The INTJ Mentality Regarding Sports

Hey, everyone.

I know I mentioned writing a rant about INTJs and friends/-ships, but like I said in last week's post on socio- and psychopaths, I can't remember for the life of me what the point to that rant was supposed to be. So instead I'm going to write a piece on sports and INTJs. What INTJs think about sports, if we do sports, if we're any good at them, and if we do sports, why do we do them?

But before we get into that, I want to remind you all of my Patreon. If you enjoy my content, I would like to ask that you consider becoming my patron. $1 a month would certainly help by leaps and bounds whereas $5 could work miracles. That's only .17 cents a day.

Now then...

I realize that this topic of INTJs and sports does come somewhat out of left field. Why in the hell would I want to write it? I'm not responding to someone else's post. Well, let me tell you a story.

A Story...

A couple of weeks ago, my friend John had his Dirty 30 birthday party at a bowling alley in St. Clair Shores. I've been bowling before. I'm not great, but I'm no stranger to strikes and spares. During my Vector Marketing/Cutco days, some of my fondest memories were going bowling late at night with some of my co-workers after a "phone jam" or weekly meeting. So, going to my friend's bowling party, I've got something to prove to myself and to the others in attendance, that being that Bryan C. Laesch can bowl.

I got my butt beat pretty bad in the first game, and I was not happy. I scored under 100. One of the guys bowling with us, the spouse of the sister of a guy I went to high school with, apparently does a lot of bowling. He had two balls, two gloves, his own shoes, and a bag for all his goodies. I had researched some bowling tips before I went and I had made a flippant comment after a strike that it was better to look at the floor (the arrows) than it was to look at the pins. Well, said guy gave me some free advice for the second game. He told me I was absolutely right and that I should line up my right shoulder with the arrows and then finally with the pins. He also said I had the best form of anybody there except for himself, which felt pretty good. But anyway, I took his advice, and the strikes and spares started to pile up. That second game I did something like 115 or 119. That was a great feeling.

The rest of the night wasn't anything too special. We tried to let some of the other party-goers take a turn, but they weren't interested so it was just me and the guy I went to high school with for the third-and-a-half games we played after that, except this time, I was bowling for two people and my personal score did suffer for it. But there were plenty of strikes and spares to go around. And man was I sore the next day! I felt it mostly in my legs.

So, that's why I decided to write this post on INTJs and sports--to explore the INTJ mentality regarding sports. Let's get into the meat of this topic.

What Do INTJs Think of Sports?

We don't typically think of INTJs as being sporty people. MBTI in general doesn't give real insight into the sporty or athletic aptitudes of the types, but INTJs are typically looked at like the Dr. Frankensteins of the world: we keep to ourselves, in our studies or our laboratories, and study the mysteries and complexities of the universe, sometimes committing heinous acts against nature in the process.

This really doesn't say "football scholarship" or "all-star material."

Despite that though, INTJs do have a reputation for being jacks-of-all-trades. Hell, I used that same philosophy when I came up with my twitter account name: BryanofallTrade. But we tend to throw around that term without ever really thinking about what it means. It basically means that INTJs can do everything. Not necessarily well or that we're the best, but we can do anything and know a little bit about everything. You'd be surprised what I know about women's attire. Especially lingerie.

But this jack-of-all-trades attitude extends into the wide world of sports. While I by no stretch of the imagination consider myself sporty or athletic, I've always felt that I have a working knowledge of and ability with most sports. I played baseball for two years when I was kid (I wasn't any good), I always did well in gym, I had three years of karate, my grandfather took me to a driving range a lot, I played HS soccer Freshman year (I wasn't any good), some of my fondest memories involve playing backyard basketball by myself, and I've recently taken quite the shine to archery and sport whip cracking. Plus, and I know these aren't technically sports, but I'm not half bad at pool, I've been weight lifting to get into better shape, I rollerblade, when I lose more weight I'm going to ride my bike more, and I'm self taught at HEMA.

I'm not that good.

So I'm not physically challenged. But getting back to the question at hand, what do INTJs in general think of sports? Well, we're not against sports. We have a sort of laissez-faire attitude about sports. Sports doesn't bother us, and we don't bother sports. But generally speaking, we're not big into sports. The reason for this is because most sports are team activities. Football, baseball, soccer, basketball, lacrosse, kickball, volleyball, hockey, ultimate frisbee--while these activities are fun to indulge in by yourself, the real fun to be had in them is with teams. And being INTJs, the obvious problem here should be obvious.

This team aspect is likely the single biggest reason as to why most INTJs are not into (most) sports. We don't have a lot of friends to begin with, and we're not the sort to invite ourselves or even accept an invitation to a pick-up game. Other reasons would include price, such as with leagues, equipment, and the like, (personal) time, and the fact that we don't like watching sports. Well, I don't as anytime I watch sports, I just end up wanting to play myself, so that doesn't do me any good.

Are INTJs Any Good at Sports?

Well, I've already answered this above by admitting that we're jack-of-all-trades. But how is it that we are decently good at sports if we don't actively pursue them? Well, INTJs may not be the physical sort, but we are well-aware of everything around us, including our own bodies. We know how they move and how to move them in order to get the result we want. And due to our studious nature and photographic memories, we can watch a player demonstrate proper form once and duplicate it almost perfectly. We also absorb theory like a sponge, and in a bid to do well or better at something, we will of course explore the theory behind a technique and see if we get favorable results. So, in theory, INTJs are at least decently good at most sports.

Why Do INTJs Do Sports?

But the real question is why do INTJs do sports? There are many acceptable reasons why someone may indulge in athletics: fun and diversion, to hang with friends, to excel at a skill, get a scholarship, be rich, and/or just because they like the activity. Many of these reasons are shared by INTJs--we're not that different from everyone else. We do put on our pants like everyone else does--both legs at the same time by jumping into them as they are suspended from the ceiling. But there is one other reason why people, and INTJs included, may do sports. Perhaps you picked up on it from my story above: to prove something to ourselves and others.

I personally don't consider myself a competitive person. In fact, I try not to be competitive, but let's face it, we all want to be winners and most of us are envious of them. I try to shrug off the envy because I know I'm likely to get stomped and I don't want to deal with that disappointment, so that's why I don't bother in the first place. But if your sh*t performance is out in the open for all to see, you may as well try your damnedest and prove to yourself that you have some ability.

I don't find anything wrong with this self competition, or even the subtle and farther reaching competition with everyone else. But there are some people, like my friend Jessica, who don't seem to understand it. 'Course though, she is athletic. She runs all the time. That includes 5K's, so perhaps she doesn't need to prove anything to herself as she already has. The other side of it is that it could just be natural male competitiveness. You know, the stone age principle of the strongest, fastest, smartest competitor getting to sleep with the most bang-able women without any need for a real personality. But, would INTJs allow themselves to be so base as to be influenced by a Paleolithic urge? ...Probably. It might be old as hell, but it is an essential piece of evolution.

However, might there be something else at work here? Something specifically related to INTJs? At first glance, I did suspect that it was our inferior function, Extraverted Sensing (Se), at work. After all, in my response to "The Top 7 Gift Ideas for INTJs" one of the gift ideas was stuff like wine, coffee, and chocolate as a means to please or indulge an INTJ's Se. So, I thought that that they may be a possibility, but there is a problem with that theory: sports are not just about the tactile aspect. There is a lot of strategy and theory that goes into athletics, not to mention the validation and self-worth that come from a well-played game.

So I decided to look at the INTJ function stack (Ni, Te, Fi, Se) to see if anything came to mind and I did indeed have a brain wave. I wondered if the reason why INTJs indulge in sports has anything to do with the possibility of discovering something new (Ni), coupled with the theory of how to do well (Te), along with the desire to feel good about ourselves (Fi), hitched up to the physical experience of actually having proof that we're skilled (Se). Looking from this perspective, sports become a functional stack orgy, for lack of a better term. Or, in more eloquent words, sports allows an INTJ to use all of his functions, and an INTJ wants to use all of his functions to their fullest potential, hence resulting in his intense self-competition. Of course though, that's just a theory.

A Game Theory!
Wait! No--it's an INTJ theory.

 

Conclusion

In the end, the INTJ mentality toward sports is mostly ambivalent. We aren't really for it, and we aren't really against it. Given the right motivation, we could come up with plenty of arguments both for and against the practice of sports. But there's no denying that INTJs do possess some elementary skill at athletics, and with training, we could become quite competent. And really, who doesn't like making the basket swish, seeing the ball fly over the stands, seeing the arrow hit the bull's eye, or knocking down all the pins with one throw, and knowing that you personally are responsible for making that happen?

Alright, you guys, that's it for now. I'm sorry I didn't do a second article for last week. Sh*t happens, like laziness. Although, if I had some patrons, I might be more willing to stay on the ball. Hint, hint...

But anyway, this week is a little different from most weeks. We are currently in Holy Week which means, among other things, that because Holy Thursday to the Holy Saturday Vigil Mass is a time of great solemnity and sacrifice, I will be giving up video games and frivolous videos on YouTube in honor of JC's crucifixion. Which means I'll be focusing on my writing to fill up my time. So, hopefully I will have a second INTJ article out this week. It won't be a serious article, rather something I'll write for fun, but it'll be about the perfect color to describe the INTJ personality. That should be enlightening. But until then...

Keep writing, my friends.

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