good things

I played tennis four days in a row. Thursday -- class at Central Park. Friday -- practice match with Harish, Chris, and Lisa. Saturday -- 7.0 mixed league in Redwood city (6-2, 7-6) and today's 8.0 mixed in Burlingame (unfortunately, 1-6, 4-6 and Alex watched us get crushed). Concurrent with my rediscovery of tennis I have also had the first time discovery of pain to the back of my right hand. Initially I associated the pain with a past wrist injury. But then I realized it's in a totally different spot -- not the wrist. This is good because the previous injury prevented me from playing altogether due to pain. The current injury just produces pain when I hit shots a certain way, like when I try to add a lot of wristy topspin to my backhand.

Yesterday and today I decided to take some Tylenol before my matches. I think it helped with the pain. Specifically, I didn't feel like I was hitting shots in such a way as to minimize pain. Instead I was just hitting the shots that seemed like good ideas strategy-wise. I think that's the way to go.

I worry about overdoing it though. I guess what I wonder is whether it's reasonable to play through the pain, and the pain is just a sort of nuisance. Or whether the pain is trying to tell me something, like "Hey, lay off the tennis a bit." I worry that by continuing to play I might be worsening the condition, or worse, causing some permanent damage. For now I just hope (perhaps too idealistically) that the pain will go away on its own. Because I'm not yet an old person.

I have enjoyed playing tennis. I feel like my doubles game is getting better, and today I had quite a few decent points at the net. I'm excited for the rest of the season's games.