Ow and ow again. Back from my second week in playing rec volleyball and it went slightly better than the first. My game still sucks, it would possibly come back quicker if I played more that once a week, but I think I played slightly better than last week. My serve is at least coming back, not that IU have a killer jump serve or anything, but I was able to actually see my float serve dance in the air this week, so I know I was at least putting some movement on it.
My receive of serve still sucks though and my hitting isn't much better. In both cases I think I am just too anxious, trying to do too much too quickly and not actually watching the ball. My old volleyball coach would tell me I am not tagging the ball with my brain, which is probably correct, I am in such a hurry to get to my spots that I am getting to them too soon or taking shortcuts, things that hopefully will be fixed through repetition.
That being said, my body is most certainly going to pay for this in the morning. My foot was already throbbing by the time I left. And my shirt was completely drenched with sweat. At one point I dove for a ball and actually left a sizable wet spot on the floor, and not the good kind of wet spot that says I had some fairly decent sex, but rather they type that says you bare pretty out of shape there dude. After playing for a couple hours, I left and walked to the Rite Aid next door, just to get something to drink while I waited for my bus to catch a ride home. I ended up grabbing some iced tea, nothing too heavy and walked across the street to the bus stop, where I sat down on some steps and had some iced tea and a cigarette. I was fine until my bus arrived and my legs were in serious disagreement with the rest of my body about moving forward. I am sure I did something along the Frankenstein like gait in walking to the bus.
On the bus I made a deal with myself that there was no way I was hobbling around the kitchen tonight, so for the first time in what is probably close to a year I stopped by McDonald's for dinner. I can't say as I had a craving for it, it just seemed the easiest place to go on my way back to my apartment. And the time standing in line actually helped in getting my legs more along the lines of functional. Of course now I am sitting down eating, so functionality is probably all but gone at this point, as is my ability to continue this blog. So I am going to call it a night, rest up and attack the page again tomorrow.
It's only week 2 Matt, I'm sure you'll see your game improve over the next few weeks. I used to play way back in high school, absolutely loved it.
ReplyDeleteAs did I for four years and a summer rec league for a couple of years after that (my hometown had an outdoor court with lights, not bad for a redneck town population 350) but enevtually it got away from me. I tried picking it up aagain a couple of years ago with a group at a YMCA in town, but they eventually stopped the program so I was left ball less again as it were. Finally I was putzing around online and ran into a neat thing called Meetup (www.meetup.com) and it gives you a list of different groups that meet in your area, one of which happened to be volleyball, so I joined up and have been following and playing since.
ReplyDeleteI didn't keep up my interest in most sports once I left school, then again by 20 I was already married with a baby and working full time so I really only had time to play tennis & netball socially once a week.
ReplyDeleteBut at school I was right into my sports ( i don't know how I managed to fit it all in really). I was on the school teams for gymnastics, volleyball, basketball, badminton, tennis & girls cricket & rugby. I coached junior basketball as well & played tennis at club level at representative level, ranked in the top 100 junior players in the country.
The place where I live has a basketball court, tennis court and volleyball court. And last week we got a notice they're renovating the volleyball court. This made me wonder...wth is involved there that you need to renovate a volleyball court? Is there some special magic flooring? I mean, its outside and all...hmm...maybe I should go loiter over there and see what I can see
ReplyDeleteDepending on how it is laid out and maintained (how much sand is out, does the court have a border of some sort to help keep sand in, etc.), I know with our sand court in the months where no one used the court we would joke that it would be the area's biggest kitty litter box.
ReplyDeleteLOLOLOL nice...that lends itself to a smell, perhaps I'll wait until it's not 105 degrees outside
ReplyDeleteI use to play beach volley ball - living on an island that was made of sand lead to games that work on sand. My dumbest move was pulling a groin muscle to the point I had a black and blue side from the muscle tear. I was told to take it easy. That worked for a day and I was back out playing volleyball. I was never what I would call good at it but I always had a great time.
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