[Other Sport] Returning to a sport or hobby after a long break

Berty23 · Feb 14, 2022

This weekend I played my first hockey match outfield for 19 years and I am only 42 years old. Two days later I can hardly move, it is actually agony. When I was younger I was pretty good at hockey and cricket playing at a very decent level in both but then a back injury when I was in my early 20s led to me being told I would not run again let alone play those two sports. Overtime I have worked on core strength etc and managed to run a bit and do some other exercise. I have also coached kids in both sports since I had kids and promised I would come out of retirement in both to play with them if the chance arose.

My lad is 13 and good at both sports and this weekend he made his debut for our men’s fifths so I bought some shin pads, dug out my gum shield and got to it. In the second minute I took a short corner to my gut and have a fine bruise and collapsed with cramp at the end. Today it is agony. But I loved every minute. I have to take it relatively easy to protect my body but that is hard when you are really competitive. As soon as he progresses up through the teams I will quit again because it bugs me I will never be as good as I was.

Has anyone else given up a sport or hobby for a significant amount of time and then taken it up again and why? Are you going to stick at it? Or did you try it and then realise why you quit? If a sport, how much worse were you than before? I still had my limited skills and good passing but my fitness and speed is a complete shambles.

Mackenzie · Feb 14, 2022

I finished playing cricket in my early twenties, life got in the way, but I’m now netting and doing a bit of coaching with my sons team. I’m enjoying it but find it a bit frustrating that I can’t bowl as quickly as I used to. Nice to be doing a bit again though.

schmunk · Feb 14, 2022

It was a struggle at first, playing with 11 men, but soon it all came flooding back to me.

Bukkake

Poojah · Feb 14, 2022

As a youngster I played tennis to a pretty decent standard. Looking back, I was probably never quite good enough to have made it professionally but at one point I was definitely one of the better players in the country in my age group. I ended up having to stop playing seriously after suffering a bad shoulder injury; foolishly falling down a hole whilst having a piss in the dark whilst cutting through the local cricket club on my way home from my mate’s house.

Years later, we got a table tennis table in the office and it became quite competitive between a few of us, and over time I got pretty good at that - I already understood the concept of things like top spin which came in handy. I played that on a daily basis for quite a few years, before I eventually tried to play tennis, non-competitively again.

Fúck me I was bad. I had become so used to the short lengths of a table tennis paddle (versus a tennis racket), I could quite barely make contact with the ball initially. Over time, it came slowly back but in spite of my shoulder weakness technically I never got back to where I was. What I once had, had gone forever.

The moral of this story is don’t piss in the dark. It will save you from all kinds of trouble.

Paul Reids Sock · Feb 14, 2022

Similar to you both. I used to play a lot of cricket and football. Then in my late teens I got a knee injury but kept playing

By the age of 21 it was agony to run and I was told to stop all sports immediately. By the time I had got back to fitness I had had my first son, moved home and got a full time job. I started playing cricket again at about 28 when I was able to take my son with me and he would watch. It was brilliant but I was often in agony for days after.

After one and a half seasons we had my second son and I moved job again. Not played since and really miss it. The youngest is 5 in a couple of weeks and the wife already says I don't spend enough time with him (the eldest and I have season tickets and he plays football, which I coach, on a Sunday morning). Give it a couple of years of playing the odd game with work and I'll get the youngest a season ticket as well. Then I should have enough brownie points to get out for a whole Saturday and play cricket whilst the kids mess about on the side/club house

thedonkeycentrehalf · Feb 14, 2022

I stopped playing football after a partial knee replacement. Initially I was advised I shouldn't play again but a while later I found studies which showed that although there was risk as with any activity, there was nothing stopping me from playing again.

It had been five years when I restarted - only in goal - and the first few weeks I was rubbish, a combination of not playing for so long and mentally holding back. After a while, it just kicked in as normal and while I am not as mobile as I was, I still do a decent job and it is so good to be back playing.

I would recommend taking it easy to start with, properly stretching and maybe also a sports massage. I found my calf muscles were in a poor state and benefited from some very painful but worthwhile massage.

Guinness Boy · Feb 14, 2022

Yep, I stopped playing eleven a side football from age 20 to age 33. I basically either wanted to go raving or watch The Albion or both at a weekend. I played 5 a side at a couple of different workplaces (work team played in the evening at one place and lots of us in an office in Crawley used to play every Weds lunch time) but I stopped playing the full game on big pitches. The joys of Sunday league were not for me.

Then we moved abroad and I joined and ex-pat pub 11 a side team and played centre back for them for three seasons, loving every minute of it in the Taipei Tavern Premier League. Played tournaments every quarter as well.

I may have told this before on here but the quality of opponent was variable to say the least. One week you'd be up against some fat bloke who'd just landed and wasn't used to playing in the heat and you'd have a nice, easy flat-track bully of a game. The next you'd be up against some 18 year old with incredible pace or even an ex pro. And so it was I found myself up against a German lad who had apparently been on the books at Bayren Munich before being injured and having to give up pro sport. A couple of people in my team knew this but didn't tell me. The ball was immediately played to him, he killed it dead, sent me on my backside with a swivel and hit it into the top corner at frightening pace from over 30 yards.

Five minutes later my mate Craig two footed him and you could hear the scream around most of Taiwan. He never played against us again. I'm assuming it was a knee injury that finished his pro career :shrug:

Berty23 · Feb 14, 2022

Mackenzie said:
I finished playing cricket in my early twenties, life got in the way, but I’m now netting and doing a bit of coaching with my sons team. I’m enjoying it but find it a bit frustrating that I can’t bowl as quickly as I used to. Nice to be doing a bit again though.

The loss of pace was the real killer for me when I played a cricket match a few years ago. I was sharp back in the day when I was involved with county as a youth but then after the back I was just a total dobber off a few paces. When a batsmen danced down the pitch and deposited me over my head I knew I would never try cricket again because I had nothing to intimidate them anymore.

I mentioned I coached cricket as my lad played (so did one of my daughters until covid) but the last two seasons he has regressed in matches. I took him for a net where I used to coach with a bowling machine and we cranked it up to 70mph when he was still 11 and he was creaming it. But in matches he struggled vs under 12s (in the few matches they had in 2020) and same last summer. Just over a week ago we found out he is very colourblind but he has hidden it. So he can smash yellow balls from a bowling machine but the red ones in match he can hardly see. He has binned off cricket so will play golf in the summer instead. Suits me because I have finallly joined a club after playing as a kid. Got down to 8 but hoping to get to 5 this summer. Hopefully I get the time.

Gary Hart's Stalker · Feb 14, 2022

I've returned to running (well, plodding) which I'd not done since my twenties.

A few months before the first lockdown, I wanted to feel fitter, so lost a bit of weight and did the Couch to 5K programme, never for a minute thinking I'd stick with and finish it!.

I never actually made it to 5K distance on the programme. Then lockdown happened so I just carried on running and gradually built up more and more distance. And I haven't looked back.

I turn 50 in a few months' time and have definitely achieved my goal of feeling fitter! I'm 3 stone lighter and ran 2 half marathons last year!

I'll never be the fastest runner but I don't care. I'm just enjoying getting out there and the smug feeling of satisfaction when it's over!

Gary Hart's Stalker · Feb 14, 2022

And I love that you joined in 2012 and today is your 2,012th post! Saddo that I am!

jakarta · Feb 14, 2022

Back to village (well Church) cricket, still rubbish batsman but now eyesight is going I'm rubbish vs.15 year olds. :lolol:

Had no wickets but three dropped catches in my last game so my offspin filth is still there or thereabouts...

Gwylan · Feb 14, 2022

Berty23 said:
Just over a week ago we found out he is very colourblind but he has hidden it. So he can smash yellow balls from a bowling machine but the red ones in match he can hardly see.

That could explain a lot. My son is colour blind too and has changed from someone who was invited for county trials when he was young, playing with soft white balls to someone who has struggled in red hard ball cricket - it never occurred to me that it could be an issue (as he never mentioned any difficulty) but I wonder if that was a possibility.

As for me, I returned to cricket a couple of years ago at the age of 62. The thing that I've noticed the most is that I've gone from being a pretty good fielder to someone who has to be hidden in the field. I was never a great batter but I can hold an end up, haven't lost that. I could also turn the ball a bit but my shoulder is knackered and I can't get the revs any more.

I also play football as part of the Man v Fat set-up - part of my attempt to lose some weight. I was generally the fastest player in a lot of the teams I played, so it's a bit of a shock to be one of the slowest.

Stat Brother · Feb 14, 2022

I gave up watching the Albion win games yonks ago.

Like you have recently returned and although my health is ok everything does feel a little odd.

Rogero · Feb 14, 2022

For 40 years I played badminton once a week with friends which was great fun, then along came covid so it all stopped. During that time one of our crowd sadly died and another gave up. We returned a few months ago with a new lad but I strained my Achilles tendon. Now all is well so at over 70, back having a run around and then to the pub. Happy days.

Tom Hark Preston Park · Feb 14, 2022

Is this a DJ Locadia thing?

Guinness Boy · Feb 14, 2022

Rogero said:
For 40 years I played badminton once a week with friends which was great fun, then along came covid so it all stopped. During that time one of our crowd sadly died and another gave up. We returned a few months ago with a new lad but I strained my Achilles tendon. Now all is well so at over 70, back having a run around and then to the pub. Happy days.

Respect for that. I hope I can get off the sofa at 70!

Your story reminded me of a cautionary tale for all of you restarters. Our neighbour recently played her first game of basketball for a very long time and snapped her Achilles after less than 30 mins. Has been in a boot for 4 weeks and they've just had to swap their car to an automatic,

Fungus · Feb 14, 2022

I had a 35 year break from playing football. Enjoyed Sunday mornings playing for the Green Jacket in Shoreham, but gave up due to a mixture of dodgy ankle, late Saturday nights, Sunday shift-working and not really being much good. At 56, someone suggested Walking Football, and I've been playing for nearly 8 years. It took a while for the body to adjust to the twisting and turning, for the brain and body to co-ordinate when there's a moving ball, and even longer to get back the confidence in shooting with my right foot/ankle, but you get there again. Dare I say, I'm better at 64 than I was at 21 - slower, but I can play with two feet now!

Iggle Piggle · Feb 14, 2022

I've been swimming long distances on and off for 20 years (I'm late 40s) but wanted to do other sports as I was getting bored with the same thing.

I've been helping the 5th Team out in the cricket from time to time (i've posted before I'm just up the road from you at the Wardens). I was keeper for one game and couldn't get down the stairs for about a week and despite going to the nets once a week this is to help teach the kids so getting decent runs off half decent bowling has proved impossible even in Cotswold Hills Div 7. I simply haven't the time to re-invest in technique. I was also constently picking up niggles, the last one being pulling up on a run to the boundary as something in my arse went.

I've also started Racket ball and am currently injured. My left knee has just popped and I can barely put pressure on it. That one is my good one.

I'm almost resigned that its swimming and golf and that's it. Anything outside of those 2 and i'm injured straight away. My mind might be 21 but my knees are in their 60's.

ozzygull · Feb 14, 2022

I got back in to motorcycling after a 20 year lay off due to having and brining up my daughter. I was super rusty so I bought a 125 to start off with. Once I gained a bit of confidence I replaced it with a Kawasaki z400.

It may sound a bit dramatic but going back to riding a motorbike, taking me out of my comfort zone, has saved my life.

As a women who turns 50 this year the past few years have been soul destroying, the pre-menapause feels like a death-eater sucking out every part of you that made you happy and confident and that feeling every thing that was good and exciting was in the past made me not want to wake up in the morning.

Riding a motorbike makes me feel alive again, even after a 30 minuite ride, I am buzzing the whole day. Now I am looking forward to the spring and summer so I can get out on my bike.

Sorry for mentioning girlie issues on a football forum

East Staffs Gull · Feb 14, 2022

Played cricket at a decent level until our son came along when I was 34. Started playing cricket again when he started playing adult cricket. I was 49. Having offered to make up the numbers in the third team, I soon found myself in the first team. The following year I started playing for the county over 50’s. Over the next two seasons I picked up two championship winners medals. If I hadn’t have had that 15 year break there’s no way that my body would have let me carry on playing past 50. I probably enjoyed more success in my comeback than in my first spell and played with and against a few first-class county players.

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