You Don’t Have to Be Good to Enjoy Playing
August 5th, 2011 by Michael Kwan
Since then, I’ve also stated that you don’t have to play to critique a player’s performance either, whether this be related to the world of sports, movies, music, or whatever else. What I’ve also quickly learned is that you don’t have to be good at something to enjoy doing it either.
We see this all the time. Golf is a fantastic example. There is certainly no shortage of horrible golfers out there, but they still hit up the links on a regular basis. They may display their frustrations, they may vent their anger, but there’s a reason they also go back to the course so often: they love playing the game.
I’m largely the same way when it comes to tennis and with video games, among some other hobbies when I have the time to enjoy them. I don’t claim to be any good at them, per se, but I do enjoy playing them.
And that’s the point. I’m still playing to win, to be sure, even though I recognize that my chances of winning most of the time are probably slimmer than I’d like to admit. While we all want to get better at what we do, and we should all work toward improving our games, we must also recognize the great value of play for its own sake.
Not that I’d complain if I won. Winning feels pretty good too.
Tags: having fun, leisure, personal growth
Filed under Sports and Games.
From your tweets and blog posts, I deduced you are a big fan of ice hockey and American football.
But I’ve never heard or read what sports you enjoying playing?
@Betshopboy: I used to play basketball in my younger years and some badminton, but I’m mostly into tennis these days. Almost ironic that I don’t play football or hockey at all, eh?
Tennis is good, I love playing tennis too!
It isn’t ironic, but more of a surprise since I’ve never seen your tweets or blog posts on tennis, e.g. Wimbledon, Australian Open etc.
I don’t really follow the sport as much as I used to. I watched it more during the Sampras/Chang/Agassi era.
Yeah there are definitely alot of things I enjoy doing which I am not very good at. For example I enjoy playing the occasional bowling, though I must admit the highest I’ve ever scored was somewhere in the 160s, lol. Its all about the mindset in my opinion.
-Jean
When i was a child my father used to say this ,we play for our enjoyment and if we are not good in it ,it doesn’t matter.
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