Athletics and Age

There comes a time in every athlete's life where he or she begins to wonder if maybe they should stop playing. Maybe not every sport, but you begin to wonder if the benefits of playing still outweighs the negatives. You contemplate that maybe, just maybe, you are in fact "too old for this."

My first brush with this feeling occurred when I started law school. I was asked by a college teammate who lived in the area if I wanted to play club rugby. Now I loved playing rugby in college. I loved the challenge, I loved the running, I loved the mud, and I loved the hitting. Rugby was my kind of sport. But when my friend asked me if I wanted to play, all I could think was how much I was spending educating these brain cells of mine, and how many I had probably destroyed with the last concussion I had received. So I declined, because as much as I loved playing, I had that whole "responsible adult" thing going on in the back of my mind.

Fast forward to today, where I once again contemplate my own mortality. I now play co-ed softball, in a modified fast pitch league, as I have been for the past 3 years. I love playing, I love my team. But I have been a pitcher for the past 3 years, and I have seen my share of injuries. After all, the pitcher in softball stands 43 feet from the batter. Batters who are frequently very large men, swinging shiny metal bats. Batters who, at times, have a tendency to hit the ball directly back at me. And, due to the very short distance, and very fast nature of the ball, have hit me a number of times. The most recent incidence of this has left me with a bone bruise on my left leg, and put me on crutches for well over half a week (should ahve been longer, but I HATE crutches.)

These bruises, particularly the one currently causing me much pain and annoyance, leads me to wonder, "am I getting to old for this?" I don't heal as well as I used to. And frankly, I do not want to have to go to court with a black eye, or a lump on my head, and have to explain, again, that it is from softball, and no, one of my client's husbands did not beat me up.

I know darn well that I am not gonna quite softball. On the all and all, it is a wonderful and mostly harmless sport. But maybe I'll cut back on pitching a bit. After all, I DID spend a lot of money educating these brain cells. :-)