Adult Dodgeball

Pretty good facsimile of me last night

So I got in a corporate dodgeball league last night with a bunch of co-workers at a local indoor sports place. Adult dodgeball, as I had been warned by people who have played in the past, is not what you remember from grade school. It's violent, extremely active, and overwhelmingly exhausting. You play as many games as you can in a 25-minute period (a match). In our first match, we lost 3-2, and in our second match we won 11-0.

Let me give you a few stories of our team from last night:

1) I warmed up, ran some wind-sprints, and threw pretty hard against a wall. It made no difference. I was throwing as hard as I could on my first throw, and my arm was jell-o by the end of the first match.

2) My boss (OK, he's about 6 levels above me), the Vice President for Internal Audit, was running out to the mid-line at the start of the match to get a ball. He and a girl reached for the same ball and knocked heads. She had to sit out the rest of the match with a golf-ball-sized lump on her forehead, by boss went right on playing.

3) The other team had 6 dodgeballs and they all decided to target me. Why, I don't know. I hadn't really been a threat, and I was smaller then the other guys on me time (read: smaller target). It didn't make any difference to them. I'm fairly certain I dodged at least three of the balls, but one managed to hit me in the butt as I ran away screaming "Not in the face!"

4) The girls have it rough on the dodgeball court. We would intentionally not target the opponents girls, hoping we could catch their throws and we could get a guy back and them out. I felt bad when the last person left was a girl, but I mercifully put her out of her misery.

This morning I'm as stiff and sore as I've ever been. My throwing hand still can't grip very well, I can almost lift my throwing arm above my head, and my back feels like I was squat-pressing a an AMC Pacer all night. I guess since I'm 30, the soreness will go away sometime next week - just in time for next Thursday's game! Yahoo!