What Next?

For the choice section of Independent Study, I decided to do the "What Next?" option. My top three activities that I wish to pursue in the future would be volleyball, tennis, or biking.

I personally believe that volleyball would be a perfect way for me to keep myself in shape after I am done with baseball. I think this is the case because it is really good for physical fitness. Volleyball requires you to be athletic at all times, and most importantly, it requires you to be agile. Volleyball players must run and jump on almost every play, and there are rarely plays where a player is not involved. There is one issue with this plan however, because generally speaking, volleyball is not the most accessible sport. Though it is more accessible that a sport like baseball, it would be very difficult to find a place to play once out of college. This also leads to the problem where volleyball is a sport that requires a team, and an opponent. The need for more players to even play the sport creates issues with availability, and ultimately, the accessibility of the sport. Volleyball, as a sport, shares very few similarities with baseball. The only similarities that I noted were hand-eye coordination, and agility. If I wish to play volleyball in the future, I would need to refine my ability to jump high quickly, and especially learn how to hit the ball properly, though I have been able to do this well in the past while playing. This is why I think volleyball is a good option for my future.

Though I do believe volleyball is perfect for keeping me in shape, biking would be another activity that would pair well with volleyball to ensure I am getting all the exercise I need. Biking would fulfill all of my requirements, especially those involving muscular stamina. This activity is even better for me that volleyball. It is more intense, and the best part, is that it is even more accessible. All I need is a bike, which I already have. All I would need to do to get my daily exercise from biking would just come from about an hour, or even less depending on how hard I am going. Biking is a great idea for another reason, which is that it takes no skill, besides the ability to ride a bike, which I can do. One problem though, is that biking shares literally nothing with baseball, and I would need to completely recondition my body to be able to bike a good pace for exercise.

The third option for me would be tennis. Tennis is a great sport for exercise as there is lots of physical fitness necessary to be good. By playing tennis, I would have to push myself to be better, and ultimately, become more fit. The nice thing with tennis is that it is not required to be played with anyone else, as you can just use any wall as a rebounder to hit balls off of. Tennis is also a very easy sport to transition to, because you have to be ready to make moves just like those made in baseball while on defense. It is also a good transition because swinging a tennis racket is very similar to swinging a baseball bat, as the angle that you swing at, and the motion in general, are very similar. Tennis would keep my muscle endurance up, as well as my agility. It would be even easier to use tennis to stay in shape if I could find a group who plays. This would allow me to play against real people, but they would also help keep myself in check, and make sure i'm putting in the work,