Sunday Scribblings: Hand-Eye Coordination

This week's topic is Sport. I therefore posted on that website my yesterday's post regarding my Sporting Rants and Raves. We'll see how the Sunday Scribblings crew likes those rants and raves.

But today, I have decided to address a topic that never ceases to amaze me, namely hand-eye coordination.

For you to understand the context a bit more, let me contextualize. I coach a team in the Emerald City Softball Association, a gay softball league. It doesn't mean it's exclusively gay but rather it was created so that gay athletes could play in the late 70s and early 80s without being harassed. And at that time, the league literally had only gay athletes with the emphasis on the 'athlete'. In other words the league was for those who could already play.

Then, sometime in the 90s there was a significant push for a division in the league that addressed the fact that many people in the gay community had never actually stepped foot on a diamond. This became the D division. And now, the D division has the most teams in the league, approaching 20 separate teams.

There you have it, a little context. Well, these past two years I have coached the Seattle Buzz, a D division team that contains a wide range of talent. There are those who can hit, catch, and throw well but who want to stay in D - rather than go to C - because of the laid back attitude. Then there are those who have absolutely no idea how to throw a ball.

When I see a person with that lack of ability, I cannot help but be amazed. Here's why... Do I expect that everyone who comes out onto the field will have played baseball or softball before? Absolutely not. Even though it is my opinion that they're missing one of the greatest games ever created, I can imagine a world in which baseball / softball is not a priority.

It becomes a tad bit more difficult for me to imagine a person who has absolutely no tie to sport whatsoever. But it's still feasible. That the person doesn't like baseball, football, basketball, darts, bowling, golf, tennis, cricket, bocce, or any other game that requires hand-eye coordination. Okay, that's fine.

But then, I get into other questions. Do you play video games? There are a lot of people from my generation who have played - and still play - video games. I'm one of them, in fact. I played pong once upon a time. Pitfall for Atari. Super Mario Brothers. Sonic. Zelda. Tecmo Bowl. All of it. No, not every game system, but I've played my share.

Then I come to questions about, say handwriting. And they give me an odd look before they tell me that they have terrible handwriting. That they can barely write a sentence.

Typing? I ask. Two finger typing, they answer.

Piano, trumpet, drums? No music either, they say.

And that's the point at which I realize that the person does not, in fact, have any experience whatsoever with hand-eye coordination. Which means that when the person tries to throw, catch, or hit that person's body looks like it is convulsing rather than actually partaking in the specific activity in which it is supposed to be involved.

Yes, coordination can be learned, but I'll never cease to be amazed that there are those people who have never even come close to being involved in an activity that would require coordination.