoked a pipe too!

My favorite sport growing up, however, was always hockey, and still is. Wayne Gretzky had a lot to do with that. Never played it though.

By any chance, does kvetching count as a sport? If so, someone needs to get me a long-deserved trophy ASAP! :ROFLMAO:
 

Richmond B. Funkenhouser

Plebeian Supertaster
Dec 6, 2019
5,969
26,546
Dixieland
Played a lot of football in my younger days. Got a creaky knee with a nice scar from surgery to prove it. My oldest is LOVING playing flag football and thinks he might want to move up to playing tackle. Not sure how I feel about that.

The improvement I saw im my boy's confidence, and in how he carried himself in general, was amazing.

That first day of pads, and the Oklahoma drill, you could tell he was scared. I was too.

After a couple of good wacks he figured out it didn't hurt to get hit, and he started running around like Bobby Boucher. Haha

It has it's risks, but life in general does too.
 
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Dec 11, 2021
1,891
10,033
Fort Collins, CO
The improvement I saw im my boy's confidence, and in how he carried himself in general, was amazing.

That first day of pads, and the Oklahoma drill, you could tell he was scared. I was too.

After a couple of good wacks he figured out it didn't hurt to get hit, and he started running around like Bobby Boucher. Haha

It has it's risks, but life in general does too.
The Oklahoma Drill has produced more basketball players than any other drill known to man 😆
 

SmokingInTheWind

Part of the Furniture Now
Mar 24, 2024
733
3,993
New Mexico
Hypothetically, if you had to help fellow countrymen resist and remove a government that had become murderous and tyrannical. Would you choose a semiautomatic AR style rifle or a Ruger Flattop?
But, I do miss a nice gun shop full of blued steel and walnut.

Sorry for hijacking the thread so early.

On topic, I played football in high school. Offensive and defensive tackle. Football was a big deal in my small town. My high school only had 400 students and we would get around 100 guys on the team every year. Lots of testosterone back in the day. My football coach also coached my Dad and uncles. We always did well. State champions in our division my sophomore year. It was intimidating to our rivals when that long stream of players poured out of the locker room on a Friday night for home games. Sadly, my hometown high school merged with our across town rival school about ten years ago. Now they can only come up with enough players to play nine man football. I could start a rant but I’ll keep it on topic.
 
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Jul 19, 2024
1,327
5,349
Indiana by way of Paris, France
The improvement I saw im my boy's confidence, and in how he carried himself in general, was amazing.

That first day of pads, and the Oklahoma drill, you could tell he was scared. I was too.

After a couple of good wacks he figured out it didn't hurt to get hit, and he started running around like Bobby Boucher. Haha

It has it's risks, but life in general does too.
The only time it really hurts to get hit is when you're punched in the nose, balls, or kidneys.
 
Jul 19, 2024
1,327
5,349
Indiana by way of Paris, France
But, I do miss blued steel and walnut.

Sorry for hijacking the thread so early.

On topic, I played football in high school. Offensive and defensive tackle. Football was a big deal in my small town. My high school only had 400 students and we would get around 100 guys on the team every year. Lots of testosterone back in the day. We always did well. State champions in our division my sophomore year. It was intimidating to our rivals when that long stream of players poured out of the locker room on a Friday night for home games. Sadly, my hometown high school merged with our across town rival school about ten years ago. Now they can only come up with enough players to play nine man football. I could start a rant but I’ll keep it on topic.
We have an intimidation tactic in fencing: before the start of the duel you can point your weapon at the opponent. I always did the pointing with my head back and my body leaned back. The nonchalant way of doing it usually shook the younger side of the age range. From then the en garde became a reasonable attack instead of the lunge.
 
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FLDRD

Lifer
Oct 13, 2021
3,088
13,154
Arkansas
Cross country running, track, cross country skiing, and basketball in high school.
After that did some golfing, tennis, lacrosse.
My favorite turned out to be Ultimate, which I played at a fairly high level for about a decade, then toned it down and played for fun for another decade.
Also had many years with lots of days on the mountain downhill skiing.