Sports movies can captivate and inspire us at anytime, but they are especially potent when we are 12. Our kiddo selves don’t pick apart obvious plot twists, feel manipulated by overly dramatic musical anthems or stop to wonder about the improbability of certain scenarios. “Vision Quest” is a movie that I loved as a much younger, aspiring athlete and I hoped with the innocent heart of a child that my old favorite had not aged as badly as an old wrester’s knees.
     I’m happy to report that Vision Quest is everything a 1980’s sporty melodrama should strive to be and more. It takes place in Spokane, Washington and stars a very young and super fit Modine in one of his first leading roles. Modine plays Louden Swain, an unassuming 18-year-old who wants take on “Shute”, the state’s best wrester. Shute is rumored to eat kitten ears for breakfast and likes to train while balancing telephone poles on his back. As Louden’s wise short-order cook mentor says so well, “This might be the sort of move that a reasonable man would want to avoid.”
     Indeed the odds are stacked against our questor as he tries to lose an obscene amount of weight (to make the 168-pound category), dodge the advances of a gay tai chi master, score the hot she-drifter who happens to have moved into his bedroom (see above for improbable scenarios) and get his article on the clitoris finished for the school paper; all while preparing for the wrestling match of a lifetime.
     Luckily, Louden does not have to do it all alone. A quirky cast of characters and some of the most inspiring hair music of the 80’s are there to help him through the rough patches. We can’t help but be lifted as Survivor and Louden, sporting his shiny silver and red rubber track suit, run together through the dark city streets. Heat stroke, dehydration and metabolic failure be damned! Together we can do this.
     The wresting sequences are beautifully shot and do justice to the incredible strength and fitness of any solid high school wrestler. These guys (and now girls) demonstrate the awesomeness that can be achieved with basic equipment like a jump rope, a pull up bar and a person’s own weight (check out the scene of them doing sit-ups on each other’s backs). These are functional athletes who balance strength, flexibility, endurance and the confidence to wear man leotards while going through puberty.
     I’ll skip being tossed like a sack of potatoes on a regular basis, but it is important for all of us to be fit enough to avoid and recover from falls. And working out with a purpose and a vision, it sure beats the alternative. Training like a wrestler is not a bad idea, just skip the singlet and cauliflower ears.

The Downsides of Passion

Are you lucky enough to have found your soul-sport? A soul-sport is the activity that you would choose before any other and that you feel good, strong and confident doing. Other signs of a soul sport is thinking about it when you aren’t doing it, lusting after the latest equipment and irritating other people with your devotion.Finding a soul-sport, much like finding a soul-mate, is a wonderful thing; but you should be aware of potential problems that can be created by your devotion.

Too Much Lovin’

We all agree that exercise is a good and healthy pursuit. It strengthens our bodies, clears our minds and gets us out of the house. Troubles can sneak into paradise though, when we focus exclusively on a single activity. Too much of anything can lead to muscle imbalances, chronic and degenerative injuries and mental exhaustion. The sports kingdom is full of examples of fitness passions gone wrong; runners with wrecked knees and frustrated doctors who won’t stop running or strong backed swimmers with brittle shoulders. Any activity practiced exclusively without a counter balancing strength and flexibility program can lead to bodily breakdown.

But You Said Forever!

A soul-sport, just like a mate, can leave us at anytime. Aging, injuries or unforeseen circumstances can take away the sport that you love. Then what? If a person loves one sport to the exclusion of all others and it is taken away their sporty heart will be broken and their daily spirits crushed.That’s why it is important to diversity your fitness life before its too late. Learn to swim, even though you love to run. Try out rollerblading even though rugby makes your heart race. Diversify your fitness portfolio so that if your soul sports get wrenched from you bosom you will have something to fall back on.A Happy EndingIts time to face the reality that the sports we love change our bodies for the better and the worse. With a little research or the help of a good trainer you can learn to balance and injury proof your physique and keep enjoying your favorite activity for as long as possible. Cross training is the best way to create balance and ensure that your fitness life can survive any circumstance that life throws your way.What a Cute Couple!Here are a few examples of sports that compliment each other and help to create balance.Yoga or Tai Chi with just about any other sport
Running/Swimming
Running/Rowing
Cycling/Swimming
Tennis/Aqua Aerobics
Volleyball/Rowing

I got goose bumps when I saw Abe Lincoln’s ball at the Oregon Historical Society’s exhibit of sport’s greats. It was made of deep brown leather, worn dark and shiny from presidential sweat and pounding. The famous ball is now retired and rests in a protective Plexiglas case, never to bounce again. That part was a little sad.

So what did Abe Lincoln do with his brown leather ball? Turns out he loved “fives” a game much like modern day handball or racquetball without the racquets. In this game teams of two used speed, strength and guile to try and slap the ball against the wall and out of the lunging reach of the other team. For a time starved up and coming politician the game was very convenient and could be played against walls and the sides of buildings.

Though by all accounts Mr. Lincoln was a workaholic before the word was coined, he loved to sneak out during the day for a game of “fives”. Recalled Dr. Preston H. Balhace, “When Mr. Lincoln went to the printing office for a talk or to get a lot of newspapers he often joined the boys in a game of “fives”…which furnishes a very active and exciting contest.”

Court Clerk Thomas W.S Kidd also watched Lincoln tear it up on the court, “(He was) as vigorously engaged in the sport as though his life depended on it. He would play until nearly exhausted.” According to Kidd Lincoln played “not only for the sport afforded but for the better reasons that they gave him recreation from office labor and the menial toil he made in the studious preparations for his professional duties.

Abe Lincoln, arguably one of the greatest Presidents that ever lived, a man whose day to day stresses were Atlas like, recognized the importance of physical activity and the incredible release it provides from the grind.

And if the modern wage slave sometimes feel cramped, tired and in the mood to knock off people’s hats after a long day at the office imagine what if felt like for Mr. Lincoln. He was a man who came later to the relatively sedentary pursuits of law and politics and grew up splitting wood, farming, wrestling and generally running amok in the wide open country.

So the next you feel the burdens of the work a day world piling up and the awful fatigue of office toil do like Mr. Lincoln did. Find some friends and a ball that bounces and have a game. If President Lincoln can make time to work out in his busy country uniting, slavery busting schedule to play so must you!