I have another question for you all. I am 35. Still wear the same pants I wore back near the end of high school. Still look the same as I did a decade prior. Got a couple grey hairs in my chest fur… And that is it. Everyone told me I would be in pain in my thirties and wouldn’t want to do anything, but I have just much energy as I did when I was a kid. I don’t look or feel any different from when I was in my late twenties.
I go out with several buddies, some with kids, some without. Same deal. They haven't slowed down at all. We have discussed this a few times bar hopping. Brought it up to some old men in their fifties who... Honestly, I wouldn't have guessed they were in their fifties. Forties tops. Blew my mind, the way they drink and party.
My question is… Why is this an American myth? Feminists being resentful of men aging gracefully? The r select being angry at the k select? Endomorphs raging at ectomoporhs and mesomorphs walking through less affected by time? Everyone throughout my life has told me when you hit your thirties you will be in pain after waking up sleeping on the wrong side of the bed. You can't drink as much. Your dick won't be hard. Where does this shit come from?
Professional sports give a pretty clear example of IRL physiological aging curves.
In baseball, American teams can sign Dominican teens when they turn 16. A lot of them have already been groomed & trained by shady agents called "buscones" who plucked pre-teens showing potential from their homes and have housed them in dormitory-style academies for years hoping to cash in on them once they sign at 16.
American teams tend to leave their Dominican signees on the island until they turn 18-20 to play in domestic leagues because they are considered too raw to compete against even the slightly older American-born players on the mainland in the lower levels of the minor leagues with some HS & college experience.
The American minor leagues were revamped after COVID, as the entire system was bought out under a hostile takeover by Major League Baseball to reduce costs & gain more control. They subsequently slashed the number of minor league advancement levels from around 7-8 to about 4. Players used to proceed at one minor league level a year while the phenoms could sometimes do 2-3.
So an American HS senior or a Dominican fresh off the island would start at the lowest rung at age 18. They would usually take 4-7 years to climb their way through the minors and the attrition system that it entails.
College seniors drafted after they finish NCAA ball arrive in the minors at 22 or 23. They are already considered geriatric. They are expected to tear through the minors immediately because their development window is so small. A base prospect is considered a bust if they aren't playing in the big leagues by 25. Players 26 and above are considered non-prospects if they haven't established themselves because their developmental age window is considered closed and they lose almost all of their market value.
Once in a generation phenoms can sometimes make the big leagues at 20. Some other very good players debut between 21-24. Most of the average players debut at 25 & after because it takes them so long to proceed to the top of the minor league gauntlet against their competition.
Baseball analytics suggest that athletic skills like speed & defense are essentially at their peak the very second that a player debuts. A lot of players lose speed or defensive skill even by their late 20s, no longer stealing bases at will or losing a step in the field on defense.
Power sometimes develops later as players mature and put on muscle. It's not unusual for skinny, fast, raw players to suddenly start hitting the ball harder and hitting more homeruns between 25 & 30.
Pitching works much the same way. Sometimes teams draft a high schooler or sign a Dominican a lean, lanky teen throwing 91-92 mph "projecting" that he may add a few ticks of velo as he matures and fills out with age and better training. But the 22 & 23 year old College seniors they draft are essentially already considered finished products & over-the-hill with what-you-see-is-what-you-get.
There are older guys in their 30s still throwing hard (sometimes pushing 40) with advances in training and technology. But in general, pitching velocity in baseball is a young man's game where the young 20 something Nuke Laloosh types enter the league throwing thunder from their rocket launcher God gifted them while most of the 30+ veteran types are surviving off guile because injuries & the ravages of time have stolen several ticks of velo from them.
Baseball players, particularly position players, generally start to decline and fall off a cliff by age 30. Players tend to debut in their mid 20s. Teams own their rights for about 6-7 full seasons if they play FT. Thus most players finally reach free agency in their early 30s to get paid.
Almost unanimously, all these players reaching free agency are already past their prime when they start asking for big money on the free market. Most free agent signings tend to be awful deals for the ball clubs because they are paid for their prime production but often start declining in the early years of the deal.
Many of the more mediocre & average players never reach free agency because they are out of the league by year 6-7 when they start to decline.
Bat speed for hitters tends to fall off around age 30. Hitters start having trouble keeping up with high 90s heat from the young guys. They start having to resort to either cheating on high heat by starting their swings early (guessing and committing earlier, making them more susceptible to slower pitches, breaking pitches and discriminating pitches outside the zone), to laying off heat and trying to hit the slower and breaking pitches exclusively or waiting and trying to hit mistake pitches only.
Defense and running speed fall off quickly by age 30. 30+ players rarely steal bases. Defensive metrics usually show as well that they lose a step in the field and almost universally become liabilities to their team. At the very athletic positions like Center Field & Shortstop, players at this age often get moved down the defensive spectrum to less demanding positions.
Catchers often lose arm strength so they start becoming incapable of throwing out baserunners. Catchers also lose all running speed by age 30 or so, so no matter how athletic they were in their 20s, years of crouching for their position all grinds them down to being the slowest runners in the league.
Batting power seems to fair better than other attributes. Power often develops later after age 25. Players in their early 30s often sellout for power over contact or hitting for a high batting average because they've lost bat speed to hit velocity or make quick adjustments. So some players bulk up and try to simply hunt pitcher mistake pitches to pounce on & hit far occasionally.
What's interesting is that eyesight is considered an "old man skill" in baseball and seems relatively well preserved. Older players sometimes begin taking more walks as they become more selective with what they swing at as they lose bat speed and ability to be aggressive. Batting eye/pitch discrimination is a skill that tends to last entire careers well into the late 30s. Sometimes washed up vets have lost bat speed and power, so their only positive contributions offensively to their teams by the end is being selective and getting on base when the pitcher is wild.