Injuries suck.
There’s really no way to sugar coat an injury or take it light-heartedly, especially when it prevents you from performing your job (well, maybe getting a little sympathy is a plus, but it sure wears off quickly!). If you read last week’s Angle, you may remember I severely (that isn’t entirely accurate, but it sure felt severe when it occurred!) injured my back while bowling the TQR at the Earl Anthony Memorial. After conservative treatments of ice, heat, ibuprofen, massage, and chiropractic adjustments proved to do little but temporarily lessen the agony, I received some relief at the hands of a doctor and his “facet joint injections.”
I can’t really explain what those are, except that medicine is injected into the joint through a large needle. Oh, and the feeling accompanying the injection is akin to someone trying to push a golf ball through your skin.
Think about it...
As the pain and muscle spasms started to subside, I began mentally preparing myself to start bowling again. Over the two weeks I had at home and after the golf ball beating, I began easing myself back into light workouts, but avoided bowling because I was scared to touch a ball.
I know...irrational paranoia, right? The scenario was akin to the part in Days of Thunder when Tom Cruise was afraid of getting back behind the wheel of a car after a previous crash (if you liked Talladega Nights better, then just think about Will Ferrell in the car with a wild cougar instead!). Would it hurt to throw a ball? Could I even get it into my backswing without wincing? I decided the only way to find out was to try.
If you’re thinking that I just spent two paragraphs over-dramatizing a minor back injury, you would be correct. Poetic license has its benefits, and I think that bowling injuries are a part of our sport that often gets overlooked. Wait, did I just call bowling a sport? I’m fully aware of the plethora of arguments arguing that “it’s just a game,” but I don’t recall the last time someone incurred a debilitating injury playing Scrabble or Pictionary. Thank you, and pardon the digression. I had to prepare myself mentally to throw a ball and eliminate all thoughts of the tortuous spasm that I felt at the time of injury.
Deep breath...full approach...no stabbing, no seizing, but only some minor stiffness due to inactivity. After 20 shots or so, I was ready to jump back into competition at the One a Day Dick Weber Open. My mental fortitude was intact, and I was convinced my back would endure.
Endurance - another interesting part of our sport that gets overlooked. This time, however, I’m not thinking about physical endurance, but the kind of endurance bowling has shown over time. Most people would say that bowling is dying, but that implies extinction at some point. Sixty-seven million people bowling each year doesn’t scream obsolescent to me! Maybe bowling is changing in the short term because we have yet to figure out why it’s relevant.
Ah, relevance...another term that goes hand-in-hand with endurance. Relevance = short term, endurance = long term. Is that an acceptable assessment? Let me explain with a couple of examples. Kelly Kulick recently won the PBA Tournament of Champions...relevant because it was a phenomenal performance that captured the attention of the mainstream audience that top-tier bowling often alienates (anytime bowling makes USA Today, it’s surely relevant). Will it endure? I will say yes since people still talk about Billie Jean King’s tremendous feat nearly 40 years ago, and have been quick to compare Kelly’s achievement to hers.
Another example of endurance is the new International Bowling Campus (IBC) that just opened in Arlington. The IBC houses USBC, BPAA, and the International Hall of Fame and Museum. It’s a massive bowling complex (massive for bowling, that is...I think Jerry Jones’ big screen in Cowboy Stadium is larger than our entire footprint) with manpower and technology designed to push bowling into the current century. I had the pleasure of witnessing the Grand Opening, got to tour the International Training and Research Center and new Hall of Fame, and got chills after doing so. That place was built to help make bowling relevant; it’s a shining example of removing the shackles of old stigmas and creating new philosophies and directions for our sport. It doesn’t forget the past, but makes it fun and exciting again...embracing the past in the context of the present is what will make it endure.
Wow, nearly 800 words into this blog and I haven’t really talked about how the One a Day Dick Weber Open actually played out. Let’s just put it this way...I enjoyed the weather in Southern California. In all seriousness, I bowled fairly well for not being sharp or anywhere near 100%, but was disappointed about the inequity that seemed to plague the left and right sides in that tournament.
Since the lefty/right issue has been discussed, debated, and had the dead horse beaten many times over, I’m going to try a new tactic - leaving it alone. If you want to debate it further, please do so in the comments section below or in the discussion forum...Andrew’s Angle isn’t a forum for starting a war, but to provide some insight and maybe a couple of thought-provoking ideas. Trust me, I have plenty of opinions on this topic. However, I know that the controversy will outlast all of us (see “endurance”), and besides, I have more relevant things to focus on right now...like winning the Masters. That, unlike my injury, would definitely not suck.
