... and it hurts. I move on the court like Lurch, but I can still shoot a bit. My next birthday will be my 50th. I played 2-3 times a week from age 14 to age 45 or so when I gave it up for work and raising two little ones. Now I can afford to slip away a little bit... but it hurts. Man, does it hurt! Anyone else made a comeback-- only not at such an advanced age?
I'm trying to make mine at the tender age of 20. Had knee surgery last year, got lazy and put on fifty pounds. Now I have the speed and vertical leap of a snail. Kept my arms in shape though, so what little semblance of handles I had are still here. I had some nagging pain in the unoperated knee, but a few weeks of swimming (I'm assuming) made it go away.
No comebacks here. I played full court with a bunch of teens about 5 years ago, thought I was gonna take a heart attack. Played another full court game 2 years ago, struggled at first, then my second wind kicked in and I was fine. Funny how you never lose that shooting touch.
Yeah, thank God. We were playing 4-on-4 and one of my teammates is a good, in-shape guy a bit bigger than me and a very solid ballplayer. The guy that was guarding him switched off to me in the middle of the rubber match. He was very obvious AND vocal about it: this guy (ME) is a stiff (literallly) and I can help out on the better guy. That really burned my grits. I was happy to hit 4 of our last 5 points by camping out on the perimeter a la Matt Bullard and knocking them in. That was our third game. By then it hurt just to move forward much less sideways and just forget about up!
Giddyup, good thing it sounds like your wind isn't that good or you can get yourself in trouble and get some bad sprains or worse.. When I was about 35 I was doing a lot of bike riding and swimming which really revved up my respiratory system. I then tried to play some bb which I hadn't done in a few years. I felt great for awhile till I badly sprained my ankle, jumping around like a young kid. A year later I repeated the same thing and have never played much since then. Take it real easy on your comback. On the other hand I have a friend who is about 55 and 80 pounds overweight who plays about twice a week and though he mostly shoots from the outside. He manages to avoid injuries much to the amazement of everyone. My brother in laws and some friends had a group of about 15 guys mostly around 40 and office workers who played full court weekly. After awhile they couldn't sustain it as half of them were injured at any given time.
I started playing again a little while ago. Once a week. I was pretty stiff every time for about 3 weeks, but now I'm fine. But then, I'm only 27. But that was half-court. I played a couple of full-court games recently and was reminded how different a game it was. I can't do that much running.
At 34 I've made some comeback attempts, but I've been too busy, and then had the flu, so I haven't been able to play steadily. The thing that was killing me in the full court games I've played is my wind. I end up sucking hard by about halfway through the first game. My strength has always been my effort and hussle. Now toward the end of the game, I have to cheat back some on defense in order to save enough stamina for the end of the game. I've lost whatever ball handles I once had, probably because I'm slower now. I'm frustrated that I can't play as regularly as I want, and I worry that I won't get back in shape. This makes me not want to play as much because I know I will make a fool of myself. Normally I don't mind making a fool of myself if I know I'll eventually improve, but with limited time to work on my improvement, I'm afraid I'll become a consistent suckmeister. I feel your pain, and hopefully we can share some triumphant comeback stories before too long.
young people. pisssssssss. <b>glynch</b>: Wind? What wind? In this comeback I've played both full and halfcourt. My wind is bad but I thought it would be worse than it actually is. I am doing this equally for my mental health. I've been kind of isolated raising young kids for the last 4 years. Initially I had planned to take a year off to see if it would help my aching joints: back, ankle and one knee. Then the kids came along and one year stretched into five. One of the guys that plays in this Geezer Game I started playing with in 1975 when he was my Advisor and Professor of Psychology. Over the years we've had several women who played with the group off and on. One woman is still active; she's been playing since about 1977. Like your friend, my game has drifted to the perimeter for the sake of longevity. <b>JuanValdez</b>: I can't wait til I get to the point when it stops hurting. Each time I've gone out to play, I mull over not going--- thinking about how sore I'll be, etc. But by the time I get to the gym, my instincts have kind of kicked in and I'm ready to rumble... or stumble.
