Hanging them up

[Flash]

We've all been there ... having to make that decision to stop playing. I'm facing the big one for hockey and I'm not sure I can walk away just yet. Of course, I may have to, considering I'd rather some form of memory and cohesive thought for the remainder of my life. But I may have finally taken one too many shots to the head.

Why did you 'retire' from your own sporting career and how hard was it?

 

[Rosie]

Flash, there's not a day go by that I don't miss playing hockey. Sometimes painfully so.

In my case, it was a catastrophic ankle injury that made me hang up my goalie pads.

But if the body's giving out, it's giving out. You can't fight it.

 

[slappy4428]

dislocated shoulder that caused rotator cuff problems... missed it for the first year, less so after that. But lso increased my rounds of golf from 15 to 40 a year so it made up for it.

 

[Flash]

Flash, there's not a day go by that I don't miss playing hockey. Sometimes painfully so.

In my case, it was a catastrophic ankle injury that made me hang up my goalie pads.

But if the body's giving out, it's giving out. You can't fight it.

Being fragile like this makes me want to cry, Rosie ...

 

[mike311gd]

When the coach told me he didn't take walk-ons.

 

[Rosie]

Flash, check your PM.

 

[Flash]

Read and replied. Thanks, love.

 

[forever_town]

Unfortunately, I don't have any playing experience other than intramurals.

Thus, my retirement decision happened when I was 6 and I realized I didn't have the hand-eye coordination to play any sports.

 

[zebracoy]

I never played basketball at a high level competitively, but few days go by when I see players posting up and dunking and emotion and last-minute drama and I don't wish I could be back out there in some form playing with nine other guys.

I know someone who was forced to quit running because of an injury. This was four years ago. It bothers her every single day.

 

[Hustle]

I'll never forget the final minutes of my football career. I was on the field for the last play and screwed up a blocking assignment on a trap play. The TE next to me was a nice guy and was like, 'hey, don't forget, we're running [some kind of] block on trap.' I just told him it didn't matter for me anymore. I was a scrub on a middling Division III team; the NFL was largely uninterested.

I hung around the field forever, taking pictures and sharing the time with family and teammates. I was one of the last ones in the locker room and I just walked around and walked around with my pads on. I knew as soon as I took them off, that was it.

Eventually I did, but not without a lot of tears. I showered, left, did the usual post-game meal with my family, mostly hiding how much it hurt. That night I went drinking with my girlfriend at the time, who seemed kinda pissed I'd dare grieve for my now-posthumous football career. I cried myself to sleep that night.

The next morning I woke up and still felt kinda sad, but I had gotten it out of my system and was ready to move on. Or maybe I was just hungover... who knows.

So Flash, I guess the moral of the story is to find a new challenge, find something that gets the juices flowing that won't endanger yourself.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

I didn't realize my athletic career was ending when it did. So be glad you're able to prepare for it.

I went from playing college soccer to a tryout with a professional indoor team to playing high-level adult league to not playing at all in less than three years.

My mother was a high-level amateur tennis player as an adult. Finally, she had to give it up in her 50s after winning state and regional titles. She focused all that tennis energy into competitive bridge and hiking. She's 65 and thinks nothing of going on 10-mile hikes.

 

[zebracoy]

Hustle,

Sounds like John Ed Bradley, "It Never Rains In Tiger Stadium." Good read; worth checking out if you haven't already.

Perhaps you too, Flash. The book is all about a man who ends his football career at LSU and how he copes with it. Might not be a lot of parallels, but perhaps something will reach you where it counts.

 

[Sam Mills 51]

If it makes you feel any better, Flash, I was too small and not quick enough for most of my school years. When I finally grew into an adult size, it came at the expense of my knee joints.

I can usually golf occasionally, but pain in my elbows (what is it about my hinge joints?) wouldn't make playing and practicing daily too practical.

I can usually play softball without much help, but need knee braces to play even touch football.

 

[Flash]

I'm not too worried about continuing with softball. There's not much body contact in it.

I guess the consideration of leaving hockey is made so difficult by the fact I only started playing in 1999. I grew up in a town where only the boys played hockey. The girls figure skated and dated hockey players. I did both.

Though I didn't start playing until I was 28, I found I was actually pretty good at it. You know ... you wonder what could have been, if only I'd grown up in a different time or a different place.

And now I'm crying ... dammit.

 

[Sam Mills 51]

And now I'm crying ... dammit.

I wish you wouldn't. Now I feel responsible ...

 

[Flash]

Not your fault. Not the first time I've cried about it in the last week. Probably won't be the last before I finally make the decision.

 

[wickedwritah]

Flash, do they have any no-check adult women's leagues up there? I know they have some no-check leagues around here.

I gave up on my athletics dreams really early. Never made it to the A level in Little League, even when in my final year I finally learned how to hit at the B-level, so I saw the writing on the wall. Not getting that call-up was really disheartening, and I still get annoyed about it every now and then, 17 years later. I tried out as a high school sophomore (a few short years later), but by then I'd forgotten how to hit, and I never could field, anyway.

I hope you find peace with your decision, ma'am.

 

[BYH]

Flash, do they have any no-check adult women's leagues up there? I know they have some no-check leagues around here.

I gave up on my athletics dreams really early. Never made it to the A level in Little League, even when in my final year I finally learned how to hit at the B-level, so I saw the writing on the wall. Not getting that call-up was really disheartening, and I still get annoyed about it every now and then, 17 years later. I tried out as a high school sophomore (a few short years later), but by then I'd forgotten how to hit, and I never could field, anyway.

I quit Little League when I didn't get "The Call" in sixth grade. I was nowhere near great, but I was good enough to play in the top league at that age. But my parents didn't know the right people so I didn't get the promotion.

Two years later, I tried out for the junior high team. and I would have made it if not for a baserunning gaffe during tryouts...I went from second to third on a grounder to the right side. too bad there was a guy standing on third.

I can't say I wonder what if, cause I wasn't that good and I really enjoyed the hell out of running track and cross country. But it would have been nice to keep playing baseball.

 

[wickedwritah]

Flash, do they have any no-check adult women's leagues up there? I know they have some no-check leagues around here.

I gave up on my athletics dreams really early. Never made it to the A level in Little League, even when in my final year I finally learned how to hit at the B-level, so I saw the writing on the wall. Not getting that call-up was really disheartening, and I still get annoyed about it every now and then, 17 years later. I tried out as a high school sophomore (a few short years later), but by then I'd forgotten how to hit, and I never could field, anyway.

I quit Little League when I didn't get "The Call" in sixth grade. I was nowhere near great, but I was good enough to play in the top league at that age. But my parents didn't know the right people so I didn't get the promotion.

Two years later, I tried out for the junior high team. and I would have made it if not for a baserunning gaffe during tryouts...I went from second to third on a grounder to the right side. too bad there was a guy standing on third.

I can't say I wonder what if, cause I wasn't that good and I really enjoyed the hell out of running track and cross country. But it would have been nice to keep playing baseball.

Baseball's probably the only sport I would've had a chance of doing decently in. When my timing is on, I can drill the mofo. Still can when I make my rare trips to the cage. Who knows whether I could've hit a curveball, though.

 

[BYH]

Baseball's probably the only sport I would've had a chance of doing decently in. When my timing is on, I can drill the mofo. Still can when I make my rare trips to the cage. Who knows whether I could've hit a curveball, though.

I sacrificed a bucket of KFC for you.