Originally Posted by
mstateglfr
Ok, so one of my examples is good for 2 decades past 'school years' based on your estimate. There are tons of men's leagues where I grew up, and many are specifically 40+.
But either way, the point was that there are a lot of 'school years' sports that people can continue to participate well after their school years are over.
Again- running, swimming, tennis, volleyball, golf, cycling, basketball, softball- all these can be played for a long time past school years. How many decades they can be enjoyed is obviously dependent on how each of us ages.
Sure, but some sports are just inherently more accessible to older people. I do quite a few Sportive/GF cycling events and there are a lot of people in their 40s, 50s and 60s. Quite a few into their 70s too. Swimming, tennis and certainly golf are popular with older people too. I just thought soccer was the odd one out in your list. Maybe it's different in the US, where soccer has become much more popular in recent years. Perhaps older guys taking it up for the first time? Over here in the UK, guys typically play soccer into their 20s and 30s and then move on to other less damaging sports in their 40s. Road cycling has become very popular in the last decade with the active 40+ crowd. I'm pretty sure they outnumber the younger guys, which is definitely not the case with soccer!