My life of tennis and leisure has taken a curious turn.  I’ve had to have a couple of surgeries, the most recent was September 2006 for arthroscopy of my right rotator cuff, this after already not being able to play for a couple of years.  The one before that was September 2005.  The Sports Med doctor said too many years of overhead sports.  Yeah, right, whatever.  I spent a good part of October in one major sling.  The sling came with a red rubber ball attached with velcro.  I laughed at that.  Haha, what fool is going to use that, you might as well get a matching red ball for your nose!  As the days passed, I started using the dumb little red ball all the time.  Funny how that works.  No clown nose (yet).

Of course, I asked the doctor in the first follow-up appointment, ok, so when can I get back on the courts?  He laughed, they always laugh at that question, but this one understood because he had his own addiction to sports.  3-6 months to ground strokes, 6-9 months to overheads/serves, 12-18 months to get competitive again.  Oh great.  Mark those dates on the calendar.  Hmmm, are those dates with or without topspin?

I next began physical therapy (PT), aka "physical torture", in October.  I was initially given a window of three months to get back full range-of-motion (ROM) in the right shoulder.  Shoulders are tricky, they move in 360 degrees.  The alternative was the Sports Med doctor going back in with a more invasive surgery to force it to full ROM while I'm out cold with a general anesthetic.  No thanks.  I have this theory about surgical doctors -- they always want to do the most exotic procedure in their specialty.  I swear I saw his eyes light up when he saw the possibility in me.

As of today, I'm still on that journey.  Have a complication from the prior surgery is why I'm past that window I mentioned.  But a few weeks ago, I finally got cleared to "play" tennis, and I use the world "play" very loosely.  I went to a nearby elementary school and hit against a backboard non-stop for 10 minutes.  My wife came to watch (laugh?) and got to chase a few balls.  Isn't that what love is all about?  Flat forehand, mild topspin forehand, slice forehand, flat backhand, mild topspin backhand.  Over and over again, cursing mentally at the backboard.  It never misses.  Loads of fun.  Actually it wasn't bad.  10 minutes non-stop went by very fast.  I then did ten slo-mo back-scratch serves (I used to serve with a kick but can't do the full motion yet).  Roughly hit the area on the backboard I was aiming at.  End of practice #1.  Talk about starting from scratch again.  I figured the practice was the equivalent of almost one game -- not a set, nowhere near a match.  Well, one game if I don't have to move around that much (as in covering a court).  But it's a start.

I've got a few more PT sessions to go, then that's it, I'm on my own.  I now need to begin an exercise regimen.  My PT guy recently had me do various types of push-ups and I discovered more arm muscles that had gone south on me.  In the earlier months, I noticed my triceps and biceps had gone AWOL on me, I mean my arms were really looking like total absence of muscle, but they seem to be creeping back now.  I've got a lot ahead in conditioning, strengthening, stretching, and so on.  At this point, it's more the personal challenge.  The bad news is that I've never had the self-discipline to stay on a solo workout schedule beyond a few weeks.  Oh well, maybe this time will be it.

Honestly, I think I'm done with league tennis.  The third thing I have going against me is my left knee, most of the cartilage is gone behind the kneecap.  If I run forward for a ball, or have to leave the ground, the knee can lose track and totally give out.  I just crumple to the ground.  It was happening about once a set when I was last playing.  I thought it a bit funny because, once all the way crumpled down, the knee would re-engage and I could pop right back.

The knee preceded the two surgeries.  Watching me take a few dives made my wife quit practicing Mixed with me.  Then there was a friend who decided to get an easy point and dropped a volley on a return of my serve and I was on the baseline -- except that I instinctively took off to run it down, and would have got there and returned it had my knee not crumpled resulting in another face-first dive.  My friend asked, "You fool, why did you go after that?   It was meant to be an easy point!"  I replied, "Haha, nobody gets easy points off me".  Yeah, I know it was a stupid thing to do.  Instinctive reactions can be a funny thing because the brain has no time to kick in.

I asked my Sports Med doctor, so what's next if the remaining cartilage goes?  Knee replacement, he said.  Oh great.  I don't tell my non-tennis playing friends that though.  They harp on me with "What does all this tell you?  What don't you get?  Hello, is anybody home?"  And my standard reply has been, "What's your point?"  Only people who love sports can understand.  My goal is to simply get to where I can hit with my tennis friends again, if even just in practice, but without any charity shots.  It's just a great feeling to be outdoors on court, testing oneself, hitting and laughing with friends.

As of this weekend, I am up to 20 minutes of backboard and 20 slow serves.  What's the point?  If someone has to ask, then they just don’t get it.