Good News & Bad News

The bad news first. So a few days after my therapist cleared me I got to play basketball without holding back for the first time in a very long time. I got so caught up in it, I forgot I had a time limit. And since my team kept winning I ended up staying on the court for almost two hours. I was exhausted and sore all over, and worst of all I couldn't find my ice pack.

The next day my knees hurt again. I didn't even have to squat to feel it. So yeah, that was pretty stupid of me. It's been almost two weeks since then and I'm still not back to feeling as good as I did before I played, but I'm almost there. Maybe in a week or two i'll be feeling as good as I did then.

Also the things that used to be my strong points are now my weak points. I used to rely on my explosiveness to get past people, get to the basket, get rebounds and block shots, but now I've lost most of that.

The good news. Although I'm very rusty and hesitant, I've still got some game in me. I am much better at understanding where to be on the court, and I've become a lot more crafty and efficient. My shot's OK, it's not great but it's pretty good for someone who hasn't played for as long as I have.

The best news though is this; I can still jump! I don't have much explosiveness anymore but I think that will come back as my knees and legs stronger and I increase my endurance. But when I really TRY to jump, I still get fairly high. I only went for a max jump twice in between games but I when I did I could almost get my whole hand above the rim. My hands are 8 inches long(I can palm the ball), so let's just say I got 5 or 6 inches above the rim. This would mean that my running vertical right now is around 34-35 inches. I think that's as good as I could have hoped for.

Can I dunk? I don't think so... I usually attempt dunking if I know I can get at least my whole hand above the rim. But honestly, at this point I don't care about being able to dunk(I first did that 6 years ago), what I care about is regaining my explosiveness because it's such a big part of my game. I'll start caring about dunking when my vertical hits the low 40's, until then it won't matter too much.

I should have thought of this: