Your Greatest Athletic Achievements (Non-Golf)

[HJJ003]

Obviously, this forum is a great resource of Golf knowledge and people getting better at Golf. However, I know many of us were not "golfers first", and competed and succeeded (maybe even at high levels) in other sports. I thought it would be cool to hear what sports others here excelled in, so lets do it! If you post about your greatest non-golf achievement (or achievements) please give us the following:

1) The sport you competed in

2) Your position/event if applicable

3) Your achievement or achievements you want to passively (or not so passively ) brag about!

 

I will start!

1) My Sport: Track and Field

2) Long Jumper/ Sprinter

3) Achievements I am proud of: 

- 3 Time High School State Champion (100m, 200m, Long Jump)

- Div 1 Scholarship Athlete

- All Conference Athlete (LJ and 4*1 relay)

- Jumped nearly 25 feet in the Long Jump 

- Qualified for Preliminary rounds of NCAA D1 Championships in 3 events (LJ, 100, 4*1)

- Finished as 32nd best LJ in NCAA

 

Ok time to hear from you! What did you accomplish? 

[klineka]

1) Baseball

2) Left-handed Pitcher

3) The achievement I am most proud of is that I was a walk on throwing around 80 mph with my fastball as a freshman in college and by my senior year I had earned a scholarship, was captain, and was consistently touching 90 mph and had numerous MLB teams come to watch/scout me.

Another achievement I am proud of is winning the championship of my summer league in Wyoming between my Junior and Senior years of college. I pitched really well that summer including multiple 10+ strikeout games and a complete game win in front of a huge crowd in the first game of the best of 3 championship series. Struck out the best hitter in the league 4 times and after the 4th one he snapped his wooden bat in half on the ground  

Edited February 27, 2018 by klineka

[JxQx]

I guess I only really have two things one was an organized sport (swimming) the other non (weight lifting/powerlifting). First was deadlifting 2.5x my body weight, not all the impressive but I was pretty proud of that.

The other has more of a story attached to it, I joined a college club swim team turning D3 having never swam competitively before because I had some interest (swam all the relays, distance events, and the breast stroke). Since we were in a transition period we were not allowed to compete in the division championships, we ended up being able to attend an MIT invitational meet. I was told my times weren't fast enough to swim the 1000 free during the event and had to swim it during the mile (1650), I ended up beating a few of the people which made me feel pretty good about myself given everyone else pretty much swam their whole lives and told I wasn't fast enough.

[HJJ003]

3 minutes ago, JxQx said:

The other has more of a story attached to it, I joined a college club swim team turning D3 having never swam competitively before because I had some interest (swam all the relays, distance events, and the breast stroke). Since we were in a transition period we were not allowed to compete in the division championships, we ended up being able to attend an MIT invitational meet. I was told my times weren't fast enough to swim the 1000 free during the event and had to swim it during the mile (1650), I ended up beating a few of the people which made me feel pretty good about myself given everyone else pretty much swam their whole lives and told I wasn't fast enough.

Awesome. Sometimes the most meaningful accomplishments are when people doubt you, and then you prove them wrong anyways. Thanks for sharing. 

[Groucho Valentine]

I was not a golfer first, either. Though i played when i was a teenager, i didn't really take up golf seriously until after college. 

Baseball - SS/2D base 

The only thing that sticks out to me is when I hit a HR off a guy that eventually made it to the bigs. I forget his name but he was a relief guy for the Tigers for a few years. Sucka thought i was going to take a 3-1 fastball and i belted that shit. ( i was supposed to take it, i ignored the sign..lol) I never won any awards for my play or anything, but i did get drafted by the Cardinals in the 51st round one year. But just about anyone who hits over .300 in D1 gets drafted, so I'm not sure how much of a achievement that was.. I was one of three guys on the team that got drafted that year and one of them was a guy we called "E4". You can guess what that means..

[billchao]

Once I knocked over two targets in one of those baseball throwing carnival games with a single ball and won a goldfish.

[nevets88]

I am not athletic at all. I got down to a sub 19 5K. That's all I got.

[mcanadiens]

I'm as athletic as a wet sock, so nothing at any kind of really competitive level.

1) Softball

2) First Base

3) After baseball in my younger days, the non-varsity track athletes mostly played slow-pitch softball in the summers. The one bit of skill I did have was hitting singles and for the five years or so that I played, I averaged .750. Only slow-pitch so It was always easy for me to find the weak link and hit a pitch where it needed to go. 

 

Edited February 27, 2018 by mcanadiens

[Piz]

Swimming for five years (1969 - 1974).  Water is thicker than air.

[Nutsmacker]

1) Lacrosse

2) Midfield

3) Always a baseball player growing up with tons of trophies, awards, and accomplishments.  However, the best accomplishment was deciding in my junior year of High School to play Lacrosse instead of Baseball.  Never played before, just picked up the game.  Started off as the 5th line midfield and by the middle of the year I was on the 2nd line middies and played man down defense.  Getting PT was my goal from day 1.  My High School team went on to win the state championship that year and it was the only time that I was on a high school team that won anything.  I wasn't the close to the best player on the team, but within 1 season I was a contributor to a championship and would get a good share of playing time.  It was a great feeling to be a contributor to a top class team.  I played the following year and improved my skills and was on the 1st line but we lost some of are all americans...so we didn't win the state championship again...I did get a few letters from Colleges to come and play Lax at their schools which I never went through with because of various reasons.  But, I was proud of myself to pick up a brand new sport and worked hard to improve to a level where I was a major part of our team.

 

 

[Lihu]

Midnight Lightning V8 rating on Hueco scale. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midnight_Lightning_(bouldering)

Took me over 100+ tries in 10 trips to the valley and I got it by almost pure luck, but I stuck it.

[Golfingdad]

I am one of those "jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none" types guys when it comes to sports.  I can do a lot of thing kind of decently but nothing really stands out.  I have a 279 bowling game to my credit but not a 300.  I was a high school all-star in baseball but never played in college.  I can get down a black diamond run on skis and can cruise down blues on a snowboard.  I can solve a Rubik's cube in under 2 minutes.

My only real "achievement" hasn't come yet but hopefully will in May ... a black belt in karate. 

[Lihu]

18 minutes ago, Golfingdad said:

My only real "achievement" hasn't come yet but hopefully will in May ... a black belt in karate. 

Nice! JKA Shotokan? 

 

[mdl]

I don't have any noteworthy achievements, though I consider myself a good athlete.  Kinda like @Golfingdad.  Baseball and football captain in high school.  Baseball was my best sport, though I was a better pitcher than hitter and I tore my labrum junior year playing football.  I was a league starter sophomore year, and jumped 5+ mph over that season.  I was throwing 80+ with a good 2-seamer and curveball, sitting people down my 16 yo summer season.  Still wish I'd seen where I coulda taken that...

So anyway, I ended up a weak armed D3 outfielder.  I'm a decent but not excellent surfer.  Quite a good skier.  Never done extreme backcountry, but I can't find anywhere off-piste on a resort I don't want to ski.  Decent golfer.  Did a lot of partner acrobatics with my wife until we had a kid.  Progressed to working on, but never mastering, hand to hand, mastering a bunch of other fun tricks on the way.

[Golfingdad]

4 hours ago, Lihu said:

Nice! JKA Shotokan? 

 

No, actually it’s actually an amalgam that our Grand Master put together himself (I think) called Mugen Bujutsu.  I say karate for simplicity but it’s actually a mix of karate, taekwondo, jujitsu, hapkido and kickboxing.

The upside is that you learn a huge variety of stuff, with the obvious downside being that it takes a lot longer to master anything because there is so much material.

The best part, for me, though is that this is something that is (was) so far out of my comfort zone when I started.  Never in a million years would I have considered martial arts or combat sports (we do a lot of sparring :)) something I was even remotely interested in.  I just kind of happened into it but now wouldn’t trade it for anything. :)

[Lihu]

3 hours ago, Golfingdad said:

No, actually it’s actually an amalgam that our Grand Master put together himself (I think) called Mugen Bujutsu.  I say karate for simplicity but it’s actually a mix of karate, taekwondo, jujitsu, hapkido and kickboxing.

The upside is that you learn a huge variety of stuff, with the obvious downside being that it takes a lot longer to master anything because there is so much material.

The best part, for me, though is that this is something that is (was) so far out of my comfort zone when I started.  Never in a million years would I have considered martial arts or combat sports (we do a lot of sparring :)) something I was even remotely interested in.  I just kind of happened into it but now wouldn’t trade it for anything. :)

It’s fun. Kind of like golf for me. Never would have thought I’d be doing it. 

 

[jbishop15]

Not my greatest athletic achievement, but my favorite one: I dunked on some friends while playing basketball. First and last time I've ever been able to do it. That was nine years and about seventy pounds ago! 

Edited February 28, 2018 by jbishop15

[Zekez]

Bowled a 300.

I'have always been a combination of too lazy and unmotivated to achieve any real success in sports.  I definitely had the talent though.