Sports Can Heal

Sports are played for many reasons. Some people play for fun for themselves, others play for the entertainment for other who will watch it later on the television. Some play for paychecks, which I hope to be doing in about 4 to 8 years. But for now one of the reasons I play soccer, which is the only sport that matters to me, is to heal myself, not physically of course but mentally. If I ever feel depressed then I just go outside and practice soccer. Even though soccer is the only sport that matters I’m sure this would work with other sports too like basketball or football.

Now when I say this I do not mean that just watching a sport can really brighten your day. I mean as long as it isn’t your favorite team verses their rivals in a big game, a more reliable way is to play the sport in person, and love to play it. Like I love playing soccer so I go outside and practice shooting or dribbling. That’s the practice I put in to get my hopes up that some day I will go pro. It would be even better if I were in the next world cup or even the one after that. So I love playing soccer and I even love practicing soccer so its real easy for me to go practice about 5 hours a day. Its really easy for me to almost fell like nothing else exists beside my soccer ball and I. It is a really relaxing and calming feeling.

One day about two years ago my great grandma died. On the day after my great grandmas death I went outside and practiced juggling for about 9 hours in one day. Afterwards my mom asked me very gently “Are you ok?” she said.          

I responded saying “Actually yeah”. I didn’t say that because I was some complete jerk and I didn’t mourn the death of my great grandma. I said that because I mourned her in the best way I could think of, by practicing soccer non-stop in a whole day. It got me out of my depressed mood. I also did that for a month after I didn’t make the high school soccer team each year. I know that s crazy with this training schedule I give to myself. It just renews my love for soccer each time.

It is a crazy training schedule because I go out to practice soccer for fun after I renew my love for it. So usually when I practice I juggle which, by the way, it means that I try to keep the ball in the air for as long as I can and I can touch it with my feet, knees, shoulders, and head as many times as I can. My record for that at the beginning of my freshmen year was just about 8. That record really sucked. But now it is exactly 741 times touching the ball before it drops to the ground is the most I’ve ever done. So this practicing really has paid off. My best friend on my select soccer teams juggling record is only 60.

So this helps me out in a copious amount of ways. It relives me when I’m felling depressed or stressed. It also helps me just because I like to practice and I like the fact that practice make perfect and I feel pretty close to perfect.