Why soccer moms should be soccer players

These guys would kick my butt. Image via Wikipedia

Call me reckless, call me an idiot, but at age almost-forty I decided that 2010 was the year I was going to learn to play soccer.  Intrigued by watching how much fun my kids have playing the sport and enamoured by Barclays Premier League, I signed up for a grown-up coed rec league.  Believe me when I tell you that nothing says joy like the look on a coach’s face when she learns that her newest player is an uncoordinated almost-forty year old woman who’s never played organized soccer before.

My first game was on Sunday; my first position, paired against a woman at least ten years my junior and at least as many years more experienced in soccer than I.  Due to paucity of subs, I played all but three minutes of a one-hour game.  I got fouled.  My left thigh intercepted a strong goal kick at short range.  In short, I got destroyed, but I must admit I had a lot of fun.  Except for the hurting like hell the next day thing.

As I tried to remain as stationary as possible at my desk on Monday morning, I began to wonder just what the heck I was thinking.  I’m getting older, I thought.  This is a younger person’s game.  I’m going to break something.  Out of curiosity as to how long I should expect before my first hip pinning, I decided to look into whether anyone had researched middle-aged women who pull a nutty and decide to take up soccer.  I half-expected to get a bunch of kinky porn hits, but lo and behold, look what I discovered:

A 14-week study in which women aged 20-47 years trained soccer twice a week showed marked increases in bone density in the left and right tibia. Furthermore, soccer training showed an elevated mass of the calf muscle, greater muscle strength, and an improved balance. A 16-months training intervention for the same subject group showed that prolonged soccer training for untrained premenopausal women elevates whole-body bone mineral density. The women who participated in the study had never played soccer before, implying that all can benefit from soccer. Interestingly the short- and long-term training effects on bone mineral density were greater for the soccer players than for a similar group of runners and an inactive control group.

via Soccer reduces risk of falls and bone fractures.

Suddenly that six-inch bruise on my thigh didn’t seem all that bad.