Sharp End Athletics

Elegy For a Gym I Almost Knew:
I was never picked for sports when I was a kid. I’ve never been a fan of baseball (unless you count the movie ‘Bull Durham’), or regularly televised team sporting events. I even got a black belt in a martial art that I can’t use.
Despite that, and despite Sharp End being a facility geared towards targeted training for pro and semi pro athletes in a variety of sporting disciplines — it is probably the only gym I have ever been to that [cue heartfelt orchestral string swells] — totally got me.
I was only a member for one month, and now it is closing.
(Ok a little bird tells me it is moving downtown, but that is outside my workout jurisdiction.)
Sharp End’s been around a couple of years. It didn’t occur to me to look into becoming a member as I drove past it in my neighborhood, because I figured they didn’t want someone with a busted body working out with the seemingly sporty elite. But there was something for me in there, besides the usual stuff I look for (basic barbell racks, variety of free weights, a good amount of safe space for stretching, not overly crowded). Besides the trainers whose experience was wayyyy higher than that your average corporate gym, should I have needed it. And besides being relatively inexpensive.
Yes, that something was: everybody in there seemed like they really cared about what they were doing. I got the feeling that these were people like me who were thinking «anything worth doing is worth doing well» — AND — not necessarily worth doing with a ton of yelling and grunting (though that may have happened during jiujitsu classes if I had seen any).
Perhaps you’d be intimidated being surrounded by people who can physically outperform you. But one of the first things I learned about hanging out with people who are great at shit is, if you practice an art with people around you who are better at it, and who care about doing it correctly — you, too, are going to improve.
Holy crap, Sharp End. Another case of me finding the perfect [insert thing you long for] in my life, the second time this year, and the second time I just scratched the surface of it, AND the second time said thing is going away.
I was going to excuse your lack of air-​conditioning, because working out in a giant 90 degree warehouse with pro athletes made me feel like training in Rocky I. (I know your place was better looking, so I took a few photos I will post after I am done sniffling).
But instead I am going to wear this mournful pout.
Requisite inspirational sports quote —
Annie Savoy: «Well, actually, nobody on this planet ever really chooses each other. I mean, it’s all a question of quantum physics, molecular attraction, and timing. Why, there are laws we don’t understand that bring us together and tear us apart. It’s like pheromones. You get three ants together, they can’t do dick. You get 300 million of them, they can build a cathedral.»