Sunday, September 12, 2010

Back On Court...

By Frank

I played in a number of sports before I took up running back in year 2007. Some of the sports I was active in were squash, futsal, mountain biking and of course badminton. In fact, I represented my class during my primary school years. Badminton was a sport that I took up naturally. No specific training needed and I was able to swing the racket and hit the shuttlecock naturally without looking too awkward.

I played actively with my college mates at the Taman Megah courts as part of our weekly exercise before I decided to call it quits when running came into the picture. I had to for most of the sports I used to play will require active and sudden movement which isn't too friendly for the knee, and besides, I had problems with my ITB in year 2006.

Yesterday, I took my racket out from my store room for I have a game. Yeap, I'm returning to the court after several years for there are 10 courts located just behind my store. Was surprised the racket string to be still intact but sadly, the rubber grip didn't. A quick change and I was ready to go.

As a precaution, I wore my compression top as a few strokes last week didn't prove too fruitful for my shoulders. Felt stiff. Game started well but as it progress, discomfort from my shoulder slowly showed. And there weren't any hard smashes I done. To add matters worst, my left Achilles showed sign of pulling. This isn't from the game but it showed a couple of weeks back during my Newton 25KM trial run. It's fine during walks and only shows during higher intensity workouts. Not too sure what's the sign about but I did slow my game down to prevent any further damage.

However, as badminton is a game of natural reactions, I did once hasten my speed up naturally to save a dropping shuttlecock which I failed too and instead knock into the net pole. For those who played squash with me before, they will know how fast my movement can become as I frequently smash myself into the wall. In the Cantonese dialect, this is call "Long Piak". Hahaha... The pole was super heavy but even that didn't stop it from moving out of place from the impact I gave it. Luckily, I didn't injure myself in the process as my arms was naturally quick enough to push myself away.

Overall, the game was fun. But I wasn't myself many years back. If I were to play again, there is just so many precautions I need to take as running is still my main game and looking after my legs and probably my entire body too is my number 1 priority.

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