Jusme wrote: ...
That's funny. reminds me of my high school football career (it only lasted my freshman year) at 5'-6" and 120lbs, I was not the biggest kid on the team. ...
That sound like my football career. I was about that size, only one guy smaller than me. We were pounding against older guys who outweighed us by 100 lbs. I gave it everything I had, but physics is physics, and I decided my high school talents lay elsewhere after my freshman year. It took me all season to get this "premonition" tho.
I did unintentionally learn a good lesson about learning, about improving one's skills tho. One day at the end of our high school team practice, the junior high football team came out to start theirs. They were short some players, so our coach sent me and the other little guy over to give them some more people. Now, these were fellows about our size, some bigger actually, and we had been playing with them just the year before.
But my buddy and I absolutely mauled them. Since we had been practicing against people so much bigger than us, we had learned to hit REALLY REALLY HARD. The junior high coach put us on defense opposite the center and guards, the backfield in an I formation. When the ball snapped, my buddy and I by prior agreement both hit the center and BLASTED him right through the quarterback and knocked down almost the entire back field. The next play, the center snapped the ball and in a blink pulled and ran away, leaving the QB completely exposed (and shocked), and he got slammed along with another back who foolishly tried to block us. The third time the center snapped the ball and again ran away, along with the quarterback, the guards, and the other backs, leaving the ball laying on the field. Then the junior high coach sent us to the showers and tried to salvage the rest of his practice. I have to admit my buddy and I had some mean pride over slaughtering our former team mates like that.
It took a bit of thinking about it, but eventually I realized that if you want to get better at some sport or skill, practice against people who are much better than you. A lot of times it is not "fun" but it really ups your game..