Anyone can be athletic

Anyone can be athletic. Yes, YOU can. And the person sitting next to you can and your Grandmother can and EVERYONE can up their athletic game and become more capable, efficient and confident in their capacity to move and utilize their body and the best part is, the secret sauce, the shizzle of it all - it can be FUN. It doesn’t have to be drudgery or overly painful or boring. It CAN be fun.

A lot of people had really shitty experiences in high school gym classes and became convinced of two things - they weren’t athletic and they didn’t even want to be - it’s stupid. Who cares?

I call bullshit on both.

I’ve worked with a lot of people who “were not athletic” but who, in a pretty short period of time were utilizing complicated and deft movement patterns AND HAVING A BLAST. Yeah maybe they hated gym class. They were also born athletes.

You don’t have to be athletic, obviously. But just know that if you WANT to be, you can. Seriously. It’s in you. Just because of past shitty experiences it doesn’t mean you’re athletically incompetent - although it may mean that people ostensibly tasked with germinating a love of movement in you were. That’s on them. It says nothing of your inherent capacity to move well and enjoy it.

And we don’t have to look to the variety of superficial ways that athleticism offers reward. Yes, it looks cool. But as a coach once put it - I squat today so I can get off the toilet without assistance when I’m old. And that’s real. I’ve always said a great reason to practice yoga is that you can walk on ice with a bit more grace (and safety). So if you want to reject the instagram-able reasons for becoming more athletic I applaud you. But it’s not just about that. It’s about long term health, well-being and safety.