I have a confession to make. I am one of ‘those’ people who let the Aussie reputations down when it comes to sports. Despite being a true-blue Aussie, I have never had any interest in sport of any kind. I don’t like to watch it. I don’t want to play it. I don’t care who wins.
This makes life somewhat awkward when so many Aussies are sports fans. They don’t understand why the only thing I enjoy about the golf course is the alcoholic beverage cart, why I am not interested in watching their kids’ team and why I don’t know any of the sports teams.
The simple fact is, I do not classify a group of people running around – usually in very short uniforms – fighting over one ball as entertaining. If you just gave each of them a ball, perhaps we could all just go home and do something more meaningful with our lives.
There are so many more reasons I can put forward in my case of anti-sport. Traditionally it’s hot, sweaty, dirty, and people hurt themselves. Everyone gets a prize with many kids sports, but then these kids are thrown into the world of adult sport where you are only rewarded if you win. What damage does that do to our kid’s self-esteem? A topic for another column, perhaps.
Add to this the streakers or protestors, and sport of any kind does not equal fun in my book.
So when I was invited to attend an outing with friends to play a virtual sport, I was at a crossroads. Suddenly, a type of sport was presented to me, which made all my reasons null and void. An airconditioned environment removes the heat and sweat issue. Highly unlikely an injury will occur. Fully stocked bar in the same room to help cure the boredom if I don’t enjoy it. Was this excitement or nausea I was feeling? Either way, I had to run to the bathroom.
My first sports day arrived at Play It Central located inside Sports Central, Caboolture. I had low expectations. Very low. My spirits lifted when I was forced to walk past the bar to get to the virtual golf and race car simulators. Pit stop already? Why not!
That was the first and last stop at the bar. For me, a non-sports person, I had so much fun playing (not watching) the virtual sports on offer that I simply lost track of time. So now I can say that I am a virtual sports person – which I would like to believe is the upper-class version of sports in general.
For those anti-sport people like me, I recommend you give it a go. Suppose you consider yourself a pro at golf or race cars. In that case, you will find the technology simply world-class and perhaps a more attentive partner when you return home, not wreaking of body odour with a delivery of stained clothes to be washed.