On the mend

Last night I played in my first indoor game since before the wedding. On the last indoor game, one of the biznatches on the other team got pissed off I kept skinning her with my fabulous skills so she clipped me as I was turning on the boards and then shoved me with her forearm. I of course go body slamming into the boards and ended up bouncing off only to hold my left arm out and land on it. My elbow got severely jacked and I did a # on it as it took 6 weeks to heal and I couldn't bend it much for a week.

Ironically my first game back was against those purple biznatches (every team in the arena hates them btw). This time however since I am on the mend and working my way back to good fitness I tried to chill out a bit (I can be a rowdy player - never would have guessed that would you)and play mostly defense so I didn't have to run as much.

One of the weird things that has happened post surgery is my first touch. A first touch for the non soccer people who read this is how good you control the ball when you first receive it and setting yourself up for your second touch (if you take a second touch). You thought we all just went out and kicked a ball around and hoped for good things to happen didn't you? :) Anywho my first touch skills have come back. When I mean come back, I don't mean they have come back pre surgery - I mean they have come back from where I was at about 10 years ago. It's like I have had a break through or something. I feel like I have reconnected with my inner self in this manner. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't like I had a bad touch before, but it really felt more like........I had aged. I can't cut the ball really just yet because that might do a number on my ankle at the moment - but my first touch and my turns have been really good. I've been surprising myself. And while I have a pain in my heel, I feel in some ways like I have an extra bounce in my step.

And ironically last night I developed defensive skills I don't know if I ever had. I was never a defender in my former life but out of no where I must have saved like 8 goals and help set up a few for our team. I quickly became a marked woman and the other team wasn't passing the ball much to the players I was marking. I love those moments. I have found that my passing needs a smidge of work of course since I have been out for 3 months but I'm actually doing pretty good there too. It doesn't hurt to strike a ball with either my right or left foot and really the only pain I have is two parts: the compacting of the running and the push off with your foot. But really it feels like growing pains that i just have to work through and after a day or two my foot feels better than before I played. In the end, the purple chick who had pushed me in the earlier game, made a point to come over and waited to shake my hand for the good game when she could have just skipped me. I was a little surprised. I wasn't planning on shaking her hand. LOL

I got to play in an outdoor game last week with my co-ed team and did pretty good there too. I still can't sprint but that is ok. I was able to set some things up and distribute the ball pretty well so those are good starts. I am hoping to find myself another competitive outdoor women's team to play on since my old one conflicts with my co-ed team. Hopefully that will give me the balance I need to keep heading in the right direction.