This actually started back at The Gathering in North Carolina. I overdid it that week, especially during the tournament itself, when I had my wrist cocked out in a way I never really had before in order to deal with the short pattern.
Through the remainder of the trip, I had a dull ache, and it stayed with me the last month and a half of summer league. My average dropped about 5 pins upon my return to Alabama, even though I did very well in North Carolina and was hoping to ride that to a better finish this summer.
When fall started back, I started the first night off with a bang. I opened front-seven, front-eight in the first two games, shot my highest set in our league in almost a year and was really feeling good about myself. But I noticed that same dull ache all week long at work coming from the outside of my right wrist.
The subsequent three weeks have been just bad: 510, 468, 517 tonight. But tonight, I managed to screw up in a bad way.
I've had wrist surgery before and several other wrist injuries. Until two years ago, I'd always bowled with a wrist brace. I finally worked hard to get rid of it, strengthen my wrist, etc., because I wanted to prove to myself I could do it. Plus, I got more revs on the ball without the brace and was much more versatile.
We started practice tonight and something didn't feel right. I was striking in practice, but not getting loose. My wrist felt "dead" and heavy. Worse yet, every time I tried to tilt the ball over, it hurt. Tilting was necessary because the house apparently thought first-week scores were too high and reverted to its summer league shot, which is shorter, lower-volume and has even less of a crown than our standard shot (our house isn't hard, but it isn't easy, either). I thought about just trying to scramble through it playing a straighter shot, but my pride wouldn't let me.
By the fifth frame of the first game, I knew I was in trouble. I realized I wasn't going to be able to throw the way I normally throw and ended up trying to play down and in and take some stress off my wrist.
Well, it didn't work. In the middle of the third game, I finally pulled out an old Mongoose Lifter wrist brace just so I could finish the set. At least we won a point in the last game.
I'm sitting here right now with my wrist on fire, and an ice bag. I really don't want to go back to wearing a brace. I'm mad, frustrated and crestfallen all at the same time. The last two years of trying to get better feel almost like a waste. I'm trying to remind myself, though, that bowling with a brace may be my only option.
This friggin' sucks.
Jess
