Dr. Yang only went over a handful of techniques, but his understanding of the material was obviously amazing, and his demonstrations made us all hope that we could one day be half as good as he. His hands were enormously strong...I mean crazy, crazy strong, but his technique is flawless. Here's a pic of him demonstrating on me.
It was tons of fun, and I was thrilled to be able to work with him again. Afterwards, I hustled off to the first lacrosse game of the season, to which I've looked forward since last May. However, it didn't go at all as I had planned.
Unfortunately, I did not manage to score. In fact, for the first time in around 20 years, I didn't even finish the game. It went like this...
In our end of the field in the second quarter, Metro's huge attackman had the ball. I managed to bounce off of him a couple of times, hard enough to get him to drop the ball. I scooped it up, and then he came after me, looking for a big body check. In such situations, I have a move that I like to call 'The Turtle'. I wait until the charging player is pretty darn close, then I drop flat on the ground. My opponent generally stumbles over me, suddenly off-balanced, and I jump up to run off with the ball. It worked as usual, but this time, the guy either stepped on me with one of his ark-sized cleats, or somehow slammed a knee into the small of my back as he tripped over my prone body. I think it was the knee. It felt like my back had been hit by a battering ram.
I played for about another minute or so and my back seized up so badly that I staggered off the field and that was it. Out for the day. That was Sunday afternoon. Since then, I've been healing, but far slower than I'd like. I haven't been able to work out at all, and barely able to teach. Certain movements make my lower back feel as though someone is going to work on it with an arc welder. I feel wonderfully blessed to have Ms. Kathryn and Coach Anne helping out this week since I've been so useless, and classes have been super-busy. I really dislike having to just lurk around the sidelines, helping only a little, for fear of setting my back on fire with the wrong movement.
Fortunately, it is getting better. I have to sleep on the couch in one of the reclining chairs, but it's improving daily. Hopefully, I should be able to get back to training next week...I've got work to do!! I don't like the setback, but I feel fortunate that it is getting better, and that I escaped permanent damage...I'm a physical guy with a physical job and physical hobbies, and injuries occasionally come with the territory, so it's to be expected. At least I've had the chance to work on the JMMA website!
Even though I'm moving slowly, there's still quite a bit I can do to make progress in other areas, so that's going to be my focus for now. Ok, it's late, and my couch awaits! Time for sleep!
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