I'm really terrible at sports too, that's why I went to TPS. 
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USAF Enlisted Pilots, The Right Stuff, Stolen Bikes, AIC, and SWO pipe dreams.
- Thread starter Farva01
- Start date
The annual AIR-5.1 kickball game is an amazing display of non-athleticism.I'm really terrible at sports too, that's why I went to TPS.
Sports = better hand-eye coordination. That's why I included playing video games too. Better hand-eye coordination = better at flying airplanes.
Our job requires some level of brains, and hand eye coordination. We aren't all Rhodes Scholars but we aren't driving dump trucks either. A good balance is what makes a good Naval Aviator.
That's some of it, and it's an important part, but there's a big psych aspect of this too. People who gravitate to dynamic sports tend to do better in a dynamic cockpit. The kind of person who freezes when you throw them the ball (or chokes when they have to take a shot), they'll tends to do that in the cockpit too.
A certain physical fearlessness is good but there can be too much of a good thing- Sometimes the kids who played contact sports are a little too fearless in basic formation (ha ha, but I can tell you stories...), who are bad in the landing pattern or behind the boat--but don't realize how close to death they keep putting themselves or maybe just don't care--or the ones who off themselves doing things like setting personal land speed records on a motorcycle, or...
This isn't a hard and fast thing either. There are outliers- you can probably find a few good pilots who get flustered going up to bat in a slow pitch beer ball game.
Yup.
All the on wings who took a step forward with their right foot while throwing me a ball with their right hand were a real joy.
I got paid to teach hand-eye coordination for a couple years. It was fun.
I got paid to teach hand-eye coordination for a couple years. It was fun.
Hello, nice to meet you. I am laughably bad at softball, basketball, and pretty much every other sport that involves a ball, with the notable (and inexplicable) exception of beer pong. Doesn't seem to have slowed my flying career though, and I do see a lot of value in practiced hand/eye coordination.
If being good at sports could be proven to be an indicator of success in the cockpit then I'd think we'd see it as a harder requirement. But we don't and I doubt that the irrefutable hard data is there to show that it guarantees success. More often than not the guys that are better are those who know how to socially handle a bunch of Type As. That can come from some sports but it's not a guarantee (dated reference , but no one wants Terrel Owens).
I think one that is often overlooked is playing a musical instrument. I recently spent some time taking guitar lessons and that gave me first helmet fire I've had in a long time and reminded me a lot of initial contacts.
I think one that is often overlooked is playing a musical instrument. I recently spent some time taking guitar lessons and that gave me first helmet fire I've had in a long time and reminded me a lot of initial contacts.
A lot of learning to fly and learning tactics reminded me of similar lines of thinking to skills I learned in band and choir growing up. Despite not being a sport, music can still involve teamwork, mastering an individual role, and an organized way of interpreting and translating information into action in a way that's not necessarily intuitive. It can also foster a healthy sense of competition, similar to sports. Sports are probably more commonly used as an indicator because it's almost universal for kids to play sports growing up.
Yep, I'm a nerd, and it's worked out pretty well so far.
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Sometimes it's the little things, like jamming on the brakes at the bottom of the little hill only to bog down taxiing up the little hill two seconds later. Did you never, ever ride a bike, bro?? Gravity? Hello McFly!
These days, I wonder if assuming bike-riding experience growing up is a valid assumption.
Hello, nice to meet you. I am laughably bad at softball, basketball, and pretty much every other sport that involves a ball, with the notable (and inexplicable) exception of beer pong. Doesn't seem to have slowed my flying career though, and I do see a lot of value in practiced hand/eye coordination.
This gives me hope that I'll be successful!
Generally not around Marines, they'll steal your bike . . .
FIFY
Very old AWs inside joke, regarding a deployment Brett did to Iwakuni as a JO, and alleged larceny of his mode of transportation by a Marine.
Or, if not larceny, at least wrongful appropriation . . .
It certainly wasn't alleged, I was in the Prowler squadron that relieved his and we suffered from the same affliction. Apparently it hasn't gotten any better as the years have gone by either, I talked to a KC-130 pilot a few months ago about it and he said bike theft had reached new levels of stupid there.