Now I could leap straight forward and kick the ball with a “front kick” - no problem. Pretty cool to say that but it’s true. The real test is whether I could do a flying side kick, photos of which I’ll post up here on the blog a little later. You run toward the ball, jump off one leg and twist your body around to do a side kick and fly through the air, then land on the ground. There is definite torque action happening and I can feel the stress on my knee when not done properly. Fortunately I’m now more consistent and getting good lift.

Our grand master (instructor) told us “last kick” after I had just come close to grazing the ball with a flying side kick so I decided to try it one more time. I would give it my all without being out of control. Incredibly, I was able to get significant lift and nail the ball dead on. I could hear the “oohs” and “aahs” behind me and it felt GREAT! Two years after reconstruction this is an amazing feeling and accomplishment.

I’ll say that much of the recovery is just getting your leg back into the same conditioning and strength as it was before you lost muscle mass. I don’t know if my knee will ever be the same. I still get far more “knee cracks” than I ever did before and occasionally I’ll have some pain/discomfort near the screw positionings, on the inner side of the lower leg and also in the kneecap area where I think they screw the tendon into your femur.

So that’s the report for today. I’m inspired and so should you be. Just go do it!