Now That Volleyball is Over
A couple of weeks ago I wrote No Time, an entry jotting four topics that I wanted to expand on but didn't have time to before. Now, I'm ready to reply.
My sister introduced me to pickleball earlier this year and it's been so much fun. I've really been enjoying it and I think when I play consistency, I'm really good. The $6 paddle I got from Walmart does the job. We usually get a court where her and her husband play vs. me and mine, and then we switch. Or we join open play slots which sometimes our cousins join. It's been consistent though: every week or every few weeks we set something up to play together. We've both agree how good we feel after playing low-intense sports1.
To continue that momentum, in March, my sister and I signed up for a 10-week volleyball league as part of my town's recreation offerings. We met every Wednesday for an hour and a half. It was so much fun especially the fact that it was intermediate. Not too simple and not too advanced. I paid around $65, and my sister around $75 since she's from out of town. Totally worth the investment though. We made some new friends, had something to look forward to each week, and improved our volleyball skills. There's the health benefit too of staying active. It's been really nice to get back into sports. And not just that but it was also nice to do so while spending time with my loved ones participating in something we enjoy together.
Now that volleyball is over, I started soccer; also an offering by my town's recreation program. They have some really great options year-round. And my brother in-law is playing with me. They called it Pick Up Soccer so I was surprised to find out we we're playing 11 v 11. Smaller field, sure. But it's still exhausting. My skills are there but my conditioning is not.
Before this year, I hadn't played sports this consistently in a really long time. It feels really good getting back into it especially back to soccer. Even though I decided not to set goals this year, something I've noticed consistently without thinking about it is: more movement. Playing all of these sports and now with the World Cup, I'm motivated to staying active so that I'm not winded after five minutes. Especially because the sharp pain in shins are unbearable which are likely due to being overweight. Again notice how my goal isn't, like every other year, to lose weight. :)
Though pickleball does get intense especially when we play 1v1.↩