soccer games, two on two, indoors; hobbled by pain in feet and calves

From 810-915 PM, I played in two-on-two soccer games sponsored by the Irish Village Soccer Club indoors at the Waltham Y. We played ten minute games with about two minutes of breaks in between.

Sean told me that we would be using the games to practice passing and getting open for a pass, so that's the way I played the games. He also told me not to lag back to guard the goal (each goal was just a standard size chair), and that's the way I played it also.

During the games I noticed regarding us as players: we were making passes that would have been great passes if only the point the passes we made arrived at had been six inches away from the point the passes actually arrived at; with the passage of time we will develop into impressive passers, if we practice passing enough.

There were only four of us: Sean, Peter, Jose, and myself. Sean said that only four people showed up, because most of those who usually play, were drinking in a bar watching the Boston Celtics playoff game on TV.

From beginning to end I was plagued by pain in the soles of both feet and the calves of both legs. The pain was worse than what I used to experience previously months ago when attempting to play in games; the pain was worse than what I used to experience when run-walking (alternating between mile run and mile walked) six miles straight nonstop while wearing thigh-weights, ankle-weights, and weight-vest.

As a result of the pain, most of the time though I could dribble pass and shoot, I could do little more than walk.

At first I could not understand the pain. I thought maybe it was because we were playing with just two on each side, half-court. Then I realized that when we were playing full-court four on a side there was much less such pain. Then I thought maybe the problem was something that I had consumed in the previous 24 hours.

Finally I felt that I had mentally fingered the guilty suspect, namely: the new drills I did yesterday evening, involving a heavy cylindrical punching bag (a 'punching bag' of the 'heavy bag' type) hanging from the ceiling, and a 6-lb medicine ball.

Drills done yesterday evening involved me--for 2 hours from 740-940 PM, dribbling a 6 lb medicine ball with my feet, while repeatedly colliding with the hanging swinging punching bag if the 'heavy bag' type; I've been thinking that these punching-bag/medicine-ball drills are clever original inventions which will significantly improve my performance as a player; I was eager to get on with them. Doing the punching-bag/medicine-ball drills did not produce any pain in the soles of the feet or the calves until the pain felt during the games today.

I figure I should have been wiser and postponed the new punching-bag/medicine-ball drill until after the weekly soccer games.

The fact that evidently the punching-bag/medicine-ball drills produced pain in the exact areas where pain has been a problem for me during games (soles of feet & calves), indicates to me that the punching-bag/medicine-ball drills eventually if repeated enough, will help to prevent the occurrence of such pain during games in the future.