Pain and Endurance

I can not lie to you that my interest in sports pretty limited to racquetball. I enjoy a good boxing match,a little UFC ,or a great tennis match,but that is about where it ends. Growing up I spent my summers in camp where we competitively played every sport from lacrosse to swimming. Ironically my uncle bill played outdoor racquetball at the club we belonged to and it was probably the only sport I did not play. I remember so many times falling down ,getting shins smashed in field hockey or taking a lacrosse stick to the head. The counselors rubbed our head and we got up and ran two minutes later with sweat,blood and sometimes tears down the field with a vengeance. Though I was never a big sports fan I learned the appreciation of toughing it out and playing through injury at a very young age. Which moves me forward about thirty years from my days at the Skyline Cabana club. When you really think about what we expect our bodies to do in this sport it is amazing that we are not incapacitated more often. What amazes me more in racquetball is what the pros expect from their bodies in our sport. Is it that they execute better than we do so there is less stress on their bodies ? Do they have a better post and pre game regiment then us ? Are they just tougher or stronger than us ? Whatever the reason you don't see many pros missing the IRT tour,you don't see the WPRO tour littered with injured athletes. Everyone I know young and old have some existing injury. The most common has to be the shoulder and I feel like that is an injury that is not exclusive to us old guys. Lower body injuries are definitely more prevalent as you get older and the lower back is so common because we keep smashing our vertebrae every time we swing through. Where do we draw the line to keep playing through the injury. Do we listen to our bodies or do we "push" through the threshold of pain. Some injuries feel better when you are playing but when you wake up the next morning you are paying for your poor decision. I personally would rather lose and deal with the pain for the next few days as stupid and macho as that may sound. I guess macho and masochistic is not that far apart after all. Since it is fashionable to blame everyone else for their issues I would like to blame my dad,coaches and my counselors from camp. But more so I would like to thank those people for always pushing me to the limit. I know I will never be a Kane or Rocky ,but I know i will never give up on trying to improve my game regardless of the odds,the pain or the setbacks thrown at me. I greatly welcome the challenge of the new season injuries and all. Jon Hit Smarter not Harder" ``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````