Becoming a Better Athlete After an Injury? How?
This NBA finals was an exciting one, but definitely a cringe worthy one with severe injuries to two of the biggest stars in the NBA, as Klay Thompson suffered an ACL tear and Kevin Durant tore his Achilles Tendon. One of the worst things that can happen to an athlete is suffering a season ending injury such as ACL tear, an Achilles tendon rupture or a Labral tear…Right?
What if I were to tell you that despite such severe injuries that take months to recover from, that you can indeed become a better athlete after your injury. We have seen this countless times with professional athletes that have their season cut short with such devastating injuries. Many including themselves would believe that that’s it and that their careers will never be the same and it’s all downhill from there. But, remarkably they can be proven wrong.
Time and time again we see elite athletes have the best years of their careers following a season ending injury. This happens so much that even ESPN developed an all ACL team for the NFL highlighting the players that tore their ACL, recovered, and continued to dominate. 6 of the 20 women on the US Women’s National Soccer Team in 2015 were post ACL tears, including legends Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe and Captain Christie Rampone. And, they won the World Cup!
Impossible is Nothing
So how is this even possible? How can someone suffer a serious traumatic injury, undergo an equally traumatic surgery, start from rock bottom in rehabilitation with muscles in shock, joints inflamed, strength at a fraction of what it was, and overall being removed from your sport for over a year to come back and be greater than they were pre-injury? Some from reading this would state that it is not possible. But, as the Kevin Garnett Adidas commercials would say, “Impossible is Nothing” and that could not be any more true for these athletes. Yes, these type of injuries may make an athlete lose a step for quite some time (much to athlete’s displeasure, up to 2 years). And yes, some of those athletes may never get back to full form.
But what determines why those athletes do or do not return to form? Its multi factorial. It depends on severity of injury, an athlete’s MOTIVATION levels, age, and dedication to the challenge of rehab.
Sports Performance=Key to Longevity
Consider the following scenario. You rode your entire career on your God-given genetically crafted talents. Congrats, as a former athlete myself I envy you. Being labeled a bulldozer or told “you should play football” in the finesse game of soccer is not as much of a compliment as I thought it was back in the day, #truckstickbuttonallday. Now you suffered a season ending injury taking you away from what you do best of burning, posterizing. and schooling the competition. For those who got by mostly on talent alone, rehab will do wonders for you. How? You will be introduced to the missing components of your game you’ve lacked your entire career…a well balanced strength/conditioning/coordination program focusing specifically on your deficits and your sport.
I have never heard an athlete in my entire career who said “an excellently coached strength/sports performance training did not help me become better at my sport”. That’s thousands of athletes at this point. Not one of them. They do not call it sports performance for no reason. The best athletes with the best career longevity practice this better than anyone (Tom Brady, James Harrison, Adrian Peterson, Jaromir Jagr, Vince Carter, Ichiro Suzuki etc). Ideally, Your post injury rehab should begin to implement these components ASAP.
Along with identifying the impairments that result from the initial injury and surgery, your physical examination from your sports physical therapist and athletic trainer should identify pre-existing imbalances, weaknesses, and loss of motions that may have made you predisposed to an injury but also may have been limiting your performance on the field/court/pool/track/ice. Such limitations include:
Weak core/glute muscles resulting in more forces into the knee joint,
Poor scapular control resulting in increased forces into our shoulder and elbows with overhead athletes, and also limiting thoracic mobility leading to inability to fully go overhead with lifting or complete full wind up in a throw.
Now ideally, we are identifying these deficits in our athletes prior to injury to hopefully PREVENT the injuries in the first place. Thorough examination of the athletes muscles, mobility and mechanics with common movements of their sport can highlight where they need to work on. Which is why I hope one day society shifts to a preventative model and emphasizes more screens of athletes to limit the current epidemic of sports injuries in America.
Your Mindset Determines Your Outcome
Yes these type of injuries are horrific and devastating to an athlete, their team, family, and coach. Despite the difficulty in the manner, try to look at this terrible situation as an opportunity. Go into with an open, determined mind to come out a better athlete than when you went in to it. Your rehab team (Surgeon, Physical Therapist, Athletic Trainer, Strength and Conditioning Coach, Team Coach, Team, Family) are here for you all your victories post injury, all the lovely ups and downs in rehab, and to see you at the end of your journey back doing what you love to do. Constantly, push your rehab team to find your weaknesses and allow them to make them your strengths. Understand it is a process (a long one), and choose to trust it. You will come out with the mental fortitude that can handle any championship game situation, final seconds on the clock play, board exams, and just life in general. I look forward to seeing you all grow from your injuries, to become not only better athletes, but better people. #TrustTheTrifecta
Stay Decent,
Dr. Jeremy Boyd
Feature Image Courtesy of https://unsplash.com/@payam__tahery
Sources: (http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/page/hotread141119offense/acl-injuries-all-star-nfl-lineup-recovered-knee-reconstruction-surgery, http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/page/hotread141119defense/acl-injuries-all-star-nfl-lineup-recovered-knee-reconstruction-surgery, https://twitter.com/aclrecoveryclub/status/609142686101037056?lang=en)
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