Who? Me?

“You’re quite athletic,” my boxing trainer said during one of our sessions. I replied with a sheepish grin. What I didn’t tell him was that I was watching a copious amount of videos online related to boxing and training in between our training sessions.

Of course I was flattered. Athletic would be the last word someone would use to describe me. I hardly play any sport. I used to play some basketball during high school and Taekwondo during college but I was not exceptional.

In fact, I was asthmatic and my father, in his paranoia, made me a sheltered kid. I could not play outdoors for an extended period due to his fear that exhaustion can lead to an asthmatic episode.

I took boxing lessons last year because I was going practically sedentary. I spend more than eight hours online and I was not getting any physical activity. I gained more than 20 pounds in a span of a year and the number of clothes that still fit me was dwindling fast. I’ve always wanted to try boxing and when a gym opened nearby, I was one of the first enrollees. Not that I was readying myself for a fight or something. The first and last time I got into a fight was when I was around 10 years old. I can barely even remember the reason for that.

But what does it exactly mean to be athletic? Again, I don’t think that I embody the definition of the word. Certainly, I have poor endurance because I’m a smoker. I actually quit training because I was not able to bring my endurance up to a satisfactory level and I felt that my lack of progress in that area hampered other aspects of my game. I’d like to think of myself as an ectomorph but I think the more accurate term would be skinny fat. I’ve got relatively long appendages, a definite advantage in the striking arts. But I also have a big midsection. I have a tendency to get fat if I really let myself go with food and lack of activity.

Was my trainer referring to my relatively fast progress? My footwork? If that is the case, can you actually learn and train to be athletic? Or is it more of a natural gift that you either possess or not? I remember coming across a forum thread where the participants were splitting hairs about the definition of athleticism.

Of course, I could have simply asked my trainer but I was too shy to inquire and I just simply resumed hitting the pads. At the end of the day, does it really matter whether I’m athletic or not? The important thing is that you are enjoying and improving in your training.