My long time rball partner has been taken away from me for work, since mid July. I have not had my twice weekly dose of racquetball workouts on Tuesday and Thursday since then.
I recently competed in the Orem Membership Drive tournament, as well as help run it with my awesome daughter (who put in 20 hours of volunteer work). I realized that even a few weeks, let alone months off from the sport can cause rust to appear on the body. I played poorly, with a few spots of shiny.
While at the event, another player and I were talking about consistent play, and he mentioned that he goes daily to the gym to play. Much more than I ever have done, and I admire him for it. I can do maybe 2 days, maybe 3 a week at lunch time. Some evenings, but not many. There is quite a difference in how he plays and how i play, and its because of the practice, among other things. So, he said to come down and find a game at lunch times.
I was loathe to goto the gym without an assurance that someone would be there. I went anyway, biting my natural tendencies to bow out and make an excuse and not go. While there, i was able to meet and play with 2 new individuals that were either at my skill level or above, allowing me and they to give each other a good run for points as we all were able to work out and get the needed exercise that the sport is ultimately giving us. I returned today, Friday, and ended up playing Roger and Sylvia. They are trying to compete in doubles tournaments more, and they played doubles against me. I got to play as if I were two players, against the two of them. Granted, this is more of a workout for me, and I get to server twice, allowing Evil TJay the chance to screw up, and LessEvil TJay the chance to make a descent shot once in a while. I ended up winning the game only by a few points, mostly due to ball placement taking advantage of their inability to quickly reach the ball in some (very few) situations. It was a great game. And it mixed up my game and exercise well. I hope to return and make this a new habit, picking up a game with whomever happens to be there and playing. This is not something i have done, and it falls outside of my comfort zone, tremendously. I like to have it planned and know that i will have a partner to play. Showing up, hoping to play, is difficult.
Hopefully the years of volunteering with the Utah Racquetball Association has garnered me enough acquaintances that I will be able to continue playing, even without a steady partner. Its been 8 years of playing with partners, and this is different for me. Wish me luck.
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