Sports

Why do sports make a supposedly intelligent, rational person do stupid things? I have hurt myself, done idiotic things to my body, things that I knwo that I should not have done all in the name of sports.

Last night at rugby practice, I arrived late. In the muggy heat, I quickly took one lap around the field, half-heartedly stretched, and quickly joined into the drill already going on. After half a length down the field, I felt a sharp biting pain in my upper quadricep muscle. "Damn" I muttered to myself, frustrated to be hurt this early into practice.

I tried to keep running but any sort of acceleration made my leg give out. So I took myself out, spent a few minutes wandering around stretching. A few minutes later, I decided that I was ready to go back into practice. I joined up the drill again, adopting a loping gate, one which didn't require muscle strength from my left leg. A few minutes later, I pushed off and hit the ground, leg giving out once again. "DAMN" I muttered again, limped off to the shade, and sat for a moment considering my leg.

I sat for a minute or two, watching my team do sprints (which I knew I couldn't do), and then start up another drill. "I guess I'll give it another go.." I thought to myself, as I proceeded to lope once again at slow motion through the passes and cuts. And of course, after several passes, my leg once again gave out, with a searing pain.

By this time, my brain had registered just how stupid I was being. I made myself to walk over to my bag, take off my cleats, forcing myself to stop practicing. You have no idea how much I do this. Hurt myself, and just keep on going, effectively hurting myself more. It's kind of a complex that I am pretty sure plagues many higher up athletes and amateurs alike. How much is too much? When is enough enough?

In rugby, I find it especially hard to know when to quit. Rarely have I played a game or practice without being in some measure of pain. It's part of the territory- when you're running into people at top speeds, getting trampled by metal cleats, having your body crushed by piles of people, you have to learn to distinguish between playable pain, and pain that needs attention or rest. As a result, in the past 2 years, I have played (stupidly) through injuries that have led to my removal from the sport for up to 7 months.

So, back to my original question. Why does a supposedly intelligent person like me pursue sports as if it were a life or death matter? I read somewhere once that in this time of relative peace, we have found substitutes for war and conflict-those being sports. Therefore, we partake in sports with a vigour that could be likened to fighting a war. Anyways, I don't know if any of this is true or not, but it's definetely worth considering...