Injury Worry (Badminton 11/28)

I woke up on Tuesday morning with severe wrist pain. I didn’t have full ROM(Range of Motion) on my right wrist and it looked very unlikely that I can play any sort of game for a few days. I don’t like to miss playing sports due to injuries and can’t recollect any instance where I missed a genuine playing opportunity. I am quite familiar with such type of injuries and started working on Icy-Hot (topical analgesics) and Motrin. Towards Wednesday evening I felt better and went to badminton.

We were a little late but started playing right away with no warm up. First game was a tight affair and from then on I won all my matches handily. There were some big match up issues in some matches but I am playing consistently and decently so no problems. It helps to know that I can turn the match into a physical contest and would come through because I can outlast most of the players in that department. I barely broke a sweat when we returned home at 0930.

The wrist though better still is painful. I got 4 days to get ready for Monday Tennis. The results from last week are out and I moved up into the top bracket of the 08:30 league (If I do better at 0830 league I can move into 0700 Pm bracket). I will be playing a known opponent who is a slice master and gave me some trouble last time I played him. I haven’t played against the other 2 players and I don’t yet have a scouting report.

Ideally I would like to play one more round at the bottom bracket to groove in on my shots before taking on bigger guys. For whatever reason I have to admit that I am feeling a little nervous stepping onto tennis court to play the matches and that’s impacting my game. Unfortunately the only answer is to keep playing a lot of them to calm the nerves.

The good part is last week I didn’t really play my A game but I won my matches fairly comfortably. So if I can play my A game, there is no reason why I can’t beat the “Slice masters” and others. Btw my friend has moved up into the 0700 PM ladder and it will be a while before we meet in the league. As I analyze my tennis sessions, I basically has one bad session. In total I played 4 times so far and I won more than a dozen games in 3 of them.

For the next 4 days, I will be working mostly on cardio and legs. I won’t be able to do weights until my right wrist heals. I am not very sure if I can play any tennis or do any tennis specific drills before Monday.

There is one other positive. In the quest to play better tennis, I worked on my fitness a lot. My weight reduced by 9 pounds and the feel good factor returned. That in itself is something I can look back with a smile.