From our other sites
The story
A thread titled “Athletic ability — its value drops the moment you become a working adult” popped up on one of 5ch’s live-commentary boards and drew a wave of responses. Many posters argued that while skill at ball sports and quick reflexes tend to be the yardstick during school years, once you enter the workforce what actually gets valued is stamina, the kind of thing muscle training builds, along with decision-making and communication skills. Others pushed back, pointing out that being athletic overlaps with being quick to judge situations and good at working in groups, so it’s not entirely irrelevant to job hunting or performance reviews — and the debate expanded into a similar standoff over how academic ability should be regarded.
What people said
I didn't take it
Mandatory for me
so being good at basketball or soccer stops mattering
It's actually pretty useful for jobs that require quick judgment and knowing how to work efficiently
Guys who are good at team sports tend to be good at their jobs too
If that's a thing, I'd want to specify it myself
Working adults, it's all just running and muscle training anyway
You build endurance, but that feels different from the stamina you need for work
Your reading comprehension is weak
Nobody said you do muscle training to improve athletic ability — the point is athletic ability becomes unnecessary, and muscle training, which affects your looks and health, is what gets valued instead as a working adult
So even if you were slow at running or useless at ball sports back in school, you can make up for it as an adult with muscle training
What muscle training builds is self-esteem and better eating habits
Also self-discipline and stress management, I guess
I heard this on TV somewhere, maybe that NHK show Gatten or something, can't remember, but elderly people need quick reflexes, not just endurance
Like when you're about to trip, you need to be able to instantly catch yourself with your foot
So apparently for middle-aged and older folks, if you're going to do muscle training, start slow and finish with an all-out, quick burst
Can't even do a backward pull-up on the bars either
But I'm a middle-aged guy who made it big investing (an "okuriabito" — someone whose assets hit 100 million yen)
What a world we live in
I'm decent at ball sports across the board
But I'm broke
Memorization skills are seriously almost useless in actual work
What matters from studying is the habit it builds
When you hit something you don't understand, you properly look it up
And you internalize it until you can explain it to someone else
Mathematical thinking and social studies knowledge do get used though
And to be clear, I mean mathematical thinking, not exam-style math
Muscles built from muscle training seriously don't help with work at all
Processing speed and working memory — abilities built through sports — are still more necessary than that
You don't use muscles or athletic ability at work, right?
That's exactly why I'm saying muscle training alone is enough to catch up in the end
Plenty of them, actually?
Nah, that's a sophistry
Once you're out in the working world, academic ability matters about as much as being good at futsal
Dead serious
Nah, that's a sophistry lol
Once you become a working adult, social skills are everything, and you barely use academic ability or athletic ability anymore
"Social skills" refers to the qualities and abilities needed to interact with others and function smoothly within a group or society. It's not just about getting along with people — it means the ability to live cooperatively, following rules and considering others' feelings.
Yeah, not really a skill the average working adult needs
Quick decision-making, learning by watching — there's actually a lot of overlap between being athletic and the abilities required at work
Dead serious
As a working adult, like 90% of what you use is communication skills and raw intelligence that has nothing to do with studying
The type of working adult who goes around saying "academic ability is unnecessary!"
Probably doesn't have much of a job to show for it
It's a classic job-hunting cliché too
Like, "In high school I was on the basketball team! We made it to the regional tournament, and thanks to the bond with my teammates I even served as captain, so I'm confident in my ability to lead a team!" — that kind of thing
Right, right
Even my great-grandpa broke a bone
That's not athletic ability — that's a muscle strength and bone density issue
Being good at driving and being athletic are two different things
No matter how good a driver you are, you can't stop a big truck from rear-ending you
Isn't driving basically mostly athletic ability though?
Spatial awareness, sense of speed, dynamic visual acuity, efficiently allocating attention, concentration, stamina
What people normally mean by "good at driving" is almost entirely technique and experience
No matter how athletic you are, if you personally lack the technique you'll still be bad at it
Now, if we're talking about the level of winning races, sure, athletic ability matters too
Put that way, yeah, true
Background and Key Points of the Debate
Throughout the thread, the term “athletic ability” was left ambiguous — never pinned down as coordination, stamina, muscular strength, or decision-making — leading to several moments where posters talked past each other. The point that muscle training doesn’t actually improve “athletic ability” itself (post 14) and the point that muscle training has become the thing valued in place of athletic ability (post 24) are addressing entirely different questions, and the back-and-forth over driving skill (posts 87, 90, 94) likewise mixes talk of technique and experience with talk of physical traits like spatial awareness and dynamic visual acuity. The handling of mandatory college P.E. also varies by school, which is reflected in the early exchange where one poster says it was “mandatory” and another says they “didn’t take it.” The claim that academic ability is unnecessary also drew pushback along the lines of “sounds like someone without much of a job” — worth noting that the thread as a whole never actually converged on the idea that either athletic ability or academic ability is “unnecessary for working adults.”
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Nanimo Jikkyo G) thread “Athletic ability — it instantly becomes a low-value trait the moment you become a working adult.”
Leave a Reply