I play medium tier co-ed soccer, have for the last dozen years or so. I just hit 40, am slowing down and taking longer to recover from injuries. I know my time at a fun sprinting competitivish level is coming to an end but… Sure, I’ll miss the new dope friend aspext of it but equally importantly, 3 nights a week for years, I’ve been so happy to play and for a few hours a week the world, the future, politics, none of it mattered, all that mattered was stopping the bad guys from putting a ball in the wrong place and hopefully making it go to the right place (I’m defence, that half of the field is up to the other 6)
I dunno. Hoped maybe one of you has had to do this before and can share some thoughts. (I just had my foot clipped pretty bad, know I’m out for a few weeks but just came back off another injury etc…)
Edit: Goodness gracious, you folks are all so kind and supportive. Thanks so much, I’m definitely feeling less dejected and much more hopeful about the next stage of living an active and wild life.
Specifically for soccer, there’s O40 teams (and even beyond, up to “walking soccer/football”), and if you can change your headspace just a bit, you can drop down to a more recreational level and still enjoy the sport you love. Just be mindful that they’re not really the bad guys, and you can still try to stop them and shut out the rest of the world. As a chronic overthinker, that simple headspace can be a really healing place to be for a while.
I didn’t even start playing until I was already fat and almost thirty, but I had a good ten years of playing indoor off and on; yes… forty, but you almost certainly have much better fitness than I ever did, LOL. Speaking of indoor, it really limits the duration of your sprints and whether on offense or defense you can “manage” more of the field without the same physical strain. The consistent conditions are nice too, though many facilities smell like sweat at all times.
This was really well put, thanks! I’d actually been worried about the older age groups for much the opposite reason, the couple I’ve seen have been hard competitive with a lot of Europeans who used to play at higher levels. And I’m a 5 - 15 years older than most of my team mates so I’d have to join pretty much solo. But I imagine there are a bunch of different leagues of all abilities/aggression/competitiveness.