There was a discussion here about clumsiness or poor physical coordination that i didn't contribute to because I wasn't yet a member - today I can't find it, so i'm hoping to start it again.
In psychologist Aniela Jaffe's little book Autism (a survey of autism research with 2 chapts on AS) she has a few things to say about clumsiness. One of them - clumsiness is more common among Asperger's than in straightforward autistic people (83% vs 22% according to a Swedish study).
Isn't it odd that those with the milder form of autism are more likely to be clumsy?
During the first yrs of school I was too poorly coordinated to play team sports. In hope of less humiliating baseball results, I began throwing a ball around at home - i would throw it straight up & try to catch it coming down, and i would bounce it off the wall in the driveway. I got to be pretty good at both, but when i tried to transfer my skills to a game at school I was as hopeless as ever.
That did pay off in other ways though - by late high school i could play a credible game of handball, except that i had to be playing alone, or with one specific friend.
When I was 21, i tried another experiment. Drinking one night with the members of a rugby team, i learned that they were going to play short 3 players in a game next day - I offered to play for them.
In fact, playing different positions, I went on to play 3-4 yrs until injuries stopped me. And i became 2 entirely different players.
Defensively, I became a competent player - I couldn't make those flamboyant shoestring tackles they urged me to try, but i developed skill in anticipating where the ball was going next and I made a lot of tackles.
But as soon as I had to switch to offence - ie, when someone passed me the ball - everything changed. If i managed to catch it, my legs wouldn't move properly and i got tackled immediately.
Here's what i think was happening - playing defence I was able to play as if i was alone, detached as if i was just playing among a bunch of moving posts. But when i rec'd the ball & all those eyes were suddenly on me, anxiety took over.
Do you see what I'm getting at? I think our clumsiness is 90% nervousness caused by the presence of too many people.
Today, at least if you live in a city, you aren't alone very often. So maybe you don't get as much chance to develop your physical skills as you would have if you had been born a hunter-gatherer & and allowed to grow up in a wilderness with only family members around you (as 99% of your ancestors were).
And why do non-family people make us so nervous? That's the big question.
AC
31 Mar 2007, 9:32 pm
