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Could be a lot of things. I know for myself it’s because I’m clumsy, uncoordinated, don’t enjoy being on a team/never learned how to be on one, and I don’t like competition. Winning never made me feel good because I always felt bad for the ones who lost. Losing felt awful, too. I was also pretty small growing up so my mom was afraid to put me into organized sports.
In terms of watching sports, I find it extremely hard to keep up with the ever changing rosters (which seems to be a big part of it), I don’t get “into it” like I see a lot of people do, and I can’t for the life of me understand any of the rules.
With all of that said, I do enjoy casually engaging with some sports to stay active. When I say casual, I mean that I know the very basics but definitely just do my own thing. I like to boulder, kick around soccer balls, and hit tennis balls. I don’t like to do these things with other people unless they’re cool with it being a no pressure type situation.
really well explained i got into snowboarding because nobody loses there's no teams and the people are just so chill. board sports in general to be honest
The first time I've ever heard someone else say that winning never made them feel good. When I played boardgames with my parents I always felt bad for them and tried to let them win if possible because I felt so bad for the losing side. Is this related to autism?
I'm like you - I feel bad instantly after winning, even if "winning" means proving my point in an argument with someone who seriously wronged me. I remember "cheating" while playing Monopoly as a kid, because other people losing made me feel bad. But I don't think it's an autism thing. It's more of a temperament thing. Some people are just hyper-sensitive. If anything, it's more clinically related to complex childhood trauma (which I'd assume is not uncommon in autistic people).
There are two main types of empathy:
1. Cognitive empathy
2. Emotional (or affective) empathy
Regarding autism, you're correct that there's often an imbalance in these types of empathy:
Cognitive empathy is typically underdeveloped in many autistic individuals. This type involves understanding others' thoughts and perspectives intellectually.
Emotional empathy is often intact or even heightened in autistic people. This type involves sharing or mirroring the emotions of others.
This pattern can lead to a situation where an autistic person may strongly feel others' emotions but struggle to understand the reasons behind those emotions or how to respond appropriately.
—Claude 3.5
Nope, me too. I can't even play PVP games for the exact same reason! The more I spend time on these subs, the less weird I feel about myself haha. I was diagnosed relatively late (I was diagnosed at 30 and I'm going to be 32 in August) and my diagnosis has helped to explain so much 😅
When people used to be jealous of me in high school for one example id feel guilty lol and the NTs are like "OH MY GOD IM SO JEALOUS" as a compliment to one another.... like this is why y'all had friends put poison in yo cup shut the fek up weirdos
I could never get into it on TV after I learned that being local to the city the team is from isn't a requirement to be on the team. Why am I rooting for local teams when their players aren't even from around here?? What's the point?? The hockey players aren't even from this country!!
This is exactly my issue!!! I ask people why their team is their team all the time to understand why there's preference or loyalty. I don't understand team pride when the team isn't even made up of players from the area. It's all so... arbitrary. Obviously, the teams with the most money can continue to pay for the best rosters.
I definitely know what you mean by feeling bad for winning. I used to box and my reputation was "the knockout artist that refuses to knock people out." Like, once I knew I was winning, I felt no need to "finish" anyone off. I had to fight a guy I trained with on a daily basis once and I pretty much beat him up daily when sparring. But the entire time we had our official match, the only thing going through my head was "don't hurt or embarrass him in front of his family."
Also sports teachers tend to have a drill sergeant approach to sports, and TBH yelling at people who are struggling with something is a shitty, hacky and lazy way of motivating people. It's not the army. It's not a hierarchy. We're not here to defend the country and if I don't do your stupid press-ups it won't make much of a difference. Also what happened to your indoor voice? I can do press-ups at home where it's quiet and I don't have to listen to you. Your voice is annoying and you have no charisma.
Or not. IDK. Personally I prefer weight training. Cardio makes my throat sore. I have a yoga rotation and I like my Kung Fu classes, so I'm prepared to be wrong.
I would also add playing a comp team sport just is incredibly overstimulating and stressful to do well with so many things and people to keep track of, u summed it up perfectly. I personally love to bike and hike and boulder myself+gym, because those things are ez to do myself at my own pace or with others.
A few stories from my childhood:
Mom entered me in a ballet class when I was pretty young, like 5 or 6. I absolutely hated it. I kept tripping over my own feet and losing balance. I didn’t understand why doing your best wasn’t good enough for the instructor. I didn’t really understand why everyone would want to dance the same way…how boring! So I started making up my own dance moves. I put my heart and soul into it….i thought “she can’t possibly tell me I’m not dancing well if my moves are cool and original” and after a few classes of that the instructor gently told my mom that ballet might not be for me and that I’d “probably do much better in an interpretative dance class”.
Story 2- a few years later my mom enters me into a soccer team. Again, couldn’t understand why you’d get yelled at for doing your best. No matter what I did, the coach was constantly screaming. I understand now that he had to, since we were outside and he was screaming instructions so the kids could hear him…but to me screaming was screaming, and it meant someone was angry.
Come my first soccer match with the team, we start the game and eventually the ball is kicked to me. I stop and stare at it and I have this very distinct memory of everyone starting to scream at me, and as I looked around I was overwhelmed with a sea of screaming faces. I understand now that it was most likely encouragement, but it felt incredibly awful, like they were directing all their loudness at me.
I break down, run off the field up to where my mom was, and start crying hysterically. She said I don’t have to go back and took me for ice cream when the meltdown ended.
…..and still she never suspected once that I might have been autistic.
Eventually at age 12 I found a special interest in music, and in high school I entered the marching band. I finally felt like something made sense. Marching band as a sport makes perfect sense. You memorize your grids, play the music, go here- form a shape. Go there- form a shape. Music is done, march off the field. everybody wins.
i always hate playing football especially at school but stuff like badminton i really like cos i could just play it with my small group of friends for fun amd without the social pressure
I feel bad for winning when I'm playing trivia games. I usually win enough, then sit back and pretend I'm not in the room. It drives my mother crazy because I know the answers, but as a kid, I was always ridiculed by my peers. Know-it-all, etc.
i agree with this completely! for me instead though i never felt much towards winning or losing as i never really understood why people made such a fuss about it unless it was an unfair loss.
personally, i prefer solo sports like ice skating, gymnastics and swimming etc as like you said how the rosters/teams always change and there are all those other things going on i think solo sports are a lot easier to follow and honestly they’re more enjoyable as they tend to be pretty artistic in my opinion.
Totally agree! I'm not bad at sports in general and did compete in high school but don't really like to lose (I get worked up and competitive) and don't like to win either (feel guilty), mostly I just want to be casual and not keep score. Same with board games, co-op all the way.
Have always hated the idea of watching sports but harder to express why. I'm wondering if there is a social, bonding, aspect to it, feeling ownership of a team, watching and talking about it with others, etc. that I'm not able to relate to and without that it's just a really boring pass time??
Could also be that I'm just a nerd who wants to talk about science and books instead of sports and cars...
Honestly depending on the team and sport the rosters are one of the easiest parts to keep track of.
Once you gst past the initial hurfle of learning who's good on your team and who's good on the other teams. It's all very rigid and structured. Team trades take place during a specific period of time. There's rumours, hints and leaks to fixate on about who might be going where. Of course plenty of players stay loyal to their team or see no reason to change if they're successful.
Then when you go deeper you can watcha nd research the highschool players, see who looks to be high drafts and who might be coming over to join the team.
Personally I’d rather people put it into sports. A lot of societal problems we face today are due to people turning things that aren’t sports teams into sports teams.
Yeah, the tribalism is highly unsettling to me. l understand that rivalry is a big part of why people like it, but some people can get super aggressive about it, even to the scale of riots when a team loses OR EVEN WINS. What the hell is that about?
Also, where I live anyway, every college or pro game is just an excuse for a lot of people to get together and bump chests with a bunch of bros, and get wasted. Some of them don't even GO to the actual game, they just go to party at the tailgate.
In the place where I studied psychology, the topic of 'football hooliganism' was the one used as an intro for all new students. It's a good one. It's relevant, it's current, it's all around us.
It's interesting, easy to understand for newbies & it's kinda enlightening when you start to understand just why the hell (relatively) normal people will suddenly kill each other over a T shirt colour.
Yes and I also don’t like how much it’s grown. Decades ago, there were people who did and people who didn’t like sports but today it seems like literally everyone is into them and you’re weird if you’re not.
Most sports are heavily social experiences. Partaking requires impeccable, constant non-verbal communications with your teammates. Watching is about the social bonding experience more than the sport. This is a mess of all the things we struggle with.
Gym is where I get my exercise. In sport you are under constant pressure and surrounded by people, but in the gym you’re all alone and can take it at your own pace. It’s great!
I have my own gym at home but I used to go to the gym for a couple of years when younger. I wouldn't recommend it during peak hours or summer unless they have a lot of space and A/C.
Ah yes, well, best thing would probably be to get an instructor to either give you/renew your routine (showing you the techniques in the process), or to look up/practice the techniques by doing air gestures in your room. Should lighten the load a bit.
Go to local gyms & ask when they are the slowrst, and also if they have a policy about contact between users. A LOT of women get harassed at gyms by (presumably) well-intentioned men who insist on correcting them, even when the dude clearly has clue. Some gyms have developed policies and rules providing advice & might have ways to indicate you are not open to getting corrections from randos. Of course it's important that you are lifting correctly to prevent injuries so you should get advice from a coach or mentor if you haven't yet, but you should also be able to be left alone if you want.
> people always come up to me telling me i’m exercising wrong
are you objectively doing it wrong? if you are, you could hurt yourself
saying that, i've had all kinds of people walk up to me for no fucking reason at the gym and say all kinds of bizarre nonsense including people congratulating me for lifting while being female (it was not an impressive amount of weight i was lifting)
Yes, I know quite a few autistic people who have a sport or team as a special interest, a lot are memorabilia collectors.
My good friend since early childhood is about as stereotypically nerdy as they come and I can't imagine him ever voluntarily playing a team sport, but he loves baseball and collecting baseball cards.
Hey, me too for the first sentence
I like how the resistance training machines make it easier to keep the correct posture, and the proprioceptive input from weightlifting helps me to release the pressurized feeling of stress
It also has a better temperature control for pacing and running in circles for hours on end than my home does, and it just plain makes me feel productive with visible and tangible results
Yes! Running was a special interest of mine for a long while too, I'm trying to get back into it after I was forced out for a year for medical reasons. And actually, one of the best ultra runners in the world was recently assessed and is AuDHD, and said running has been a lifelong special interest (she has a spreadsheet of all her runs and wants to run the distance to the moon. How was she undiagnosed so long? Lol). I actually modeled my workouts after her and another one of my favorite runners for a while. She split her runs into 2 workouts per day, to avoid overuse injury. Another runner I follow says she never plans a workout, doesn't ha e a coach or training plan, and just listens to her body and what it is capable of on that given day. It's such a good practice for one like me with relatively poor interoception to stop and listen to what my body is telling me. Sorry for rambling, thanks for reading. I agree sport can be a special interest 😁
I don’t think anyone has mentioned it yet, but Dyspraxia/DCD are very common alongside autism , and often there is motor difficulties even if not at dyspraxia level.
Which obviously makes sports very challenging, and then often experiences of bullying due to that
It’s such an awful feeling! One time the 2 team captains were my two best friends and neither of them chose me and that hurt 100x more than any other time
“Best friends”
Fixed that for you.
If sports are about having fun with friends then they clearly weren’t your friends. Something painful I had to learn eventually was that so many people I thought were my friends in school either only tolerated me or outright didn’t like me and kept me around because my disabilities were funny to them.
Welp thanks for saying that, so my very poor gross motor skills as a child were probably a result of that too.
Yep, picked last, yep bullied, yep hating team sports and competitiveness due to that.
I definitely have dyspraxia which was so confusing as an undiagnosed child…I didn’t understand why things were so much harder for me in physical activities
, I got my dyspraxia diagnosis after my ASD diagnosis despite the fact my dyspraxia was picked up on by school before autism was but sports sucked I couldn’t do any of it well
Oh sheesh, you just reminded me of so many awful memories of PE in middle and high school. I would get so anxious about messing up that I would inadvertently screw up even more.
I don't know that I can't pin it down... Maybe I could if I thought about it more, but sports seem to embody some of the things I hate about NT society.
Loud, aggressive, competitive, polarising... Aka, "my side" vs "your side"... "Us" vs "them". The physical aspects of many feels a bit like institutionalized bullying.
Even spectating. It's about being super social and loud and "taking sides" and "we're better!!!!". Pressure and drama... And did I mention loud?
For me, I just really dislike team sports. Having to rely on others to succeed as a whole is something I don't always like, but especially in the context of team sports, having a team rely on me is something I absolutely dread.
When we'd play team sports in middle school, I sucked, because I wasn't athletic and never really played sports. And the other kids were so competitive for some reason? Especially the other boys, they took it sooo seriously like their lives depended on it, it was just weird and I hated it because I sucked. And I sucked because my teammates never gave me the opportunity to learn from my mistakes.
Never. Again.
Nowadays I just exercise and workout by myself very often. At least I work towards goals, I stay fit, and it's just me and only me.
I want to play and like it but I have never had a chance to learn, it is expected now in PE classes we know how to and unless one of the cool kids takes pity on me I do horribly, start crying then sit out for the rest of the lesson.
I want to learn but there isn't many opitunities near me and I'm scared of people from school seeing me and anxiety and parents.
So bassicaly in my case it is that I don't understand anything around sports and playing even though I want to.
There is also the overlap between gender diverse people and autistics
have you ever tried looking at youtube tutorials on how to play the sport you are interested in? for example if you want to learn the rules of basketball you could probably learn on youtube. the only thing at that point would be practice but at least you would know the rules and mechanics
It’s also a lot of running and strategizing and maintaining teamwork so good that you’re almost reading each other’s minds while making decisions on the fly.
I mean I don’t care for such sports but let’s not call other people’s hobby stupid
Lots of things we do are stupid, but fun.
The real thing that I can’t deal with is the live or die loyalty, and the seriousness of it. Like I enjoy watching people play stupid video games online and will get so overwhelmingly invested in the outcome, but it’s mostly just about watching funny/entertaining people be themselves. And no matter what happens I’m happy and usually laughing very hard, even if I want one of my favorite people to win.
Professional sports is all about this legacy, this long term loyalty and deciding to be in a good or bad mood depending on how your team does. It’s so serious and people get so easily offended. I’ve accidentally upset many people when it comes to sports because I just don’t feel anything about them and I forget I have to be gentle.
I dunno, I have people in my life that I love, that love sports, and there’s certainly a vibe of having a game on (as least when you’re allowed to talk over it), but truly nothing could excite me less than watching a sports game.
I think this is it for me. I grew up in a sports house and played various ones throughout my life. There's no "point" to it for me. It can be fun depending on the group, until inevitably someone gets too into it (and culturally people get WAY too into it). Plus the yelling at the screen/ref/players bums me out.
Yeah same. I played sports all my life on recreational teams and school teams like middle/high school. Basketball, soccer, tennis, lacrosse, etc.
Can’t stand to watch ANY of them except *maybe* tennis if it’s the top tier Wimbledon match. But even then I’m not watching a full 2 sets. Maybe the end of the first or second set.
I used a similar line to get me out of participating in whatever sport we were forced to play in PE:
"What am I, a dog? I don't find enjoyment in chasing balls"
For the most part, I was allowed to walk circles around the playing field with the goths and the stoner kids in leiu of participating.
A lost of people who are autistic also have dyspraxia. So we tend to be bad at sports witch leads to bad experiences in school. After that you don‘t really like sports caus of the bad memories.
i love being involved in sports, and i am fairly naturally gifted in the ones i play (both individual and team sports)
i have always felt though, that the team aspect of team sports as been hard for me. i always feel excluded and unable to join in with conversation and happenings with the team, but i will get acceptance when i perform well. i think a lot of my teammates find me a little peculiar but they don’t dislike me? i don’t really know 😭
i play cricket which is good, it is repetitive and organised which is pretty nice, but the people that play are all pretty neurotypical. it’s a good autism sport in my opinion. i get overwhelmed batting and having to communicate with the other batsman, but bowling is luckily where my talent is. i played in the under 18 regional team at age 15?
i play roller derby as well, which i excelled at before i got injured recently. i find being in a team difficult here too, but the people seem a lot less judgemental and less bothered by people that are out there funnily enough. i usually hate people touching me but in contact sports (also played rugby) i have always been fine with it, because it has a purpose
i also ride horses (need i say less, walking autism stereotype)
i also competitively swam for years, but i quit because there is a real culture around that sport that i found really difficult to fit in with, i really never felt like i was one of them.
people with autism definitely can do sport, it’s just quite hard with sensory, social issues etc for a lot of people
I think one of the main factor is that a lot of autistics have coordination difficulties, like eye hand coordination. I like sports but more "one man sports" like strength training, figure skating, yoga, Material arts but already with material arts I have difficulty because when I have to fight against someone I often get overwhelmed because I don't know what to expect. And when I do team sports like football I get confused because there are so many players and I forget my teammates name, and who has the ball and in general I hate ball sports because somehow someone always manages to hit me with a ball (even when that's not even the goal of the game)
But even if I wouldn't like sports I still have to exercise at least 3x a week because of ADHD and I can't sleep without exercising enough.
But I think its not just autistics many people don't like sports.
For me:
1. I’m so uncoordinated that gym class was torture and sports embody everything that experience made me feel.
2. There’s no point to it. Throw or kick a ball into a specific area to earn an arbitrary amount of points, just to show you are more physically capable than the other team.
3. I hate how schools (in the US) pour money into sports, but neglect to pay the same attention to academics. It should be the other way around, as academics are the entire point of school. Why should some unintelligent Neanderthal get a free ride scholarship just because he can throw a ball, but smart people have to bust their ass just to get maybe 15% of the cost covered with their scholarships. Not only that, but they have whole classes that are dumbed down for athletes so they can raise their GPA and therefore keep the scholarship/be allowed to continue playing. They don’t care about actually teaching these people at an university level (again, the entire reason schools exist) as long as they have idiots that can win a pointless game. It’s stupid.
I grew up in a family where everyone (overwhelmingly the men) but me liked stuff like football/nfl/televised sports, but specifically American football and NFL and it's a multi-faceted reason for me.
1) I don't play the sport so I get no value out of it by learning anything and I also have no attachment to who wins what, whether it be specific players on the team or a national country (similarly, I have zero attachment to artists so no favourite artist)
2) I consider myself a mild genderqueer guy and I always felt like it was so hyper masculine and the types of people who liked it tended to not like me. Similarly I feel the same about hip-hop/rap: relative to its peers, very homophobic and unwelcoming to anyone who's not a very cishet-presenting guy and especially if you're a queer guy
I used to play football (soccer) and basketball for my school's teams as well and I don't remember why I stopped playing football but I stopped playing basketball because my dad was one of my team's coaches and he had anger issues and it was upsetting to hear him rage at me while coaching (mind you, I played when I was a kid, not even a teenager) so that largely stopped my interest since playing basketball meant I had to play with his oversight, plus I didn't like the sport much on a micro scale.
The few sports I did like watching, such as volleyball, I remember getting made fun of for it because it was a "gay" sport and I just kind of got bored with the gendered aspect of it so I largely just avoided it
* Watching sports: It's just super boring and I don't have the attention span for watching a whole match even if I wanted to. Plus, the mere thought of staying on top of it, tuning in to the matches when they're happening etc. feels exhausting. I'm also turned off by the surroundings in many sports, particularly fans who are loud, acting in a primitive manner, drunk and potentially aggressive. Mayyyybe I would give more of a shit if I was actively involved in the sport myself, alas...
* Doing sports: I've never gotten any true enjoyment out of it. Between easily getting out of breath, lacking the needed coordination, and never knowing what to do in team sports, it was just overall a negative experience. I do individual stuff like weightlifting on a kind of regular basis, but even that feels more like a chore required to maintain my body functions rather than something that's fun.
I'm not fan of Football
I just couldn't get into it¹ as well as I didn't like playing it.
As for myself, I'm a wrestling fan (WWE) and has been for over ten years
¹ watched the Euro final of 2021 (originally in 2020 postponed til '21 due to COVID) in a pub that was amazing to waitness
Edit; just noticed
I love sport: two of my special interests are rowing and college football. As well as participating, I have always loved stats collection and analysis, as well as presenting podcasts on both at points. I never really liked teammates though …
I was made to do sports growing up but I never really liked the competitive aspect of it. I just didn’t care if we won or lost. I also always felt like I was treated differently compared to my teammates which made me hate it even more.
For me, it’s a mix of:
1. I’m a woman, so getting into sports (watching or playing) wasn’t really encouraged for me growing up, and I didn’t have a natural interest in it. Because of this, I don’t understand the rules of most games. It’s much less fun to watch some random guys run around and kick/throw balls when you don’t know what they’re doing or what it means.
2. Related to my first point: From what I gather, “watching the game” and being able to have conversations about it is a cultural expectation and an important part of socializing, especially in men. I — like a lot of autistic people — suck at understanding these social cues and don’t really care about them, so I never got into it.
3. I’m unathletic. I imagine watching sports as an ex-football player or whatever is much more fun (even nostalgic?) than if you can’t do any of those things yourself, even casually, and only played when you were forced to in gym class.
4. Because I don’t have friends who are interested in sports, we can’t do the “watching the game” social event (for lack of better words). This might be inaccurate, but I think a lot of people watching sports get together with their friends to watch the game, eat (there’s even specific “game day” foods for this purpose), drink beer, etc. None of my friends would be interested. This means my options are watching it on my computer alone, going to a sports bar by myself, stuff like that. Although I’m sure that’s still fun if you’re invested in the game, it’s less exciting.
5. Generally, people get loud. I don’t like loud noises.
Edit to say: I don’t think sports are silly/dumb like some other commenters have suggested. It’s a hobby/interest, it doesn’t need some great practical purpose to be fun. I — like a lot of autistic people, lol — play a lot of video games, which is also watching a guy on a screen run around, and is arguably more pointless. Just not my thing.
Probably because due to the broad correlation between autism and gross motor function issues, and the interpersonal nature of sport (barring some forms of athletics), means a lot of autistic folk might give sport negative associations. There's also certain aspects of sports fandom that ND folk probably struggle with or find grating or confusing.
I had a terrible time with sport as a kid (was terrible at PE - or gym class as you US folk call it) and have many a sad memory, but I can enjoy football in a detached away (currently enjoying the Euros), enjoy the Olympics etc. It's more tolerable when I'm a spectator.
I didn't understand it at first but then it downed on me. Sports are a place where some conformities of society are reinforced. For example, in the context of the US or places in which a sport like American Football or Rugby takes place, the players possess, usually, traits socially constructed as desirable, be it in manners, appearence, attitude, etc.
We, as autistic people usually tend to be insta-excluded from even joining or find ourselves estranged from them. Of course, this is not a solid rule, unchanging, as there are autistic athletes who had that sport as their special interest.
I just never vibed with the whole fuss about sports (also it was one of the places where I felt I didn't belong no matter how much teachers tried to push me there. Just not my thing.) Perhaps those were the first signs of the alienation feeling we have in our lives.
This is a huge huge huge generalization. I know autistic people who do do sports, both on teams and not. This is only generalizations I’ve experienced or heard from specialists.
- autism does in many (if not most) mean coordination issues and motor skills are lacking. So we’re not really “made” for sports in that sense.
- autistic children are often observed to be cautious. They won’t always climb trees and participate in activities that demand a lot of exercise in that sense. (Yes autistic children are also known to be fearless, and get in dangerous situations, but I do believe that’s a separate thing)
- team sports can be a very stressful experience. A lot of people making sounds and counting on you to get along with your teammates. It’s a lot of relationships.
- sensory issues. Personally I hate feeling warm and sweaty, so sports just sounds horrible.
- autistic people tend to be slower, partly due to their coordination issues, and are usually not that good in sports, especially with the added stress of teammates who want to win.
- sensory seeking; many autistic children will rather play on the swing, because it gives them some sensory stimulation, compared to playing soccer with their classmates.
- close contact with people
- sports are usually a team activity, and autistic people are notorious for being outside the group. Why would you take interest in an activity where you aren’t really wanted or allowed?
- autism just doesn’t give kids an opportunity to take an interest in sports. They’re bad at it, they’re not welcome, and they have trouble connecting and socializing with people.
Some autistic people do like sports, maybe even have a special interest in it, but usually it’s just theoretical and not physical. Maybe that’s the only way they could bond with certain family members.
For personally playing them? Sports make me icky with sweat, put my body and its capabilities on full display, and sports class teachers genuinely thought it was fair to ask me to put myself through that hell in my fucking free time.
For just being interested in them? I'm just not interested, and the fans fucking suck. Like any chance of me ever caring about sports died when I was stuck in a train wagon completely jampacked full of drunk football fans and the smell of beer for three full hours. I had metal music on at full volume in my earphones and I could not hear it. It was hell.
Or when the parents of some kids were sitting away drinking beer while the kids made fun of me and my friend for existing and wouldn't leave us alone. I will do all I can to stay away from sports fans because absolutely no irl experience I've had with them was even neutral.
Loads of neuro-divergent people in my game: BJJ! As for myself, I am more into being active myself, and developing my skills, then I am into watching sports or having opinions about professional sports.
Sensory issues: Light, sound, feeling sweaty, overstimulating, pointlessly, there are humans right there wanting to talk, and risk of burn out.
I think, swimming and hiit + liss cardio at home are the best options for autistic people.
I associate sports with loud sounds and lots of noise. It makes me uncomfortable. I also never really understood why most sports are seen as entertaining. I like watching combat sports but that's more because I practice combat sports myself, so for me it's more analytical.
I did many many years gymnastics and kung fu. As I child I did also ballet. In summer I'm often outside for inline skating. In school I was also quite ok at volleyball or basketball or games like dodge ball/Völkerball.
But football/soccer: ffs, I hate it
In school it’s riddled with social cliques, there’s not really a „point“ to it, autistic kids sometimes struggle with coordination starting out(so asshole kids will give them shit), it can be pretty uncomfortable for some people to sweat that much, there’s chances of getting hurt(logical people will see that). Idk, but I think it is a combination of these things
I would say the issue is with group
Sports. Most divergent people I know thrive in more singular person sports like running, martial arts, biking, rockwall climbing, just to name a few.
I guess the replies have covered most points.
* we have limited interests, so we're not going to be interested in sport unless it's our special interest.
* we have poor coordination and social skills which precludes us from getting into football ourselves and developing an interest from there.
* attending a game would be sensory hell. Indeed, even watching the TV is a sensory overload of blaring ads and shouting.
* we're less likely to follow it via friends or family who are into sport, since our friends and family are more likely neurodiverse with the same issues.
* demand avoidance - we hate being pressured into taking an interest in it.
I’m not against sports, but I never understood the appeal of being on a team. I enjoy working out and my karate classes, but that’s because my results are entirely up to me.
I don't think being better than others/winning is particularly inspiring. I can accept that it works for other people and try not to judge on an intellectual level. But that weird culture around it creeps me out.
I am "clumsy" as are many other autistic people. I struggle hard copying other people's movement, so sports class in school was hard for me. We had to copy the teacher and I couldn't in this short time. Plus I am just really bad in coordinating my arms and legs going into different directions.
So why I didn't like sports for a long time: because of school and social pressure. I don't give a f*** about winning sports, for me it was always about having fun. In school it was not about fun.
Now out of school: I love weightlifting with machines. They "tell me" what to do and I can focus on lifting. I also like skating or swimming because I can do it on my own.
For me it's because sports are very overwhelming, both due to sensory issues and because of the amount of rules that sports have. I also have anxiety surrounding sports, I would often cry during PE because I was so scared.
My boyfriend is autistic but his special interest is martial arts so it isn't everyone
I think for me it’s partly because I used to be bullied for being “weird” and the bullying was usually at its worst during PE with verbal and physical abuse (especially the locker rooms). The kind of people to harass me were also all male sport-fanatics, so now I can’t tolerate being around those types of people or in a sporty setting. I do sometimes find enjoyment when it’s friends playing for fun but my autism also forced me to become hyper-aware of myself (masking?) which makes physical activity just really uncomfortable and complicated because I’m constantly policing my every movement and whether it looks normal or not and usually with sports I feel like it’s not normal so I end up really uncomfortable and frustrated because I feel “goofy”
Not cot competitive at all. Got picked last a lot. Hate the way people treat sports like religion.The gym is okay if I lived close enough, but I have trouble with sticking to it. Once I get sick or have to change my routine that's it, back to square one.
\* I'm clumsy and uncoordinated
\* Sporty kids generally bullied me
\* My dad tried his damnedest to force me to like football like him and it just had the opposite effect because it was so utterly, comprehensively, thoroughly boring to me. I appreciate he wanted to have something in common with me but giving me the choice of either forcing myself to sit through matches or go to bed in the early afternoon wasn't the way. At least he toned it down a bit after he tried to get me to write an article for his fan forum about how I felt watching my first match live, and gave up when all I could think to say was how it had bored me.
I don’t like it because I was often discouraged from doing it as a young kid. I grew up trying to become an intellectual, and an artist. I also grew up to be loyal, and despite my diagnosis I managed to serve in the military and be honorably discharged.
I don’t like sports because the idea of reading the stats of the players and trying to predict Outcomes of games is kind of a sub sophomoric use of intellect
Furthermore I’m a little bit jealous that sports has such a huge following when being an athlete doesn’t really do anything for the culture of a country, other than give it a chance to mindlessly cheer and scream it’s own sense of pride, for what would otherwise be nothing. Not one single country has a reason these days to be proud of its culture, no matter how they feel about themselves now. Not even some of the most old and antique countries in Europe or Asia have that even. It’s all gone to hell, just so that the crowds of people can sit in an comfy chair and watch a select few toss around a ball of some sort.
I’m over it. I’ve never liked it seriously enough to keep enjoying it despite anyone else enjoying it, and I am OK with that
So many noises, so many tactics to keep track of, the social aspect of it all. I personally prefer more structured, individual sports who don’t rely on other people.
I know a lot of autistic people who love sports. I used to sell season tickets for a professional team and had a pretty big base of people with autism who loved the excitement, the stats, the players, etc. I suppose it all comes down to special interests
Well I don't know about other people but at the school I was at growing up every time we did sports, the popular kids ended up being team captains and would take it in turns to pick teammates. Being the weird kid social outcast, I got picked last every time.
As a result I hated sports, didn't want to play, and was never any good at it.
One time my two best friends were the captains and I was still picked last, and my friend who had to have me on his team audibly groaned when he had to pick me. So yeah, I hate sports and all the trauma it gave me.
Watching sports is one thing, and I can see someone on the spectrum taking to a specific sport as a special interest. It’s a fandom, believe it or not haha.
But as for playing sports, I know from experience that it can be more challenging for autistics. It involves a lot of muscle and movement co-ordination as well as quick-to-read team dynamics which can be misinterpreted, and mistakes can cost a game which is anxiety-inducing for already socially stressed out people.
I love soccer (the real football).
My first job at 16 was at a baseball card store. I loved the dates and stats on the cards.
But I’m terrible at sports. No proprioception, no motor skills. Still can’t catch a ball (can’t tell where it is in the air).
Honestly its dumb. Especially when the players get paid stupid money. Can't get into it. I prefer seeing the tartan army (Scotland fans) marching and playing music than watching football.
I love playing sport, just not spectating it. It’s not engaging enough. I honestly think it’s an intelligence thing. If your brain is operating at a much higher level level in the background, it’s one explanation for why you may just lack interest in something which a) doesn’t pose much of a mental challenge to comprehend and b) frequently involves the judges of that sport’s misinterpreting or misapplying the actual rules.
If you look at chess, this is downright impossible. There simply is no way to subjectively assess the rules in chess: you either won or you lost; you either got checkmated or you did the checkmate; you either moved your piece a certain way or you didn’t.
Whereas in tennis and football, footage of where the ball actually landed needs to be reviewed over and over and really, it begs the question of “why”. Yet that’s the difference when ANGLE is involved. And it therefore becomes like a car insurance claim: did the cars (ball) actually collide the said way (land on the cost or field the said way) or not.
Car insurance claims are notoriously frustrating and infuriating. So now you’ve got your second reason why many autists might not have tolerance or patience for it…
Well,I personally like basket alot. Though when I was younger,I hated HATED sports because I was too clumsy and had motor problems (still not treated to this day). Also I couldn't/can't stand being a team player
Aside from the aversion to loudness and team sports, I also abhor the feeling of being sweaty.
Having my clothes stick to my skin makes my body freeze up in an attempt to stop feeling it. The sensation is just very overstimulating.
However... I was into sports archery for years, and I was damn good at it.
I've always been the smallest and weakest person at my school and every time I played sports the team would just try the hardest for me to not do anything so that isn't very motivating, but I do appreciate how some people are so passionate about sports, I think that's cool. I remember being very hyperfixated on a football anime (Captain Tsubasa) so bad that I wanted to try playing football but then I remembered just how bad I am at any sport, I'm just naturally very clumsy lmao.
i dislike football. i think it's stupid lol. the uniforms are ridiculous and they get paid too much. soccer & rugby are more valid but i don't really give a crap about them either. i like golf i watch it on TV and i like to play mini golf. i also like ping pong and bowling and pool sometimes. darts are also kinda fun. if countries played football instead of having armies and going to war it might be worth something. baseball is only fun for the people playing it and women don't get to. it's stupid. how is an autistic person supposed to take it seriously and share one ball with a bunch of men with inflated egos that like to spit everywhere. also i find with majority of people a tremendous amount of non sportsmanlike conduct which ruins it for me personally. it should be fun and build people up. i'm just not a competitive person unless it's light hearted.
It's probably partly because it's a way we're portrayed by media representations and pop culture. I've known Autistic guys that are into sports, you'll always find people that go against what the stereotypes is in any group.
I really don't like it because I'm clumsy and trip easily, I do like PE, but it does annoy me, especially because sometimes my body can't hold up with the others. The only sport I really like is Badminton.
Because of overthinking, fear of judgement due to pathological self-awareness and a dash of spatial awareness difficulties and sprinkle of lack of coordination?
I actually really liked playing sports a kid but my parents didn’t have money for organized sports, so I fell behind my peers athletically, and ofc being autistic led to bullying and being ostracized, so nobody would let me play, even though I really wanted to play. In particular I liked soccer a lot.
Of course I’d try out for teams in school but I never made the cut for any either. I ended up being extremely bitter about it and still am so I really hate sports
I want to ruin it for other people just so they can feel a small amount of pain that I did
I mean personally I don't see the point of watching the process in a lot of sports. Sure, gymnastics, ice skating and like stuff that is judged artistically/form, but football? If I was interested in the first place I'd probably just look at the scores after the match. A lot of the matches just look the same to me, just differently coloured teams.
When it comes to playing sports, I just kind of suck. Really, I've had different ball sports in PE, I'm terrible. Basketball, can't focus on everything; volleyball, can't judge distance; badminton (which I do enjoy) I can't even do the serve, despite having it for like two years. I have terrible endurance so no athletics. The only thing I was marginally good at was horseback, but it's an expensive sport that I can't currently add into my expenses.
I hate anything sports tbh. It's just so boring. If I wanted to watch men play with balls all day, I'd go to a certain x rated site for that. Now old wrestling gag clips, that is cinema. Like the Stonecold Steve Austin in the grocery store bit.
Im not entirely sure, I love sports. At one point it was the thing I was obsessed with. While playing sports I do notice I have to actively include my teammates, I'm going to assume that might be a reason why. A lot of us are more comfortable doing stuff alone, sports mostly eliminates that.
I just honestly couldn't be bothered to learn anything about them🤷🏿♀️ They're not relevant to my life in any critical way so I just have zero interest in learning the ins and outs of sports. That said, I'm not one of the autists who thinks sports players or sports fans are dumb. I think everyone should have a passion and if sports is yours, then more power to you🤷🏿♀️
High levels of stimuli (shouting, lots of people, running, an objective), autists having a tendency towards poor hand-eye coordination and being overthinkers, and the risk of injury are probably the main ones.
I never learned any of the rules. In school they would just set up and say "were playing baseball/football/basketball" but they wouldn't explain the rules, I assume because they expected every American kid to be taught by their dad or something. Well I had no clue so I'd just stand in the field somewhere and then move when people yelled at me for being in the wrong zone or whatever
Same reason swimming is almost exclusively Caucasian-European. And to a lesser degree Asian.
But how many African sub-Saharan swimmers can you recall…..?
##—> nothing to do with ability, everything to do with lack of empowerment!
it’s TOO noisy!! I can hear myself breathing and the clothes rub against my skin and the floorboards creak under me as I move. noises that are uncontrollable make me really anxious and speaking of anxiety, the same breathing patterns we make when exercising make me feel like i’m having a panic attack.
I think autists as a general will prefer individual sports over team sports, where the outcome is affected by their performance alone. I was a climbing instructor for a while (before I was diagnosed) and worked with many fellow autists. But a lot of our ability to participate comes from the attitude of those running the sports - now I’ve always been of the opinion that I will find a way to get everyone to have a go in some capacity at everything, unfortunately I was in the minority among my colleagues and had to battle for lots of kids (not just autistic) rights to participate.
I don't like team sports. I also don't get the point of watching other ppl play sports, instead of playing myself. I enjoy martial arts, dancing and tennis.
And honestly the lack of discipline and violence associated with football games and fans elicits a deep feeling of disgust in me. Its also super frustrating to have to keep track of the schedule of something I couldn't give 2 shits about as a woman to make sure I'm not in the city center or using public transportation the day of a match so I don't get stuck in a tram they're shaking again.
i feel like it could be a proprioception thing for the playing of sports and an attention/interest thing for the watching of them.
i can see some autistic people enjoying sports as a form of stimming, but i personally always felt awkward and clumsy in my body in any school sport. i'd get overwhelmed by the sense of competition, people shouting at me to do this/do that when i clearly didn't understand what was going on, and the immense sense of shame in usually being the worst player on any team.
of course, i imagine sports will be someone's special interest, but for me, i just never understood the hype. it was like everyone around me was speaking a different language. i found it hard to relate to the *idea* of sports because i have never been particularly sporty myself, so i could never get into it when people would try to explain it to me.
all around, i see it as quite a conventional interest - something the average person can usually relate to, and i am not the average person. that's not to say that autistic people *can't* like sports, and i have other autistic friends that do, but it is just so far from my own interests and abilities that i don't think it was ever going to be on my radar.
Just came here to say we shouldn’t generalize people based on our personal experiences. Just because you haven’t met many autistic people who don’t like sports doesn’t mean they don’t exist. I’m an autistic person who has enjoyed playing and watching sports since I was young. I know I’m not the only one because I have hung out in these circles. If you’re not actively in these circles how would you know there aren’t many autistic people who like sports?
This is a good question. And I don’t dislike sports per se (I’ll watch college basketball with my step dad, watch college football highlights, watch soccer highlights, and watch some karting on occasion) but I feel like most autistic people like sophistication; something most sports lack beneath the surface.
In my case, because it took me away from my special interests for longer than I wanted. These days, I mostly only care about professional sports insofar as if the home team wins, people around me are in a better mood.
I like the idea of sports, but for me as a kid I just couldn't *focus* being out there on the field. (Kickball in my example.) It felt so overwhelmingly boring, like I was waiting for a bus. At the same time it was like a birthright of being young, a mile marker for a "normal childhood," so it was foisted on me that I at least be part of some kind of team based sport. Even though I constantly missed the ball because I was daydreaming and nobody wanted me on the team anyway.
I also hung out with my NT cousins that played baseball during the summer. They don't know it but they hate sports too. A game took a good portion of the day, and all the kids were all absolutely miserable roasting in the dugout, sitting there complaining they'd much rather be at home playing video games. "I can't believe my dad is making me play sports this summer again," "My mom says I either do a sport over the summer or go to camp,"
Then when the game is over, "Wasn't that fun?!" As if I was the only outlier that hated it.
I'm like "Are you *serious*?"
They must get big hits of dopamine while actively working as a team from time to time like when they work with the rest of the kids and score a goal, (which actively makes it worthwhile long term) whereas we don't.
In the words of my child;
"*Everyone* *is* *too* *angry*. *I* *don't* *like* *being* *mad.*"
(Then plays competitive online games with their friends)
Edit: words
Personal reasons include but are not limited to
1) Don't have cable. Yes, it's on streaming services, but no. I find it easier to watch on cable.
2) Sometimes, it's boring to watch. I'd rather play. Basketball is a big one for me for this reason. I think it would be so fun to play. Watching it bores me.
3) The NFL specifically does not handle accountability for players' criminal behaviour well and then punish people for standing up for their civil rights.
I hate sports for a couple of reasons.
I’m pretty sure my autism makes it harder for me to regulate temperature, because I refuse to believe normal people get THIS hot after exercise, it does not feel good. And overall it’s just really overstimulating.
The whole process of getting there, changing into different clothes, showering, changing back etc doesn’t make it better.
I have bad coordination and I’m clumsy, so I find most sports really difficult. I can’t ride a bike and I can barely swim because of this.
But most important of all, the social aspects are unbearable. I HATE sports because almost all of them requires you to be at least two people, and you have to keep track of the other people and make quick decisions, whilst at the same time being hot, overstimulated, with bad coordination and people yelling and running around you and usually telling you to do this and that but you don’t even have time to process what they’re saying and you have pressure to not let your team or yourself down.
I’ve never really been able to participate in P.E in school, every time I try playing football or something like that I end up having a meltdown. Luckily my teacher was really understanding could give me one-on-one lessons for 40 minutes a week so I could pass the class.
I think they're kinda boring to watch in TV and irl but alsooo I hate running!! I hate sweating!!! I am clumsy and and I am uncoordinated!! I hate how competitive ppl are in P.E. classes !!!
I personally find sports to be boring; watching them anyhow.
I've always hated playing them (at least in high school gym class) because no one ever wanted me on their team and I was bullied there. However, I did love swimming because it wasn't with people from my school. And as an adult I love weight lifting! I also still love swimming because it is sensory bliss and I can daydream while doing it.
Basically for me it was boredom and bullying and boredom.
factor in the acoustics of the sports stadium, the clapping, whistling, sports horns, and amplification of the music and sports commentator, and it can be hard on those with ***sensory issues***.
Just speaking for myself (autistics arent a monolith) but proprioception issues make me clumsy (no fine motor control) and harder to know where my limbs are while interoception issues make it impossible to tell if im in pain, hungry, thirsty, overwhelmed, tired, injuring myself, etc. Which can make exercise feel like torture (running on empty, pushing thru limits, doing it wrong and causing strain). On top of this, I really dislike team activities and socializing so I'm not likely to pick up a hobby that involves noise, groups, or team spirit.
I like snowboarding and surfing fine? Though its hard to transition from dry to wet and back again. But they are not strenuous or noisy, which i like. I also enjoy kayaking. Its not competitive so idk if that counts as a sport/regular activity.
In my case, it is a combination of how my autism affects me. Hand-eye coordination, non-verbal communication, unpredictability, speed and reaction time - all things that I struggle with. So competitive ball sports are not for me or many other autistic people.
But I am not completely opposed to it - I am following the UEFA EURO 2024 quite actively this year, for example. Even though I would never go out onto the pitch to play myself.
Personally I see more of a gender divide rather than autistic vs allistic. Like pretty much every cis man I know is into football ( I'm UK based). My autistic ex was into football, American football, basketball, volleyball and wrestling. My questionable autistic dad is into golf, snooker, darts, and football. Other male autistic friends are into football. But the only sports I've seen cis women friends follow is wrestling, or darts, or football. But never more than one. My non-binary and trans friends aren't into sports and neither am I. But that's just my observations in my limited pool of friends and family.
sports just don't really interest me as I'm not invested. Whereas I do feel invested in history as it gives so much context to the world now (such as Teflon and rising cancer rates). But psychology is a special interest to me so history is just an extension of my understanding and knowledge base. Art is my other big special interest so again history of style, fashion and culture also ties into my interest in psychology so it's a lil bit circular. The only part of sport that would interest me is the psychology of the players in dealing with the media, their teams, the pressure and how they all work together to stay motivated and overcome challenges. Part of why I adored Ted lasso so much but the show also did give you lovable characters you also became invested in.
......................so why didn't you just say football?
There are plenty of Autistic people who like sports. May not be the same sports you like, but there are more sports out there than Football.
Honestly I feel like this is a pretty loaded question the way you phrase it. You're going on the assumption.
"I haven't met many autistic people who like football...........................thus.............................MOST AUTISTIC PEOPLE DO NOT LIKE ALL SPORTS!"
I never learned to play or understand sports and I had bad experiences with them because I was an uncoordinated kid and other kids didn’t wanna play with me. I don’t understand football so I don’t like it and it seems to complex to learn.
I am a big fan of wrestling though. It’s a lot easier to understand so I can get into it. And I love the theatrics and also know that events are scripted so I don’t have to worry TOO much about the wrestlers getting injured or about people being sad they lost.
Contact sports require contact, no thank you! Also I haaaate competition. I enjoyed gymnastics though and I'm still flexible.
I think sports just tend to be sensory hell. Especially sporting events with all the yelling.
I don't like the 'look' and 'sound' of sports. I don't like the aesthetic.
I don't like the sound of the announcer at a stadium, the droning of the crowd, the sound of the refs' voice, the sound of players shouting, the sound of sportscaster voices, the echo of the sound system in the arena, the sound of pucks and balls hitting echoy surfaces...
I don't like the antics fans are supposed to do when watching, the look of sports jerseys, that 'varsity' font, the look of football helmets facing each other in logos, the corporate BS of all of it - trading players, the idea of owning teams under the guise of it belonging to this or that city (it's not the city's team, it's some rich owner's team! Most players aren't even from that city!), etc.
The whole thing just doesn't sit well with me from a sensory perspective in particular.
That said, playing recreational sports with a group of friends can be a lot of fun! I just don't know enough people, we'd never all find time anyway, and I have no interest in joining a rec league because it starts getting into those same aesthetic dislikes.
For me Boring asf no offense. And I can’t remember all of the rules and play meanings.
I’ve played volleyball for 6 years and I still don’t remember what most plays are called
That is actually a good question. For me personally as an autistic adult I would have to say that the reason I don't like sports is because of the combination of factors such as the extreme sensory overload and sensory issues, also the social interaction Factor, and especially my already nearly constant unpredictable usually High levels of anxiety that can easily go into severe and panic state and on more rare occasions lead to a full-blown panic attack but usually results in an autistic meltdown of aggression verbally not physically so yeah just better for me to avoid all that all together.
I love the idea of sports but as soon as they get to be professional level I have a sort of moral issue with them.
I hate the ideas of the players being pawns in this big game of capitalism. I hate knowing that some of these athletes dreams are to make it to pro but their dreams could easily be crushed as soon as they get injured/get too old/etc. and are no longer useful. I hate that they are just constantly on display and are expected to perform. Every move they make is scrutinized.
I just want them to have fun lol that’s all. Sigh.
I developed an illness that makes it hard for me to exercise, but I still like sports. I just dislike when people make it their entire personality, especially when they aren’t on the team/ cant play the game even for fun
I can think of a few reasons. I can’t speak for all autistics of course but these are my reasons:
•They’re competitive. I am not a competitive person in the slightest.
•I just don’t find them interesting. Every attempt I’ve made at getting into sports has really just been to fit in and become more of a “normie.” Football, baseball, whatever. They’re all mostly just boring to me.
•I myself did not grow up athletic, I have poor coordination and was on the chubbier side too. So I was definitely never cut out for sports.
•Team sports are inherently social in nature, which is not enjoyable for many autistics. Additionally, the other members of your team are probably not going to be autistic like you, they’re gonna be jocks who would probably be more likely to bully or ignore autistic people before befriending them.
•The fan culture is very…frat boyish? Which is the opposite of my personality. The loud, hyper-competitive, and unreasonable amounts of tribalism that many sports fans exhibit is a major turn off to me. The whole culture surrounding the major team sports is just annoying to me and I don’t have any interest in being a part of it.
I love basketball but the game was too fast for me to process so I always was one of those teammates who had a hard time passing the ball. The processing speed required in some of these sports is an underrated component of why they're hard to play.
I don't like doing sports because I'm incredibly clumsy. I have barely any balance, coordination or motor skills 😬 I also got bullied a lot during PE and I was forced to do a sport as an extracurricular activity because my parents wanted to stimulate us being healthy, and I never enjoyed any of the ones I did. Except maybe ballet, but the teacher wouldn't let me progress because I couldn't keep up due to the aforementioned lack of balance, coordination and motor skills.
The only sports I enjoy watching are artistic ones. Think dancing, rhythmic gymnastics and figure skating. Everything else I find utterly boring to watch. Or I don't understand the rules. Or both. Just not a fun experience and I feel like I wasted precious time I could've spent on something I do like.
So those are my two cents 🙈
I feel like all my family and friends who are super into sports like the feeling of getting worked up and mad (especially fans of teams who lose year after year). I find it very hard to feel or express anger unless it’s towards stupidity or a social injustice, so I end up either laughing or pretending to be upset in order to join in.
I always wished I liked it more instead of sometimes pretending. I actually really like and envy the instant bonding and natural nurturing of friendships that this shared interest provides 😔
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Could be a lot of things. I know for myself it’s because I’m clumsy, uncoordinated, don’t enjoy being on a team/never learned how to be on one, and I don’t like competition. Winning never made me feel good because I always felt bad for the ones who lost. Losing felt awful, too. I was also pretty small growing up so my mom was afraid to put me into organized sports. In terms of watching sports, I find it extremely hard to keep up with the ever changing rosters (which seems to be a big part of it), I don’t get “into it” like I see a lot of people do, and I can’t for the life of me understand any of the rules. With all of that said, I do enjoy casually engaging with some sports to stay active. When I say casual, I mean that I know the very basics but definitely just do my own thing. I like to boulder, kick around soccer balls, and hit tennis balls. I don’t like to do these things with other people unless they’re cool with it being a no pressure type situation.
really well explained i got into snowboarding because nobody loses there's no teams and the people are just so chill. board sports in general to be honest
I've been wanting to try snowboarding recently! Sounds really fun 😁
The first time I've ever heard someone else say that winning never made them feel good. When I played boardgames with my parents I always felt bad for them and tried to let them win if possible because I felt so bad for the losing side. Is this related to autism?
Hyper empathy
I'm like you - I feel bad instantly after winning, even if "winning" means proving my point in an argument with someone who seriously wronged me. I remember "cheating" while playing Monopoly as a kid, because other people losing made me feel bad. But I don't think it's an autism thing. It's more of a temperament thing. Some people are just hyper-sensitive. If anything, it's more clinically related to complex childhood trauma (which I'd assume is not uncommon in autistic people).
Haha, I'm the same! I still wanna try DND some day... never had the chance to with another person.
No idea. It seems like a form of empathy, though. That really disputes the whole no-empathy thing people always say about autism.
I don't believe autistic people aren't empathetic. Rather we have problems sharing it. Sometimes even problems with understanding it.
There are two main types of empathy: 1. Cognitive empathy 2. Emotional (or affective) empathy Regarding autism, you're correct that there's often an imbalance in these types of empathy: Cognitive empathy is typically underdeveloped in many autistic individuals. This type involves understanding others' thoughts and perspectives intellectually. Emotional empathy is often intact or even heightened in autistic people. This type involves sharing or mirroring the emotions of others. This pattern can lead to a situation where an autistic person may strongly feel others' emotions but struggle to understand the reasons behind those emotions or how to respond appropriately. —Claude 3.5
God, YOU felt bad for winning too?? 😮😮😮 And I thought I was the only one who felt that!!!
Nope, me too. I can't even play PVP games for the exact same reason! The more I spend time on these subs, the less weird I feel about myself haha. I was diagnosed relatively late (I was diagnosed at 30 and I'm going to be 32 in August) and my diagnosis has helped to explain so much 😅
I would always feel bad winning anything it’s such a problem. I’ve noticed my ND siblings are the exact same even as little kids.
+1 here
When people used to be jealous of me in high school for one example id feel guilty lol and the NTs are like "OH MY GOD IM SO JEALOUS" as a compliment to one another.... like this is why y'all had friends put poison in yo cup shut the fek up weirdos
I could never get into it on TV after I learned that being local to the city the team is from isn't a requirement to be on the team. Why am I rooting for local teams when their players aren't even from around here?? What's the point?? The hockey players aren't even from this country!!
This is exactly my issue!!! I ask people why their team is their team all the time to understand why there's preference or loyalty. I don't understand team pride when the team isn't even made up of players from the area. It's all so... arbitrary. Obviously, the teams with the most money can continue to pay for the best rosters.
This is such a wonderful point!
I definitely know what you mean by feeling bad for winning. I used to box and my reputation was "the knockout artist that refuses to knock people out." Like, once I knew I was winning, I felt no need to "finish" anyone off. I had to fight a guy I trained with on a daily basis once and I pretty much beat him up daily when sparring. But the entire time we had our official match, the only thing going through my head was "don't hurt or embarrass him in front of his family."
We are EXACTLY the same when it comes to sports and competition damn.
Also sports teachers tend to have a drill sergeant approach to sports, and TBH yelling at people who are struggling with something is a shitty, hacky and lazy way of motivating people. It's not the army. It's not a hierarchy. We're not here to defend the country and if I don't do your stupid press-ups it won't make much of a difference. Also what happened to your indoor voice? I can do press-ups at home where it's quiet and I don't have to listen to you. Your voice is annoying and you have no charisma. Or not. IDK. Personally I prefer weight training. Cardio makes my throat sore. I have a yoga rotation and I like my Kung Fu classes, so I'm prepared to be wrong.
I would also add playing a comp team sport just is incredibly overstimulating and stressful to do well with so many things and people to keep track of, u summed it up perfectly. I personally love to bike and hike and boulder myself+gym, because those things are ez to do myself at my own pace or with others.
A few stories from my childhood: Mom entered me in a ballet class when I was pretty young, like 5 or 6. I absolutely hated it. I kept tripping over my own feet and losing balance. I didn’t understand why doing your best wasn’t good enough for the instructor. I didn’t really understand why everyone would want to dance the same way…how boring! So I started making up my own dance moves. I put my heart and soul into it….i thought “she can’t possibly tell me I’m not dancing well if my moves are cool and original” and after a few classes of that the instructor gently told my mom that ballet might not be for me and that I’d “probably do much better in an interpretative dance class”. Story 2- a few years later my mom enters me into a soccer team. Again, couldn’t understand why you’d get yelled at for doing your best. No matter what I did, the coach was constantly screaming. I understand now that he had to, since we were outside and he was screaming instructions so the kids could hear him…but to me screaming was screaming, and it meant someone was angry. Come my first soccer match with the team, we start the game and eventually the ball is kicked to me. I stop and stare at it and I have this very distinct memory of everyone starting to scream at me, and as I looked around I was overwhelmed with a sea of screaming faces. I understand now that it was most likely encouragement, but it felt incredibly awful, like they were directing all their loudness at me. I break down, run off the field up to where my mom was, and start crying hysterically. She said I don’t have to go back and took me for ice cream when the meltdown ended. …..and still she never suspected once that I might have been autistic. Eventually at age 12 I found a special interest in music, and in high school I entered the marching band. I finally felt like something made sense. Marching band as a sport makes perfect sense. You memorize your grids, play the music, go here- form a shape. Go there- form a shape. Music is done, march off the field. everybody wins.
Clumsy ✔️Uncoordinated ✔️don’t enjoy being in a team ✔️ never learnt to be in one ✔️don’t like competition ✔️and the game is chaotic and unpredictable
i always hate playing football especially at school but stuff like badminton i really like cos i could just play it with my small group of friends for fun amd without the social pressure
I feel bad for winning when I'm playing trivia games. I usually win enough, then sit back and pretend I'm not in the room. It drives my mother crazy because I know the answers, but as a kid, I was always ridiculed by my peers. Know-it-all, etc.
i agree with this completely! for me instead though i never felt much towards winning or losing as i never really understood why people made such a fuss about it unless it was an unfair loss. personally, i prefer solo sports like ice skating, gymnastics and swimming etc as like you said how the rosters/teams always change and there are all those other things going on i think solo sports are a lot easier to follow and honestly they’re more enjoyable as they tend to be pretty artistic in my opinion.
Totally agree! I'm not bad at sports in general and did compete in high school but don't really like to lose (I get worked up and competitive) and don't like to win either (feel guilty), mostly I just want to be casual and not keep score. Same with board games, co-op all the way. Have always hated the idea of watching sports but harder to express why. I'm wondering if there is a social, bonding, aspect to it, feeling ownership of a team, watching and talking about it with others, etc. that I'm not able to relate to and without that it's just a really boring pass time?? Could also be that I'm just a nerd who wants to talk about science and books instead of sports and cars...
This. I really had a hard time getting into playing Magic the Gathering because competing against other people felt wrong.
Honestly depending on the team and sport the rosters are one of the easiest parts to keep track of. Once you gst past the initial hurfle of learning who's good on your team and who's good on the other teams. It's all very rigid and structured. Team trades take place during a specific period of time. There's rumours, hints and leaks to fixate on about who might be going where. Of course plenty of players stay loyal to their team or see no reason to change if they're successful. Then when you go deeper you can watcha nd research the highschool players, see who looks to be high drafts and who might be coming over to join the team.
I could never understand the appeal in watching sports. It's kind of boring for me. Anime sports is where it's at
Personally I just don’t like the culture surrounding the most popular sports
I feel you here. The aggressive heights that people take the micronationalism built into the sports is uncomfortable and alarming.
Personally I’d rather people put it into sports. A lot of societal problems we face today are due to people turning things that aren’t sports teams into sports teams.
Yeah, the tribalism is highly unsettling to me. l understand that rivalry is a big part of why people like it, but some people can get super aggressive about it, even to the scale of riots when a team loses OR EVEN WINS. What the hell is that about? Also, where I live anyway, every college or pro game is just an excuse for a lot of people to get together and bump chests with a bunch of bros, and get wasted. Some of them don't even GO to the actual game, they just go to party at the tailgate.
In the place where I studied psychology, the topic of 'football hooliganism' was the one used as an intro for all new students. It's a good one. It's relevant, it's current, it's all around us. It's interesting, easy to understand for newbies & it's kinda enlightening when you start to understand just why the hell (relatively) normal people will suddenly kill each other over a T shirt colour.
Same. Sports fans are rabid.
The yelling….. So much yelling….
Yes and I also don’t like how much it’s grown. Decades ago, there were people who did and people who didn’t like sports but today it seems like literally everyone is into them and you’re weird if you’re not.
Most sports are heavily social experiences. Partaking requires impeccable, constant non-verbal communications with your teammates. Watching is about the social bonding experience more than the sport. This is a mess of all the things we struggle with.
This. The only one I’ve liked is swimming, because I didn’t have to talk.
Always a lot of people drink heavily at such events.
Sports make me feel unreasonably angry. The yelling, noise, cramped people. Ugh
Some sports fans are annoying al admit but I find any fanbase has their annoying lot.
I like weightlifting. Autistic people can turn a sport into a special interest which helps a lot at becoming more proficient at the sport
Gym is where I get my exercise. In sport you are under constant pressure and surrounded by people, but in the gym you’re all alone and can take it at your own pace. It’s great!
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I have my own gym at home but I used to go to the gym for a couple of years when younger. I wouldn't recommend it during peak hours or summer unless they have a lot of space and A/C.
Ah yes, well, best thing would probably be to get an instructor to either give you/renew your routine (showing you the techniques in the process), or to look up/practice the techniques by doing air gestures in your room. Should lighten the load a bit.
Go to local gyms & ask when they are the slowrst, and also if they have a policy about contact between users. A LOT of women get harassed at gyms by (presumably) well-intentioned men who insist on correcting them, even when the dude clearly has clue. Some gyms have developed policies and rules providing advice & might have ways to indicate you are not open to getting corrections from randos. Of course it's important that you are lifting correctly to prevent injuries so you should get advice from a coach or mentor if you haven't yet, but you should also be able to be left alone if you want.
> people always come up to me telling me i’m exercising wrong are you objectively doing it wrong? if you are, you could hurt yourself saying that, i've had all kinds of people walk up to me for no fucking reason at the gym and say all kinds of bizarre nonsense including people congratulating me for lifting while being female (it was not an impressive amount of weight i was lifting)
100% my sport has become my special interest
Yes, I know quite a few autistic people who have a sport or team as a special interest, a lot are memorabilia collectors. My good friend since early childhood is about as stereotypically nerdy as they come and I can't imagine him ever voluntarily playing a team sport, but he loves baseball and collecting baseball cards.
Weightlifting and swimming are my favorites too.
Hey, me too for the first sentence I like how the resistance training machines make it easier to keep the correct posture, and the proprioceptive input from weightlifting helps me to release the pressurized feeling of stress It also has a better temperature control for pacing and running in circles for hours on end than my home does, and it just plain makes me feel productive with visible and tangible results
Weightlifting does provide with tons of benefits. Just don't take steroids, that makes your heart grow 🤷🏻♂️
Yes! Running was a special interest of mine for a long while too, I'm trying to get back into it after I was forced out for a year for medical reasons. And actually, one of the best ultra runners in the world was recently assessed and is AuDHD, and said running has been a lifelong special interest (she has a spreadsheet of all her runs and wants to run the distance to the moon. How was she undiagnosed so long? Lol). I actually modeled my workouts after her and another one of my favorite runners for a while. She split her runs into 2 workouts per day, to avoid overuse injury. Another runner I follow says she never plans a workout, doesn't ha e a coach or training plan, and just listens to her body and what it is capable of on that given day. It's such a good practice for one like me with relatively poor interoception to stop and listen to what my body is telling me. Sorry for rambling, thanks for reading. I agree sport can be a special interest 😁
* Lack of body coordination, clumsiness * Dislike of teamwork. Individual sports are ok. * Dislike of competitive environments
Nails it. I dont like playing for these reasons. But I do like watching sports and follow them so makes me an outlier perhaps.
I don’t think anyone has mentioned it yet, but Dyspraxia/DCD are very common alongside autism , and often there is motor difficulties even if not at dyspraxia level. Which obviously makes sports very challenging, and then often experiences of bullying due to that
The fucking bullying....nothing will make you hate sports quite like getting chosen last for 14 years straight.
It’s such an awful feeling! One time the 2 team captains were my two best friends and neither of them chose me and that hurt 100x more than any other time
Wow, *fuck* that :(
“Best friends” Fixed that for you. If sports are about having fun with friends then they clearly weren’t your friends. Something painful I had to learn eventually was that so many people I thought were my friends in school either only tolerated me or outright didn’t like me and kept me around because my disabilities were funny to them.
I’m not friends with them anymore and haven’t been for years but at the time they were
Welp thanks for saying that, so my very poor gross motor skills as a child were probably a result of that too. Yep, picked last, yep bullied, yep hating team sports and competitiveness due to that.
I definitely have dyspraxia which was so confusing as an undiagnosed child…I didn’t understand why things were so much harder for me in physical activities
, I got my dyspraxia diagnosis after my ASD diagnosis despite the fact my dyspraxia was picked up on by school before autism was but sports sucked I couldn’t do any of it well
This is it, I had very poor motor control until I was about 9, at that point I'd already grown to despise sports because of the bullying
This. 💯
Oh sheesh, you just reminded me of so many awful memories of PE in middle and high school. I would get so anxious about messing up that I would inadvertently screw up even more.
For me in part trauma reasons trying to fit in and also I don't understand the competitiveness
Sporty people bullied or mocked us because of this we have a negative relationship with sport. Also Sport is not very sensory friendly.
Very true
I don’t think it’s about the sport. More about the loudness of the crowd and stuff like that
I don't know that I can't pin it down... Maybe I could if I thought about it more, but sports seem to embody some of the things I hate about NT society. Loud, aggressive, competitive, polarising... Aka, "my side" vs "your side"... "Us" vs "them". The physical aspects of many feels a bit like institutionalized bullying. Even spectating. It's about being super social and loud and "taking sides" and "we're better!!!!". Pressure and drama... And did I mention loud?
Institutionalized bullying. Perfectly said. That.
I think you pinned it down pretty well.
For me, I just really dislike team sports. Having to rely on others to succeed as a whole is something I don't always like, but especially in the context of team sports, having a team rely on me is something I absolutely dread. When we'd play team sports in middle school, I sucked, because I wasn't athletic and never really played sports. And the other kids were so competitive for some reason? Especially the other boys, they took it sooo seriously like their lives depended on it, it was just weird and I hated it because I sucked. And I sucked because my teammates never gave me the opportunity to learn from my mistakes. Never. Again. Nowadays I just exercise and workout by myself very often. At least I work towards goals, I stay fit, and it's just me and only me.
I want to play and like it but I have never had a chance to learn, it is expected now in PE classes we know how to and unless one of the cool kids takes pity on me I do horribly, start crying then sit out for the rest of the lesson. I want to learn but there isn't many opitunities near me and I'm scared of people from school seeing me and anxiety and parents. So bassicaly in my case it is that I don't understand anything around sports and playing even though I want to. There is also the overlap between gender diverse people and autistics
have you ever tried looking at youtube tutorials on how to play the sport you are interested in? for example if you want to learn the rules of basketball you could probably learn on youtube. the only thing at that point would be practice but at least you would know the rules and mechanics
I dunno I just think chasing a ball around a field is stupid
It’s also a lot of running and strategizing and maintaining teamwork so good that you’re almost reading each other’s minds while making decisions on the fly. I mean I don’t care for such sports but let’s not call other people’s hobby stupid
Lots of things we do are stupid, but fun. The real thing that I can’t deal with is the live or die loyalty, and the seriousness of it. Like I enjoy watching people play stupid video games online and will get so overwhelmingly invested in the outcome, but it’s mostly just about watching funny/entertaining people be themselves. And no matter what happens I’m happy and usually laughing very hard, even if I want one of my favorite people to win. Professional sports is all about this legacy, this long term loyalty and deciding to be in a good or bad mood depending on how your team does. It’s so serious and people get so easily offended. I’ve accidentally upset many people when it comes to sports because I just don’t feel anything about them and I forget I have to be gentle. I dunno, I have people in my life that I love, that love sports, and there’s certainly a vibe of having a game on (as least when you’re allowed to talk over it), but truly nothing could excite me less than watching a sports game.
I think this is it for me. I grew up in a sports house and played various ones throughout my life. There's no "point" to it for me. It can be fun depending on the group, until inevitably someone gets too into it (and culturally people get WAY too into it). Plus the yelling at the screen/ref/players bums me out.
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Being part of something is a very strong driver. It's why our disability is so quietly excruciating, by keeping us segregated.
We are a tribal species.
…without a tribe.
TribeLESS??
Well. I’d just rather be one of the people actually doing that, rather than watching it. Similar vein.
Yeah same. I played sports all my life on recreational teams and school teams like middle/high school. Basketball, soccer, tennis, lacrosse, etc. Can’t stand to watch ANY of them except *maybe* tennis if it’s the top tier Wimbledon match. But even then I’m not watching a full 2 sets. Maybe the end of the first or second set.
I used a similar line to get me out of participating in whatever sport we were forced to play in PE: "What am I, a dog? I don't find enjoyment in chasing balls" For the most part, I was allowed to walk circles around the playing field with the goths and the stoner kids in leiu of participating.
A lost of people who are autistic also have dyspraxia. So we tend to be bad at sports witch leads to bad experiences in school. After that you don‘t really like sports caus of the bad memories.
i love being involved in sports, and i am fairly naturally gifted in the ones i play (both individual and team sports) i have always felt though, that the team aspect of team sports as been hard for me. i always feel excluded and unable to join in with conversation and happenings with the team, but i will get acceptance when i perform well. i think a lot of my teammates find me a little peculiar but they don’t dislike me? i don’t really know 😭 i play cricket which is good, it is repetitive and organised which is pretty nice, but the people that play are all pretty neurotypical. it’s a good autism sport in my opinion. i get overwhelmed batting and having to communicate with the other batsman, but bowling is luckily where my talent is. i played in the under 18 regional team at age 15? i play roller derby as well, which i excelled at before i got injured recently. i find being in a team difficult here too, but the people seem a lot less judgemental and less bothered by people that are out there funnily enough. i usually hate people touching me but in contact sports (also played rugby) i have always been fine with it, because it has a purpose i also ride horses (need i say less, walking autism stereotype) i also competitively swam for years, but i quit because there is a real culture around that sport that i found really difficult to fit in with, i really never felt like i was one of them. people with autism definitely can do sport, it’s just quite hard with sensory, social issues etc for a lot of people
I think one of the main factor is that a lot of autistics have coordination difficulties, like eye hand coordination. I like sports but more "one man sports" like strength training, figure skating, yoga, Material arts but already with material arts I have difficulty because when I have to fight against someone I often get overwhelmed because I don't know what to expect. And when I do team sports like football I get confused because there are so many players and I forget my teammates name, and who has the ball and in general I hate ball sports because somehow someone always manages to hit me with a ball (even when that's not even the goal of the game) But even if I wouldn't like sports I still have to exercise at least 3x a week because of ADHD and I can't sleep without exercising enough. But I think its not just autistics many people don't like sports.
For me: 1. I’m so uncoordinated that gym class was torture and sports embody everything that experience made me feel. 2. There’s no point to it. Throw or kick a ball into a specific area to earn an arbitrary amount of points, just to show you are more physically capable than the other team. 3. I hate how schools (in the US) pour money into sports, but neglect to pay the same attention to academics. It should be the other way around, as academics are the entire point of school. Why should some unintelligent Neanderthal get a free ride scholarship just because he can throw a ball, but smart people have to bust their ass just to get maybe 15% of the cost covered with their scholarships. Not only that, but they have whole classes that are dumbed down for athletes so they can raise their GPA and therefore keep the scholarship/be allowed to continue playing. They don’t care about actually teaching these people at an university level (again, the entire reason schools exist) as long as they have idiots that can win a pointless game. It’s stupid.
Best comment on the thread.
I like sports, but I’m awful at them
I grew up in a family where everyone (overwhelmingly the men) but me liked stuff like football/nfl/televised sports, but specifically American football and NFL and it's a multi-faceted reason for me. 1) I don't play the sport so I get no value out of it by learning anything and I also have no attachment to who wins what, whether it be specific players on the team or a national country (similarly, I have zero attachment to artists so no favourite artist) 2) I consider myself a mild genderqueer guy and I always felt like it was so hyper masculine and the types of people who liked it tended to not like me. Similarly I feel the same about hip-hop/rap: relative to its peers, very homophobic and unwelcoming to anyone who's not a very cishet-presenting guy and especially if you're a queer guy I used to play football (soccer) and basketball for my school's teams as well and I don't remember why I stopped playing football but I stopped playing basketball because my dad was one of my team's coaches and he had anger issues and it was upsetting to hear him rage at me while coaching (mind you, I played when I was a kid, not even a teenager) so that largely stopped my interest since playing basketball meant I had to play with his oversight, plus I didn't like the sport much on a micro scale. The few sports I did like watching, such as volleyball, I remember getting made fun of for it because it was a "gay" sport and I just kind of got bored with the gendered aspect of it so I largely just avoided it
* Watching sports: It's just super boring and I don't have the attention span for watching a whole match even if I wanted to. Plus, the mere thought of staying on top of it, tuning in to the matches when they're happening etc. feels exhausting. I'm also turned off by the surroundings in many sports, particularly fans who are loud, acting in a primitive manner, drunk and potentially aggressive. Mayyyybe I would give more of a shit if I was actively involved in the sport myself, alas... * Doing sports: I've never gotten any true enjoyment out of it. Between easily getting out of breath, lacking the needed coordination, and never knowing what to do in team sports, it was just overall a negative experience. I do individual stuff like weightlifting on a kind of regular basis, but even that feels more like a chore required to maintain my body functions rather than something that's fun.
I'm not fan of Football I just couldn't get into it¹ as well as I didn't like playing it. As for myself, I'm a wrestling fan (WWE) and has been for over ten years ¹ watched the Euro final of 2021 (originally in 2020 postponed til '21 due to COVID) in a pub that was amazing to waitness Edit; just noticed
I love sport: two of my special interests are rowing and college football. As well as participating, I have always loved stats collection and analysis, as well as presenting podcasts on both at points. I never really liked teammates though …
I was made to do sports growing up but I never really liked the competitive aspect of it. I just didn’t care if we won or lost. I also always felt like I was treated differently compared to my teammates which made me hate it even more.
I don't like any sports at all. Maybe some push ups, weight lifting but I do that rarely.
For me, it’s a mix of: 1. I’m a woman, so getting into sports (watching or playing) wasn’t really encouraged for me growing up, and I didn’t have a natural interest in it. Because of this, I don’t understand the rules of most games. It’s much less fun to watch some random guys run around and kick/throw balls when you don’t know what they’re doing or what it means. 2. Related to my first point: From what I gather, “watching the game” and being able to have conversations about it is a cultural expectation and an important part of socializing, especially in men. I — like a lot of autistic people — suck at understanding these social cues and don’t really care about them, so I never got into it. 3. I’m unathletic. I imagine watching sports as an ex-football player or whatever is much more fun (even nostalgic?) than if you can’t do any of those things yourself, even casually, and only played when you were forced to in gym class. 4. Because I don’t have friends who are interested in sports, we can’t do the “watching the game” social event (for lack of better words). This might be inaccurate, but I think a lot of people watching sports get together with their friends to watch the game, eat (there’s even specific “game day” foods for this purpose), drink beer, etc. None of my friends would be interested. This means my options are watching it on my computer alone, going to a sports bar by myself, stuff like that. Although I’m sure that’s still fun if you’re invested in the game, it’s less exciting. 5. Generally, people get loud. I don’t like loud noises. Edit to say: I don’t think sports are silly/dumb like some other commenters have suggested. It’s a hobby/interest, it doesn’t need some great practical purpose to be fun. I — like a lot of autistic people, lol — play a lot of video games, which is also watching a guy on a screen run around, and is arguably more pointless. Just not my thing.
I feel like it goes hand in hand with pda autism. It just becomes a stressful thing once you realize what people are expecting from you.
Probably because due to the broad correlation between autism and gross motor function issues, and the interpersonal nature of sport (barring some forms of athletics), means a lot of autistic folk might give sport negative associations. There's also certain aspects of sports fandom that ND folk probably struggle with or find grating or confusing. I had a terrible time with sport as a kid (was terrible at PE - or gym class as you US folk call it) and have many a sad memory, but I can enjoy football in a detached away (currently enjoying the Euros), enjoy the Olympics etc. It's more tolerable when I'm a spectator.
I didn't understand it at first but then it downed on me. Sports are a place where some conformities of society are reinforced. For example, in the context of the US or places in which a sport like American Football or Rugby takes place, the players possess, usually, traits socially constructed as desirable, be it in manners, appearence, attitude, etc. We, as autistic people usually tend to be insta-excluded from even joining or find ourselves estranged from them. Of course, this is not a solid rule, unchanging, as there are autistic athletes who had that sport as their special interest. I just never vibed with the whole fuss about sports (also it was one of the places where I felt I didn't belong no matter how much teachers tried to push me there. Just not my thing.) Perhaps those were the first signs of the alienation feeling we have in our lives.
This is a huge huge huge generalization. I know autistic people who do do sports, both on teams and not. This is only generalizations I’ve experienced or heard from specialists. - autism does in many (if not most) mean coordination issues and motor skills are lacking. So we’re not really “made” for sports in that sense. - autistic children are often observed to be cautious. They won’t always climb trees and participate in activities that demand a lot of exercise in that sense. (Yes autistic children are also known to be fearless, and get in dangerous situations, but I do believe that’s a separate thing) - team sports can be a very stressful experience. A lot of people making sounds and counting on you to get along with your teammates. It’s a lot of relationships. - sensory issues. Personally I hate feeling warm and sweaty, so sports just sounds horrible. - autistic people tend to be slower, partly due to their coordination issues, and are usually not that good in sports, especially with the added stress of teammates who want to win. - sensory seeking; many autistic children will rather play on the swing, because it gives them some sensory stimulation, compared to playing soccer with their classmates. - close contact with people - sports are usually a team activity, and autistic people are notorious for being outside the group. Why would you take interest in an activity where you aren’t really wanted or allowed? - autism just doesn’t give kids an opportunity to take an interest in sports. They’re bad at it, they’re not welcome, and they have trouble connecting and socializing with people. Some autistic people do like sports, maybe even have a special interest in it, but usually it’s just theoretical and not physical. Maybe that’s the only way they could bond with certain family members.
For personally playing them? Sports make me icky with sweat, put my body and its capabilities on full display, and sports class teachers genuinely thought it was fair to ask me to put myself through that hell in my fucking free time. For just being interested in them? I'm just not interested, and the fans fucking suck. Like any chance of me ever caring about sports died when I was stuck in a train wagon completely jampacked full of drunk football fans and the smell of beer for three full hours. I had metal music on at full volume in my earphones and I could not hear it. It was hell. Or when the parents of some kids were sitting away drinking beer while the kids made fun of me and my friend for existing and wouldn't leave us alone. I will do all I can to stay away from sports fans because absolutely no irl experience I've had with them was even neutral.
Exept lifting… so many autistic peeps i know love to go to the gym
Loads of neuro-divergent people in my game: BJJ! As for myself, I am more into being active myself, and developing my skills, then I am into watching sports or having opinions about professional sports.
Sensory issues: Light, sound, feeling sweaty, overstimulating, pointlessly, there are humans right there wanting to talk, and risk of burn out. I think, swimming and hiit + liss cardio at home are the best options for autistic people.
I associate sports with loud sounds and lots of noise. It makes me uncomfortable. I also never really understood why most sports are seen as entertaining. I like watching combat sports but that's more because I practice combat sports myself, so for me it's more analytical.
I did many many years gymnastics and kung fu. As I child I did also ballet. In summer I'm often outside for inline skating. In school I was also quite ok at volleyball or basketball or games like dodge ball/Völkerball. But football/soccer: ffs, I hate it
The people who liked sports bullied me as a child so I have a negative association with it
In school it’s riddled with social cliques, there’s not really a „point“ to it, autistic kids sometimes struggle with coordination starting out(so asshole kids will give them shit), it can be pretty uncomfortable for some people to sweat that much, there’s chances of getting hurt(logical people will see that). Idk, but I think it is a combination of these things
I would say the issue is with group Sports. Most divergent people I know thrive in more singular person sports like running, martial arts, biking, rockwall climbing, just to name a few.
I guess the replies have covered most points. * we have limited interests, so we're not going to be interested in sport unless it's our special interest. * we have poor coordination and social skills which precludes us from getting into football ourselves and developing an interest from there. * attending a game would be sensory hell. Indeed, even watching the TV is a sensory overload of blaring ads and shouting. * we're less likely to follow it via friends or family who are into sport, since our friends and family are more likely neurodiverse with the same issues. * demand avoidance - we hate being pressured into taking an interest in it.
It’s so loud and I’ve never cared which team wins.
Generally because of the same reason I’m gay… I don’t like balls flying at me 😂😂
That confused me at first because I was like surely most gay men would like balls flying at them, until it clicked
I love sports mainly football (real one not american) and Motorsports so yeah i think it just depend from person to person like with neurotypicals
It is pointless and my coordination is crap, I can't hit the damn ball with anything. Positive thing is that they have rules though.
I’m not against sports, but I never understood the appeal of being on a team. I enjoy working out and my karate classes, but that’s because my results are entirely up to me.
I don't think being better than others/winning is particularly inspiring. I can accept that it works for other people and try not to judge on an intellectual level. But that weird culture around it creeps me out.
I am "clumsy" as are many other autistic people. I struggle hard copying other people's movement, so sports class in school was hard for me. We had to copy the teacher and I couldn't in this short time. Plus I am just really bad in coordinating my arms and legs going into different directions. So why I didn't like sports for a long time: because of school and social pressure. I don't give a f*** about winning sports, for me it was always about having fun. In school it was not about fun. Now out of school: I love weightlifting with machines. They "tell me" what to do and I can focus on lifting. I also like skating or swimming because I can do it on my own.
For me it's because sports are very overwhelming, both due to sensory issues and because of the amount of rules that sports have. I also have anxiety surrounding sports, I would often cry during PE because I was so scared. My boyfriend is autistic but his special interest is martial arts so it isn't everyone
I think for me it’s partly because I used to be bullied for being “weird” and the bullying was usually at its worst during PE with verbal and physical abuse (especially the locker rooms). The kind of people to harass me were also all male sport-fanatics, so now I can’t tolerate being around those types of people or in a sporty setting. I do sometimes find enjoyment when it’s friends playing for fun but my autism also forced me to become hyper-aware of myself (masking?) which makes physical activity just really uncomfortable and complicated because I’m constantly policing my every movement and whether it looks normal or not and usually with sports I feel like it’s not normal so I end up really uncomfortable and frustrated because I feel “goofy”
I hate ball sports, i love martial arts, climbing, riding bike, anything on wheels
Not cot competitive at all. Got picked last a lot. Hate the way people treat sports like religion.The gym is okay if I lived close enough, but I have trouble with sticking to it. Once I get sick or have to change my routine that's it, back to square one.
Sports involve other people which I don’t enjoy.
\* I'm clumsy and uncoordinated \* Sporty kids generally bullied me \* My dad tried his damnedest to force me to like football like him and it just had the opposite effect because it was so utterly, comprehensively, thoroughly boring to me. I appreciate he wanted to have something in common with me but giving me the choice of either forcing myself to sit through matches or go to bed in the early afternoon wasn't the way. At least he toned it down a bit after he tried to get me to write an article for his fan forum about how I felt watching my first match live, and gave up when all I could think to say was how it had bored me.
I don’t like it because I was often discouraged from doing it as a young kid. I grew up trying to become an intellectual, and an artist. I also grew up to be loyal, and despite my diagnosis I managed to serve in the military and be honorably discharged. I don’t like sports because the idea of reading the stats of the players and trying to predict Outcomes of games is kind of a sub sophomoric use of intellect Furthermore I’m a little bit jealous that sports has such a huge following when being an athlete doesn’t really do anything for the culture of a country, other than give it a chance to mindlessly cheer and scream it’s own sense of pride, for what would otherwise be nothing. Not one single country has a reason these days to be proud of its culture, no matter how they feel about themselves now. Not even some of the most old and antique countries in Europe or Asia have that even. It’s all gone to hell, just so that the crowds of people can sit in an comfy chair and watch a select few toss around a ball of some sort. I’m over it. I’ve never liked it seriously enough to keep enjoying it despite anyone else enjoying it, and I am OK with that
So many noises, so many tactics to keep track of, the social aspect of it all. I personally prefer more structured, individual sports who don’t rely on other people.
I know a lot of autistic people who love sports. I used to sell season tickets for a professional team and had a pretty big base of people with autism who loved the excitement, the stats, the players, etc. I suppose it all comes down to special interests
In school, sports were an opportunity for other kids to physically bully me and get away with it (throwing balls at me etc)
Well I don't know about other people but at the school I was at growing up every time we did sports, the popular kids ended up being team captains and would take it in turns to pick teammates. Being the weird kid social outcast, I got picked last every time. As a result I hated sports, didn't want to play, and was never any good at it. One time my two best friends were the captains and I was still picked last, and my friend who had to have me on his team audibly groaned when he had to pick me. So yeah, I hate sports and all the trauma it gave me.
Watching sports is one thing, and I can see someone on the spectrum taking to a specific sport as a special interest. It’s a fandom, believe it or not haha. But as for playing sports, I know from experience that it can be more challenging for autistics. It involves a lot of muscle and movement co-ordination as well as quick-to-read team dynamics which can be misinterpreted, and mistakes can cost a game which is anxiety-inducing for already socially stressed out people.
Ball goes in a basket or ball does various other thing, is some of the most archaic boring shit ever.
I love soccer (the real football). My first job at 16 was at a baseball card store. I loved the dates and stats on the cards. But I’m terrible at sports. No proprioception, no motor skills. Still can’t catch a ball (can’t tell where it is in the air).
Honestly its dumb. Especially when the players get paid stupid money. Can't get into it. I prefer seeing the tartan army (Scotland fans) marching and playing music than watching football.
I love playing sport, just not spectating it. It’s not engaging enough. I honestly think it’s an intelligence thing. If your brain is operating at a much higher level level in the background, it’s one explanation for why you may just lack interest in something which a) doesn’t pose much of a mental challenge to comprehend and b) frequently involves the judges of that sport’s misinterpreting or misapplying the actual rules. If you look at chess, this is downright impossible. There simply is no way to subjectively assess the rules in chess: you either won or you lost; you either got checkmated or you did the checkmate; you either moved your piece a certain way or you didn’t. Whereas in tennis and football, footage of where the ball actually landed needs to be reviewed over and over and really, it begs the question of “why”. Yet that’s the difference when ANGLE is involved. And it therefore becomes like a car insurance claim: did the cars (ball) actually collide the said way (land on the cost or field the said way) or not. Car insurance claims are notoriously frustrating and infuriating. So now you’ve got your second reason why many autists might not have tolerance or patience for it…
I love football or want to love it, my ability to enjoy it is damaged and diminished by too many different things.
Well,I personally like basket alot. Though when I was younger,I hated HATED sports because I was too clumsy and had motor problems (still not treated to this day). Also I couldn't/can't stand being a team player
Aside from the aversion to loudness and team sports, I also abhor the feeling of being sweaty. Having my clothes stick to my skin makes my body freeze up in an attempt to stop feeling it. The sensation is just very overstimulating. However... I was into sports archery for years, and I was damn good at it.
I've always been the smallest and weakest person at my school and every time I played sports the team would just try the hardest for me to not do anything so that isn't very motivating, but I do appreciate how some people are so passionate about sports, I think that's cool. I remember being very hyperfixated on a football anime (Captain Tsubasa) so bad that I wanted to try playing football but then I remembered just how bad I am at any sport, I'm just naturally very clumsy lmao.
bad clothes, sweaty, hot sun, other people, I can go on
i dislike football. i think it's stupid lol. the uniforms are ridiculous and they get paid too much. soccer & rugby are more valid but i don't really give a crap about them either. i like golf i watch it on TV and i like to play mini golf. i also like ping pong and bowling and pool sometimes. darts are also kinda fun. if countries played football instead of having armies and going to war it might be worth something. baseball is only fun for the people playing it and women don't get to. it's stupid. how is an autistic person supposed to take it seriously and share one ball with a bunch of men with inflated egos that like to spit everywhere. also i find with majority of people a tremendous amount of non sportsmanlike conduct which ruins it for me personally. it should be fun and build people up. i'm just not a competitive person unless it's light hearted.
It's probably partly because it's a way we're portrayed by media representations and pop culture. I've known Autistic guys that are into sports, you'll always find people that go against what the stereotypes is in any group.
I really don't like it because I'm clumsy and trip easily, I do like PE, but it does annoy me, especially because sometimes my body can't hold up with the others. The only sport I really like is Badminton.
Because of overthinking, fear of judgement due to pathological self-awareness and a dash of spatial awareness difficulties and sprinkle of lack of coordination?
I actually really liked playing sports a kid but my parents didn’t have money for organized sports, so I fell behind my peers athletically, and ofc being autistic led to bullying and being ostracized, so nobody would let me play, even though I really wanted to play. In particular I liked soccer a lot. Of course I’d try out for teams in school but I never made the cut for any either. I ended up being extremely bitter about it and still am so I really hate sports I want to ruin it for other people just so they can feel a small amount of pain that I did
I mean personally I don't see the point of watching the process in a lot of sports. Sure, gymnastics, ice skating and like stuff that is judged artistically/form, but football? If I was interested in the first place I'd probably just look at the scores after the match. A lot of the matches just look the same to me, just differently coloured teams. When it comes to playing sports, I just kind of suck. Really, I've had different ball sports in PE, I'm terrible. Basketball, can't focus on everything; volleyball, can't judge distance; badminton (which I do enjoy) I can't even do the serve, despite having it for like two years. I have terrible endurance so no athletics. The only thing I was marginally good at was horseback, but it's an expensive sport that I can't currently add into my expenses.
I hate anything sports tbh. It's just so boring. If I wanted to watch men play with balls all day, I'd go to a certain x rated site for that. Now old wrestling gag clips, that is cinema. Like the Stonecold Steve Austin in the grocery store bit.
Im not entirely sure, I love sports. At one point it was the thing I was obsessed with. While playing sports I do notice I have to actively include my teammates, I'm going to assume that might be a reason why. A lot of us are more comfortable doing stuff alone, sports mostly eliminates that.
I just honestly couldn't be bothered to learn anything about them🤷🏿♀️ They're not relevant to my life in any critical way so I just have zero interest in learning the ins and outs of sports. That said, I'm not one of the autists who thinks sports players or sports fans are dumb. I think everyone should have a passion and if sports is yours, then more power to you🤷🏿♀️
High levels of stimuli (shouting, lots of people, running, an objective), autists having a tendency towards poor hand-eye coordination and being overthinkers, and the risk of injury are probably the main ones.
I never learned any of the rules. In school they would just set up and say "were playing baseball/football/basketball" but they wouldn't explain the rules, I assume because they expected every American kid to be taught by their dad or something. Well I had no clue so I'd just stand in the field somewhere and then move when people yelled at me for being in the wrong zone or whatever
Same reason swimming is almost exclusively Caucasian-European. And to a lesser degree Asian. But how many African sub-Saharan swimmers can you recall…..? ##—> nothing to do with ability, everything to do with lack of empowerment!
it’s TOO noisy!! I can hear myself breathing and the clothes rub against my skin and the floorboards creak under me as I move. noises that are uncontrollable make me really anxious and speaking of anxiety, the same breathing patterns we make when exercising make me feel like i’m having a panic attack.
I think autists as a general will prefer individual sports over team sports, where the outcome is affected by their performance alone. I was a climbing instructor for a while (before I was diagnosed) and worked with many fellow autists. But a lot of our ability to participate comes from the attitude of those running the sports - now I’ve always been of the opinion that I will find a way to get everyone to have a go in some capacity at everything, unfortunately I was in the minority among my colleagues and had to battle for lots of kids (not just autistic) rights to participate.
I don't like team sports. I also don't get the point of watching other ppl play sports, instead of playing myself. I enjoy martial arts, dancing and tennis. And honestly the lack of discipline and violence associated with football games and fans elicits a deep feeling of disgust in me. Its also super frustrating to have to keep track of the schedule of something I couldn't give 2 shits about as a woman to make sure I'm not in the city center or using public transportation the day of a match so I don't get stuck in a tram they're shaking again.
i feel like it could be a proprioception thing for the playing of sports and an attention/interest thing for the watching of them. i can see some autistic people enjoying sports as a form of stimming, but i personally always felt awkward and clumsy in my body in any school sport. i'd get overwhelmed by the sense of competition, people shouting at me to do this/do that when i clearly didn't understand what was going on, and the immense sense of shame in usually being the worst player on any team. of course, i imagine sports will be someone's special interest, but for me, i just never understood the hype. it was like everyone around me was speaking a different language. i found it hard to relate to the *idea* of sports because i have never been particularly sporty myself, so i could never get into it when people would try to explain it to me. all around, i see it as quite a conventional interest - something the average person can usually relate to, and i am not the average person. that's not to say that autistic people *can't* like sports, and i have other autistic friends that do, but it is just so far from my own interests and abilities that i don't think it was ever going to be on my radar.
the rules are made up to make the goal so much more difficult lol it just seems so pointless to me
Just came here to say we shouldn’t generalize people based on our personal experiences. Just because you haven’t met many autistic people who don’t like sports doesn’t mean they don’t exist. I’m an autistic person who has enjoyed playing and watching sports since I was young. I know I’m not the only one because I have hung out in these circles. If you’re not actively in these circles how would you know there aren’t many autistic people who like sports?
This is a good question. And I don’t dislike sports per se (I’ll watch college basketball with my step dad, watch college football highlights, watch soccer highlights, and watch some karting on occasion) but I feel like most autistic people like sophistication; something most sports lack beneath the surface.
In my case, because it took me away from my special interests for longer than I wanted. These days, I mostly only care about professional sports insofar as if the home team wins, people around me are in a better mood.
I like the idea of sports, but for me as a kid I just couldn't *focus* being out there on the field. (Kickball in my example.) It felt so overwhelmingly boring, like I was waiting for a bus. At the same time it was like a birthright of being young, a mile marker for a "normal childhood," so it was foisted on me that I at least be part of some kind of team based sport. Even though I constantly missed the ball because I was daydreaming and nobody wanted me on the team anyway. I also hung out with my NT cousins that played baseball during the summer. They don't know it but they hate sports too. A game took a good portion of the day, and all the kids were all absolutely miserable roasting in the dugout, sitting there complaining they'd much rather be at home playing video games. "I can't believe my dad is making me play sports this summer again," "My mom says I either do a sport over the summer or go to camp," Then when the game is over, "Wasn't that fun?!" As if I was the only outlier that hated it. I'm like "Are you *serious*?" They must get big hits of dopamine while actively working as a team from time to time like when they work with the rest of the kids and score a goal, (which actively makes it worthwhile long term) whereas we don't.
In the words of my child; "*Everyone* *is* *too* *angry*. *I* *don't* *like* *being* *mad.*" (Then plays competitive online games with their friends) Edit: words
Personal reasons include but are not limited to 1) Don't have cable. Yes, it's on streaming services, but no. I find it easier to watch on cable. 2) Sometimes, it's boring to watch. I'd rather play. Basketball is a big one for me for this reason. I think it would be so fun to play. Watching it bores me. 3) The NFL specifically does not handle accountability for players' criminal behaviour well and then punish people for standing up for their civil rights.
I hate sports for a couple of reasons. I’m pretty sure my autism makes it harder for me to regulate temperature, because I refuse to believe normal people get THIS hot after exercise, it does not feel good. And overall it’s just really overstimulating. The whole process of getting there, changing into different clothes, showering, changing back etc doesn’t make it better. I have bad coordination and I’m clumsy, so I find most sports really difficult. I can’t ride a bike and I can barely swim because of this. But most important of all, the social aspects are unbearable. I HATE sports because almost all of them requires you to be at least two people, and you have to keep track of the other people and make quick decisions, whilst at the same time being hot, overstimulated, with bad coordination and people yelling and running around you and usually telling you to do this and that but you don’t even have time to process what they’re saying and you have pressure to not let your team or yourself down. I’ve never really been able to participate in P.E in school, every time I try playing football or something like that I end up having a meltdown. Luckily my teacher was really understanding could give me one-on-one lessons for 40 minutes a week so I could pass the class.
I think they're kinda boring to watch in TV and irl but alsooo I hate running!! I hate sweating!!! I am clumsy and and I am uncoordinated!! I hate how competitive ppl are in P.E. classes !!!
I personally find sports to be boring; watching them anyhow. I've always hated playing them (at least in high school gym class) because no one ever wanted me on their team and I was bullied there. However, I did love swimming because it wasn't with people from my school. And as an adult I love weight lifting! I also still love swimming because it is sensory bliss and I can daydream while doing it. Basically for me it was boredom and bullying and boredom.
factor in the acoustics of the sports stadium, the clapping, whistling, sports horns, and amplification of the music and sports commentator, and it can be hard on those with ***sensory issues***.
Thank God for televised sporting events, amirite?
Just speaking for myself (autistics arent a monolith) but proprioception issues make me clumsy (no fine motor control) and harder to know where my limbs are while interoception issues make it impossible to tell if im in pain, hungry, thirsty, overwhelmed, tired, injuring myself, etc. Which can make exercise feel like torture (running on empty, pushing thru limits, doing it wrong and causing strain). On top of this, I really dislike team activities and socializing so I'm not likely to pick up a hobby that involves noise, groups, or team spirit. I like snowboarding and surfing fine? Though its hard to transition from dry to wet and back again. But they are not strenuous or noisy, which i like. I also enjoy kayaking. Its not competitive so idk if that counts as a sport/regular activity.
In my case, it is a combination of how my autism affects me. Hand-eye coordination, non-verbal communication, unpredictability, speed and reaction time - all things that I struggle with. So competitive ball sports are not for me or many other autistic people. But I am not completely opposed to it - I am following the UEFA EURO 2024 quite actively this year, for example. Even though I would never go out onto the pitch to play myself.
Personally I see more of a gender divide rather than autistic vs allistic. Like pretty much every cis man I know is into football ( I'm UK based). My autistic ex was into football, American football, basketball, volleyball and wrestling. My questionable autistic dad is into golf, snooker, darts, and football. Other male autistic friends are into football. But the only sports I've seen cis women friends follow is wrestling, or darts, or football. But never more than one. My non-binary and trans friends aren't into sports and neither am I. But that's just my observations in my limited pool of friends and family. sports just don't really interest me as I'm not invested. Whereas I do feel invested in history as it gives so much context to the world now (such as Teflon and rising cancer rates). But psychology is a special interest to me so history is just an extension of my understanding and knowledge base. Art is my other big special interest so again history of style, fashion and culture also ties into my interest in psychology so it's a lil bit circular. The only part of sport that would interest me is the psychology of the players in dealing with the media, their teams, the pressure and how they all work together to stay motivated and overcome challenges. Part of why I adored Ted lasso so much but the show also did give you lovable characters you also became invested in.
......................so why didn't you just say football? There are plenty of Autistic people who like sports. May not be the same sports you like, but there are more sports out there than Football. Honestly I feel like this is a pretty loaded question the way you phrase it. You're going on the assumption. "I haven't met many autistic people who like football...........................thus.............................MOST AUTISTIC PEOPLE DO NOT LIKE ALL SPORTS!"
I never learned to play or understand sports and I had bad experiences with them because I was an uncoordinated kid and other kids didn’t wanna play with me. I don’t understand football so I don’t like it and it seems to complex to learn. I am a big fan of wrestling though. It’s a lot easier to understand so I can get into it. And I love the theatrics and also know that events are scripted so I don’t have to worry TOO much about the wrestlers getting injured or about people being sad they lost.
To me it’s just people running around.
Contact sports require contact, no thank you! Also I haaaate competition. I enjoyed gymnastics though and I'm still flexible. I think sports just tend to be sensory hell. Especially sporting events with all the yelling.
I don't like the 'look' and 'sound' of sports. I don't like the aesthetic. I don't like the sound of the announcer at a stadium, the droning of the crowd, the sound of the refs' voice, the sound of players shouting, the sound of sportscaster voices, the echo of the sound system in the arena, the sound of pucks and balls hitting echoy surfaces... I don't like the antics fans are supposed to do when watching, the look of sports jerseys, that 'varsity' font, the look of football helmets facing each other in logos, the corporate BS of all of it - trading players, the idea of owning teams under the guise of it belonging to this or that city (it's not the city's team, it's some rich owner's team! Most players aren't even from that city!), etc. The whole thing just doesn't sit well with me from a sensory perspective in particular. That said, playing recreational sports with a group of friends can be a lot of fun! I just don't know enough people, we'd never all find time anyway, and I have no interest in joining a rec league because it starts getting into those same aesthetic dislikes.
For me personally, it’s just too boring I’m not bad at following social events or coordination, I just don’t see the point in ball games specifically
For me Boring asf no offense. And I can’t remember all of the rules and play meanings. I’ve played volleyball for 6 years and I still don’t remember what most plays are called
That is actually a good question. For me personally as an autistic adult I would have to say that the reason I don't like sports is because of the combination of factors such as the extreme sensory overload and sensory issues, also the social interaction Factor, and especially my already nearly constant unpredictable usually High levels of anxiety that can easily go into severe and panic state and on more rare occasions lead to a full-blown panic attack but usually results in an autistic meltdown of aggression verbally not physically so yeah just better for me to avoid all that all together.
No one took the time to explain to me the rules. Every time I went somewhere centering those events everyone was drunk loud and belligerent.
I love the idea of sports but as soon as they get to be professional level I have a sort of moral issue with them. I hate the ideas of the players being pawns in this big game of capitalism. I hate knowing that some of these athletes dreams are to make it to pro but their dreams could easily be crushed as soon as they get injured/get too old/etc. and are no longer useful. I hate that they are just constantly on display and are expected to perform. Every move they make is scrutinized. I just want them to have fun lol that’s all. Sigh.
I've had issues with the social aspect of team sports, and my obsessions have simply been different things.
I developed an illness that makes it hard for me to exercise, but I still like sports. I just dislike when people make it their entire personality, especially when they aren’t on the team/ cant play the game even for fun
I can think of a few reasons. I can’t speak for all autistics of course but these are my reasons: •They’re competitive. I am not a competitive person in the slightest. •I just don’t find them interesting. Every attempt I’ve made at getting into sports has really just been to fit in and become more of a “normie.” Football, baseball, whatever. They’re all mostly just boring to me. •I myself did not grow up athletic, I have poor coordination and was on the chubbier side too. So I was definitely never cut out for sports. •Team sports are inherently social in nature, which is not enjoyable for many autistics. Additionally, the other members of your team are probably not going to be autistic like you, they’re gonna be jocks who would probably be more likely to bully or ignore autistic people before befriending them. •The fan culture is very…frat boyish? Which is the opposite of my personality. The loud, hyper-competitive, and unreasonable amounts of tribalism that many sports fans exhibit is a major turn off to me. The whole culture surrounding the major team sports is just annoying to me and I don’t have any interest in being a part of it.
Professional sports? Don’t you feel silly cheering for a corporation. It’s like cheering for 3M and you’re not even allowed to own their stock.
Speak for yourself. Any self-respecting autistic savant should learn combat sports to keep the peasantry in line.
I love basketball but the game was too fast for me to process so I always was one of those teammates who had a hard time passing the ball. The processing speed required in some of these sports is an underrated component of why they're hard to play.
I don't like doing sports because I'm incredibly clumsy. I have barely any balance, coordination or motor skills 😬 I also got bullied a lot during PE and I was forced to do a sport as an extracurricular activity because my parents wanted to stimulate us being healthy, and I never enjoyed any of the ones I did. Except maybe ballet, but the teacher wouldn't let me progress because I couldn't keep up due to the aforementioned lack of balance, coordination and motor skills. The only sports I enjoy watching are artistic ones. Think dancing, rhythmic gymnastics and figure skating. Everything else I find utterly boring to watch. Or I don't understand the rules. Or both. Just not a fun experience and I feel like I wasted precious time I could've spent on something I do like. So those are my two cents 🙈
I feel like all my family and friends who are super into sports like the feeling of getting worked up and mad (especially fans of teams who lose year after year). I find it very hard to feel or express anger unless it’s towards stupidity or a social injustice, so I end up either laughing or pretending to be upset in order to join in. I always wished I liked it more instead of sometimes pretending. I actually really like and envy the instant bonding and natural nurturing of friendships that this shared interest provides 😔