Overcoming Injury
Injuries are never good. There is never a good time, type, or seriousness of injury. There is only bad and worse. While this is the case, it does not mean the world ends or life stops; it is an opportunity to divert your focus to other areas. This article is to help those dealing with more serious, long-term injuries. I underwent two ACL reconstructions within 11 months of each other in my freshman year of college. The first experience was one filled with negativity and feeling sorry for myself. I did not handle it well. Missing out on my freshman year of college sports was heartbreaking, and I was living with the worry of playing again and all the possible outcomes. Will I be as good as I was? Can I come back? Will I lose my scholarship if I don’t do either? I was so overcome with self-pity that I let it overpower every aspect of my life—my studies, my personal life, and my recovery. It was a year of learning how not to handle myself, and the results spoke for themselves. I rushed my rehab, returning to sports too early with a resulting re-injury. I spent so much time focusing on my sport that I ignored my studies for a poor first academic year, which led to self-destructive tendencies. cough…drinking. This, along with eating too much, resulted in me gaining my freshman 15 pounds, which many others have experienced.
I had spent nearly a year focusing on being ready to play again, and the worst imaginable outcome happened in no less than a minute of returning to the field. It was as if the universe were telling me that I had approached it all wrong and had to start again. This time I changed my approach; I knew what I had to do now. It was an opportunity to get it right the second time, a change in mindset, and a willingness to make the year of recovery worth it. Here is what I learned:
Patience is Learned
Everyone will tell you to be patient when it comes to recovery; “your body will tell you when it's ready." While this sounds dandy, there is no way of knowing without that little bit of push. Relearning to use the injured area effectively is like an elastic band: bend, don't break, feel your overstretching, and pull back. Slowly testing the waters to assess your progression, not stretching the band waiting for it to snap, but every so often pushing yourself, it may even be to the point you feel slightly uncomfortable. This is to prove it’ll be alright; your body can handle it, and you build up faith that you can handle the physical pressures of returning to sport when the time is right. To have a successful recovery, like success in anything, it is about getting 1% better each day. Some days it’ll feel like more and some days barely, but the 1%s add up. The compounding effect of the minor wins cultivates big wins. In the same way, you might not be able to bend your knee post-surgery or straighten your elbow, but you will eventually if you work towards it as you gain a degree each day. Each stage of recovery will have a goal; you can follow a timeline (which I would suggest you do as it helps build the feeling of progress), but ensure that each day you get closer to that goal. You know what is expected at this stage, and push for that at the minimum. We all believe the timelines given are suggestions, but these are often indicating the limits of the body, and you have to pay attention to the signs.
Not all injuries are completely recoverable, but you can continue to improve your life, no matter how severe, by employing the 1% principle. Patience in the process of recovery does not come naturally to anyone and takes time to learn. Some days you’ll wake up and know you’ve pushed it too much; swelling, soreness, or tightness will tell you that, which is when you have to pull back. There will be times you ask too much of yourself, and you must adjust to that. However, you may get to a point in recovery where you know you can push more now, and your body will tell you if it’s too much. You will be on an almost consistent pendulum, moving from comfortable to discomfortable; you must embrace this. Follow the advice of your trainer or physiotherapist to know when you can start pushing more as you pass each test to move onto the next stage of recovery.
Track your Progress
It doesn’t matter if you participate in a team or individual sport; missing out sucks! You will watch others do the thing you love while you are stuck with a feeling of helplessness as you do everything to come back. You will watch them improve and develop as you feel you are losing out. It is important that you put into perspective what you are achieving and how you are developing mentally and physically. It is important to remember that when you come out on the other side of this journey, you will have achieved something special; you will have come back from your lowest point. Track your development to remind yourself of your progress and make the experience a positive one filled with prosperity. Looking at the light, not the dark, the previous entries will boost your morale on days where you feel you didn't achieve what you felt you should or feel low. You can track progress in videos, journals, or audio diaries, but make sure it encamps you at that point in your journey. It will create a resume of successes on your way back to your sport and provide you with something to reflect on to show you are ready and that you put in the work to get there.
I personally used videos to track my progress. As I returned to rugby, there was a reminder of what I had been through. From not being able to walk to struggling to squat to one of the ugliest first runs I've ever seen, it'll all paid off. I could reflect on days when running felt off to the times where I couldn't even walk. This was by far one of the best things I did from a confidence and pride standpoint throughout the process, and it allowed me to appreciate my journey far more.
You are going to suffer mentally as well as physically
You will likely feel isolated during this period of injury. Your teammates will form strong bonds through the pain of training and all the little interactions that come with it. It is important that you do not hide away from the team; you must not isolate yourself. Your recovery is on you, but you do not have to do it alone; teammates and coaches can provide the support unit to get you through the tough time. It may be a roommate, a mentor, or a captain; it doesn’t matter. It means there is someone you can turn to to share worries, have a laugh, or take advice from. Isolation can allow time to improve, but you need to know you are not alone. Suffering in silence is possible for a time, but it will build up. You need to know there are people there to support you, and you need to find the courage to reach out to them. Learn to contribute where you can; whether that is helping coaches, coaching players, or adding insights to film sessions, there are always extras you can do to prove your worth. You can still contribute to the team’s success without playing.
During recovery, and even more so the closer you get to competing, the assistance of a sports psychologist can be extremely beneficial. It is someone who can go deeper than your support unit in your mental preparation and comfort in competition. It is an unbiased eye that can help you tremendously.
When you return to sports, you might not be where you were pre-injury
This is something that no one wants to hear; you will not be the same on the field, just as you will not be the same off it. You will have developed but not maintained the experience and conditioning you may have had prior to the injury, which takes time to build back up. No matter what you do or how well you prepare, sports require repetition, and you will not have found the reps you need when you return. It will take time to get back into the swing of things and build up your movement patterns, game awareness, and confidence in your ability and rehabbed area. You still have the ability; it is important that you maintain the patience you've learned through your rehab to stick with the process and build yourself back up to 100% performance. It is important to not have the expectation that you will fly back into it; this may happen, but it could take you a few weeks or even months to feel comfortable again and return to the level of performance you had previously reached.
The apprehension of reinjury will play on your mind. It is important to get comfortable with the idea that reinjury can happen and know you have the ability to do it again.
Recovery isn’t finished when you return to play
Depending on the severity of your injury, you will determine how strictly to take this. For those of you reading this, it is likely that it was a pretty big injury. It takes a lot of time to reach a point where you can get back to competing again, and you may feel that your recovery journey is over. But if your injury occurred because your body couldn’t handle the pressure you were putting on it or because of a freak accident, now it could be vulnerable. Either way, the resulting action is a requirement to continually work on this area, whether it be extra mobility, strength building, or extra recovery to prevent repeated injury. It is something that must continuously be addressed, not necessarily at the intensity of recovery but as an extra matter in the prevention of reinjury.
Take the opportunity to grow in something else outside your sport
I believe this to be the most important. You will find yourself going from watching practices to team meetings and lifting sessions to recovery, the whole time thinking about returning to sport. It is vital that you have something outside of this that brings you joy and makes you feel like you are making progress. I found that without the pressure of playing, I could turn my attention to my academics. I have always wanted to be successful in school, but I never found the time to learn what strategies and study techniques would work for me. I had never put in the necessary time to find success. I had never dedicated myself to my studies, and my below-average grades never inspired me to change. It wasn’t until this combination of injury and disastrous grades occurred that I found it necessary to turn it around with no excuses from a busy schedule. I would no longer prioritize my sporting pursuits but my academic improvement. This may have been the best decision I made at college, not for my grades progressing but for my confidence growth. This did wonders for my life off the field, which, for a time, was the only place I felt comfortable. By the end of my college career, I felt I had something worth saying in classes, stopped handing in paper with dread for what my half-assed effort would result in, and started to feel the benefit of my classes and the effort I put in. It confirmed the application of the phrase "you get out what you put in," or as my professor would continuously tell me, “Effort In, Results Out." I had found how to apply the effort I put into my sport to other areas of life, which provided my life with more meaning and purpose.
When I returned to sports, I had the experience of excelling in both areas for the first time, which inspired me to continue my development in each. I had embraced the opportunity to balance them, and my success in this inspired the idea of the AcaAthelte Advantage. Looking back at my college sports experience, I am unbelievably grateful for my ups and downs. It has provided me with an appreciation for a sport and situation I had once taken for granted. The journey has had a profound impact on me. The sad part, as with all failures in life, is that I had to learn the hard way to reach greater outcomes the second time. I hope this has given some insight and hope that the journey isn’t over and you can make the most of your injury to progress in other areas of life and comeback better than before.
