Do you remember when your life revolved around tournament schedules and what time practice was every day? If you’ve lived and breathed sports ever since you were old enough to officially join a team, then you've probably never thought about the day when your entire drawer full of soccer socks would no longer be in use. The transition is hard to cope with. From one ex-athlete to another, here are 10 new-found problems that you are now facing.
1. You have to think of new hobbies.
Those get-to-know-you games are a lot harder now that you can no longer say that you play “x” sport. What are hobbies? What do I like to do in my spare time? “I play soccer” always answered those repetitive small talk questions before.
2. Your summer isn’t planned out through tournaments, games, practices, etc.
Now, you can go on vacation during the summer instead of waiting for that one off week that you have at the end of August. However, will you fully be able to enjoy the beach if you don’t have to rush back before pre-season starts?
3. You now have to find a new way to stay active.
Gone are the days when you never had to worry about whether you exercised enough. Now, you have to start getting creative or just accept the fact that your golden days of activity are over.
4. Exercise isn’t fun anymore.
Running is terrible, intervals are horrible, and no one likes cardio. Conditioning was always awful, but it was balanced out with game days. Post-sports exercising is all conditioning with a zero percent chance of fun.
5. You miss the rush of buying new equipment.
There’s a certain feeling of satisfaction that you get when you finally buy brand new cleats and get to spend a week of torture breaking them in. Finally ditching the pair that no longer has the bottom attached and adding them to your collection of ruined shoes is a great feeling you’ll definitely miss.
6. You can’t characterize yourself as “athletic.”
If I don’t do any form of significant exercise, can I still write down “athletic” as one of the three words that describe me?
7. People assume that you are oblivious to all things sports related.
Even though I don’t currently play a sport, I still know the difference between halves, periods, and quarters. You really don’t need to explain to me what “offside,” “fullback,” or “suicide sprints” are.
8. Uniform tan lines are a thing of the past.
There was never a point to laying out in the sun or trying to even out the unfortunate suntan/burn that was re-emphasized every time that you stepped on the field. Now, you actually need to spend significant time outside in order to ditch the ghostly pale shade that you’ve had all winter.
9. You need to pay more attention to what you eat.
No longer can you eat whatever you want because “I just had practice.” You actually have to be conscious of what you eat because you probably won’t be burning off the calories that come with eating ice cream four days in a row.
10. Most of all, you miss getting to play every day with your teammates and friends.
You never really knew how much you would miss being able to run out on the field with the teammates who you grew up with. There’s nothing better than celebrating a big win or collectively trash talking the other team during halftime. Somehow, you never grasped that the constant flow of practices, games, and tournaments would come to an end one day.
