Many years ago, in my adolescence and when I was a mere teenager mainly in high school. There were two popular sports I practiced in which I was quite good. And when I say I was quite good, I mean I stood out a bit more than average. And these sports were soccer and volleyball.

And in both sports I was always part of the official team of the school, high school or institute where I studied. Being me one of the main members of the team that represented the institution in the intercollegiate, interregional and national competitions for which we qualified in both sports. There were a few of us who were regarded as indispensables.

Although perhaps I should clarify that my constant practice, my passion and glory days in soccer rather were more during the period when I was younger in elementary school. A younger period, when I was also playing volleyball, and I continued to play it for a long time without stopping, both throughout high school and even at university as one of the stellars of the team for many years.

But only volleyball. We could say that I had already abandoned soccer a bit when I entered high school. Among other things, because I studied primary school in Catholic schools run by priests who were more fanatical of soccer and gave more importance to soccer among the sports we practiced to represent the school in competitions. And also because at that time it was much easier and more common to find multiple and diverse professional soccer fields around the city to practice the sport properly.

But anyway, for the purposes of this post, what I really wanted to tell you is... that little by little, over time and after leaving university, I also abandoned volleyball as a constant sport in my life. Since once I had entered adult life, working life and even married life, I had much less time to practice these or any sport consistently or professionally. Except for the rare occasions when I was invited to play with the university's official team in the occasional friendly matches between former members of the official team.

Nonetheless, and now in that new stage of my life, there was actually a great sport that I had also been practicing since I was a child in which I excelled very quickly and spectacularly at a professional and international level. And although it wasn't as physically demanding as the previous two and it wasn't a team sport, I was still very successful. Because for this one I did have much more time available to practice it.

It's a shame this wasn't a sport that the priests encouraged or promoted. Nor did the academic authorities at the high school or university where I studied. Because most likely we would have won every competition where we would have participated in. And yeah, perhaps because this is a rather solitary, individual sport that is not usually played in teams, perhaps that's the only reason why neither the priests nor the others promoted and encouraged it. This sport that I still practice, although today not as much anymore, is pool (billiard) in its diverse versions & variations.

Uhm, but let's see. I think I've rambled too much to tell you what I really wanted to share in this post.

In the title of this post I said that "at my age" I may not practice these sports anymore. Right? But, but what sports are we talking about? ¿Huh? I don't think I've even mentioned them yet! So I suppose you'll want to keep reading to find out. Right?

Okay, okay, but to make a long story short, let me just say that by the time I was already a married adult with a demanding job and little time available to practice sports, apart from pool, I indeed have had the opportunity to practice perhaps a trio of other new sports that made me remind of my childhood skills and which are precisely the ones that I think I will never be able to practice again, unfortunately.

And these are...

«Bossaball»

«Sepak Takraw»

«Teqball»