Three to Get Ready #6: The Tweaked Ankles

This is the sixth in a series of posts that provides one dad's reflections on the last three months of a daughter's club volleyball career. They will appear every Friday until the JVDA Championships in Louisville, Kentucky.

"Injuries are a part of sports."

If you channel-surf to ESPN on any given Saturday afternoon, you'll probably hear that cliche uttered at least a half-dozen times. And, of course, it's true. Ankles do get tweaked, twisted, sprained and (let's hope not) broken. So do arms, wrists, shoulders, you name it. It's not a pleasant consideration, but there's no denying that volleyball is a physical game, which brings with it the unavoidable spectre of injury.

And while I can't say that I'm going to miss the actual injuries (or the tough decisions that have to be made about each), I will miss three things that can only be experienced by having lived through my daughter's and her teammate's tweaked ankles and other assorted injuries.

The "In Spite Of" Victories
Injuries have a way of stacking the odds so high against a team it's hard to see over the top. When they occur, the injured player becomes the center of attention. All eyes focus on her to assess how gingerly she goes through warmups. And when the match starts, everyone quickly sees that the injury is indeed killing her. But sometimes it's also apparent that the team will still come together and come out on top. And when they do, everyone experiences firsthand the sweetness of victory in spite of overwhelming odds.

The "If Only" Defeats
There is, of course, the flip side to the "in spite of" victories. These are the losses that occur because an injury kept a team from winning some match they really should have. As a parent, player, coach or fan, you sit and watch helplessly as point after point slips away. The mind starts racing about what might have happened had everyone been at full strength. It's humbling. It's frustrating. It's life.

The "Standin' on the Sidelines" Perspectives
There's no better way to tell how much you love something than by not being able to do it. The times my daughter or her teammates have been sidelined by injury have forced them to see volleyball in a way they'd never seen it before--and appreciate it at a deeper level than they otherwise would have.

The word "bittersweet" is probably an overused term, but I can think of no better way to describe half a decade of tweaked ankles, sore shoulders and various other nagging injuries.

Next Week: The Killer Practices