The Approach of the Injured Athlete

From the time a child first steps on the field they are taught to be strong and hide any signs of weakness or vulnerability. This is important because as athletes get more serious about sports, they do not want to show an opponent any exploitable chink in the armor. However this ingrained idea that we must always demonstrate an outward appearance of physical toughness can have disastrous outcomes. All too often I hear my collegiate players say things like, “The trainer said I’m out for three weeks, but I think I’ll be back on the field in two.” No athlete likes to think their recovery rate from an injury is slow or even average. They all want to think they can recover from an injury in as little time as possible. This often leads to a cycle of re-injury and more sitting out. Jamie Moyer, given his longevity in Major League Baseball is an expert in the recovery process. One thing he mentions in his book is that recovery is underestimated in sports and slow or nothing is sometimes best. This is an incredibly difficult concept for athletes to embrace because they see inactivity as detrimental to their improvement rather than realizing an injury is the body’s way of saying stop. 

Moyer even believes in the influence one’s thoughts can have throughout the rehabilitation process. He says recovering athletes should imagine the healing body parts getting stronger, better, and doing what you want them to, without pain. I know that many people are turned off by this concept, but it is comparable to the placebo effect. When monitoring for the placebo effect in experiments for new medication, the research group is divided in half. One group gets the medication and the other gets a sugar pill. Often the sugar pill group heals, recovers, or gets better in a manner similar to the medication group. This is due to the influence of the mind over a healing body. The mind thinks the body his healing and the body responds accordingly. Healing athletes tend to focus only on the pain without thinking about the injury healing, likely resulting in altered movement patterns which open the door for re-injuring the original body part and straining compensating body parts. Lastly there is the emotional toll negative thinking can have on an injured athlete. Without envisioning the body part healing, the athlete is probably focused on just feeling pain without recognizing improvement. As a result anxiety and frustration increase, motivation goes down because the recovery process begins to feel hopeless, and the sport becomes a tedious grind.