What Your Favorite Sport Says About You

Sports can be a great hobby. Whether you’re watching a game or getting out there and playing one, it’s a terrific way to pass the time. A lot of people live for the next event, match, or tournament. For them, it’s not just a pastime, but a way of life.

It also turns out you can tell a lot about a person by their favorite sport. Here are just a few insights…

• Baseball This is a game of anticipation. There are those who find it boring to watch; waiting around as the pitcher decides when, where, and how to throw the ball, and the batters line up in turn to try to hit it. But there’s much more to it than that. It’s not fast and frantic, like basketball or hockey, but if you’re truly invested, the time spent waiting can have you on the edge of your seat. Once called “America’s national pastime,” liking this sport makes you a thinker and planner, not too quick to act, but always ready when the moment is right. You like facts and statistics, but that doesn’t stop you from being a bit superstitious as well. You probably also like mysteries and suspense films, because you know the thrill of anticipation can sometimes be the best part.

• Football While baseball used to be the most popular sport in the country, football has since taken its place. If you’re a football fan, chances are you’re loyal to a fault, spending every Sunday, Monday night, and even Thursday night rooting for your team. And of course, Super Bowl Sunday is sacred, a holiday enjoyed with friends, family, and food, right up there with Christmas and Easter. If you’re male, you may have a “macho” streak as well, with a need to impress your friends or seem cool when part of a group. But more and more, the jock stereotype of football fans is disappearing, and it’s becoming more universal. You’re an everyman, in the best sense of the word.

• Basketball Fast-paced and high-energy, there’s never a dull moment in this game. You’re a quick thinker who needs to be challenged or stimulated whenever possible. While football and baseball fans tend to root for the team, your loyalty is likely more to your favorite player. That’s not to say that you’re not thrilled when the group does well, and always ready to celebrate victory. But when you talk about the highlights of the game, your focus will most likely be on LeBron or Durant, rather than the Cavaliers or the Thunder.  Maybe it’s your own sense of individualism, or your appreciation of how each unique cog combines to propel a team to success.

• Tennis Largely underappreciated in the U.S., tennis takes a great deal more skill and athleticism than most people realize. It’s fast-paced, like basketball, but also a game of planning and strategy, like baseball. If you like this sport, chances are you care less about what’s popular or talked about and more about what appeals to you personally. You know what you like, and what you like is tennis—even if you sometimes have a hard time finding others to enjoy it with.

• Golf Chances are if you watch golf, it’s because you also play it yourself. It’s less a sport of athleticism and more of thinking. You’re an analytical person, carefully weighing the pros and cons of the 9-iron vs. the 3-wood for this particular shot, or exactly how hard to hit the ball to get it out of the sand trap. It’s also a game of relaxation and leisure, both of which you likely value highly. Even if you’re not especially good at it, there’s nothing better than spending an afternoon on the back nine.

• Wrestling There are those who wouldn’t consider traditional televised wrestling, like the WWE, to be a real sport. It’s entirely scripted and staged, after all. But even so, the athleticism and physicality are undeniable. Still, what you like about it is the spectacle: the faces and heels taunting each other, breaking the rules and one another’s bones in the most elaborate ways possible. It may all be planned out in advance, but you don’t know what the outcome will be, and that’s the appeal. You never know what’s going to happen next or who’s going to show up, but you know it’ll make for great entertainment. If you like wrestling, you like life with a healthy dose of fun and unpredictability, even insanity. But deep down, it gives you comfort that in the end, everything will still go according to plan.

Whether you’re a casual spectator, a die-hard fan, or a player yourself, your favorite sport is an important part of your life. The way you choose to enjoy it says a lot about who you are as a person. Sports can be a great insight into the soul, not to mention wildly entertaining.