Yesterday, after a break of over three months, I returned to Skateful Dead practice.
I was quite apprehensive. The instruction from the physiotherapist, and the medical staff that I’ve seen has been to avoid “impact”. I have done so. I asked about skating, even in the park, and was told that if I fell then I might aggrevate the injury. I haven’t had skates on my feet for ages!
We have a bout at the end of November – I’m not playing; this time I’m the official photographer. We needed head shots of a few of our guest players, so I rocked up with my camera. I took my skate gear along too, just to have a bit of a roll around the hall.
Those that needed their photos taking couldn’t make it, so no photos. We were quite thin on numbers too. It felt so good to be be rolling again, and the “roll around the hall” quickly became “I’ll join in with the endurance exercise”. I agreed with Gillie that I’d stop if I felt I needed to. The endurance bit was great. I skipped the star jumps, I know that they still cause me some pain, but I kept going with everything else.
Then it was walling/bridging practice. Well, what could go wrong. I joined in with that. I took a few hits, and handed out a few too. The guys were great. Ash blocked me and took me off track, with force, but not going silly. During the exercise I only jammed once but I was knackered. It’s surprisingly demanding. Towards the end of that exercise I took two falls. I felt then that it would be wise to stop – two sessions in a row would be good ;-)
At the end of the session there was a scrimmage. I did jam timing, allowed loose with a whistle! One of the big improvements that I notice since I was last at practice is the lack of penalties. This is something that I consider very important – any fool can win by playing dirty and getting away with it.
Thanks for the welcome back! I’m proud to be one of The Skateful Dead :-)