How to stay mentally strong through injury recovery

By Published On: January 20th, 2016Comments Off on How to stay mentally strong through injury recovery

It seems like every day on the sports page of a newspaper or website, you can read about injury after injury after injury to athletes. Whether it’s the FIS, NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, NCAA, as well as professional soccer, tennis, and golf, and down to the high school ranks, male and female athletes regularly end their seasons (and sometimes their careers) with a serious injury.

Given the steady flow of injuries that occur to athletes, mid-January for ski racers is timely to return to a topic that is near and dear to me, namely, the role of the mind in responding to an injury and its impact on a quality rehabilitation and an effective return to sport.

Though I don’t know the statistics on specific injuries in sports, I’m going to figure that a substantial portion of career athletes sustain a serious injury at some point over the years. Also, as the author of two books on the psychology of injury, I regularly work with athletes of all sorts helping them recover and return to their sport better than ever.

Having avoided serious injury during my own career as an internationally ranked ski racer (just a partially torn ACL and two broken wrists), I tore up and had surgery on my shoulder a few years ago while working with a group of ski racers in Chile. That’s when I finally learned firsthand how difficult recovering from a serious injury can be.

The sad reality of sports is that many young athletes either have so far or will this year hurt themselves so seriously that it will either end or cause a long break in their seasons. The good news is that surgical and rehabilitative technology has become so advanced that a full physical recovery from an injury that a few decades ago might have been career-ending is now commonplace.

Another reality of physical injuries is that the mind gets damaged too, but little attention is paid to how the absence of “mental rehab” can prevent athletes from returning to or improving upon their pre-injury level of performance. As a result, I am going to share some ideas I have about how injured athletes can ensure that their minds recover as fully as their bodies through the period of rehabilitation.

Keep Perspective

Accept that getting hurt sucks and you will feel bad at times, especially early in your recovery when you’re more disabled than recovering. You will not be able to do the normal things to which you are accustomed. You will be in pain. You’ll feel frustrated, angry, and depressed. You’ll want to curl up in a ball and withdraw from life. These reactions are normal and – to some degree – healthy, as you have to allow yourself to grieve for your loss.

At the same time, if you allow yourself to stay in that funk for too long, you will surely delay your recovery. So, after a short time, get over your pity party and get your mind on your recovery; keep focused on the present (“What can I do now to get healthy?”) and the future (“I will heal and get back better than ever!”).

Another part of keeping perspective is that your injury seems like a big deal now, but, when you look back on it in a few years, it will probably be just a blip in your sports career and life. I’m working with a European athlete who missed two years with a back injury, but he never gave up his dream and is now healthier and better than ever.

Stick with Your Rehab Program

A simple reality I learned in recovering from my shoulder injury was that if you follow your rehab program, you will get better. And if you don’t, you won’t. The problem is that rehab hurts (a lot!), is boring, tiring, and monotonous. In other words, it gets old fast. That’s why so many injured athletes end up either shortening or skipping rehab sessions or not putting in their best effort. The result: delayed or incomplete recovery.

There is also a subset of injured athletes who have the belief that more is better, so they do more sets and reps on more days than recommended by their rehab team. Unfortunately, this more is better mentality often results in overuse injuries and other complications, and a slowed rather than accelerated recovery. My recommendation here is very straightforward: Do exactly what your rehab team tells you to do, no more and no less.

Become a Better Athlete

I have seen careers saved by serious injuries. How is that possible, you might ask? Getting injured can teach you to be tough, endure hardship, and really find your motivation for sports. Injuries can also enable you to focus on areas of our sport that have been weaknesses, but you simply haven’t had time to work on them. Yes, a knee injury, for example, can prevent you from doing a lot. But it’s also an opportunity to figure out ways you can improve as an athlete working around your knee, for instance, strengthening your core and upper body, improving your flexibility, and increasing your stamina. The goal is for you to return to your sport a physically better athlete than you were before.

Redirect Your Energies

One of the most difficult aspects of an injury is that you can’t do what you normally do and are often at a loss for how to expend the energy that builds up in you every day. Another downside is that you have lost something that has been a source of self-esteem, validation, meaning, satisfaction, and joy in your life.

Your best path is to find something toward which you can direct your energy and that will provide you with what sports used to for you. It can be anything, for example, learning a musical instrument, cooking, reading, academics, etc. The important thing is to find something you can care about and throw yourself into it just the way you threw yourself into your sport. Not only will it bolster how you feel about yourself, but it will also take your mind off of the disappointment of your injury and the difficulty of the recovery.

Stay Involved in Sports

The chances are that much of your life revolves around sports and being injured can cause you to feel isolated and at a distance from the sport you love. This separation from sports can also hurt your motivation because you aren’t experiencing many of the good things that you get from sports: the excitement, inspiration, fun, and camaraderie of your teammates.

So, look for ways to stay connected with your sport. For example, become an apprentice coach (this will help you learn more about technique) or help out at practices and competitions. Do your physical conditioning (around your injury) during regular team fitness sessions. I realize that this might be difficult because you will be eager to be out there and you may not like seeing your teammates or competitors moving ahead of you. At the same time, both the connection and seeing others having fun and getting results will further motivate you to rehab and get back on the hill. 

Read About and Watch Video of Televised Competitions

Imagine if, while sidelined with an injury, you just sat on the sofa all day. Obviously, your muscles would atrophy, you’d get really out of shape, and you wouldn’t be ready to return to your sport when your injury healed. The same applies to your mind. If you don’t keep it sharp, it too will get soft and out of shape.

One way to keep your mind in shape is to watch video of yourself and televised competitions of your heroes. You can use multimedia to rehab your mind and keep it focused and in the game during your recovery. Watch video of top athletes you admire at least three time a week for 10 minutes. You will learn about technique and feel inspired watching them, while recognizing that many of them have returned from serious injuries as well. Start following the World Cup in greater depth than you’re usually able to during the ski season. Heck, begin each day by reading SkiRacing.com to see what’s going on in the world of your sport! 

Develop a Mental Imagery Program

There is nothing more important to your mental recovery than mental imagery. Imagery is not just something that goes on in your head. In fact, it connects your mind and your body and, amazingly, activates muscles in the same way as when you are actually performing in your sport (though not with the same intensity). Mental imagery, in a way, fools your body into thinking that you are really performing in your sport.

Imagery has huge benefits to recovery from injury. Research shows that you can improve your skills without actual training by engaging in regular mental imagery. So, by doing imagery regularly, you can maintain or maybe even better your sports skills. Seeing and feeling yourself continuing to practice and compete, in your mind’s eye, will keep your motivation up because you’ll be inspired to get back to your sport, your confidence high because you’ll regularly see and feel yourself performing well, and your mind focused because you’ll be exercising your mental muscles. As a result, they will all stay in shape for your return to sport. Importantly, imagery will make you feel like you’re still progressing as an athlete. 

Bottom Line

When you get seriously injured, it is a real bummer. But what is an even bigger bummer is not returning fully or as quickly as possible to your sport. For you to return to sport as good or better than you were before your injury, you need to do everything possible to facilitate your recovery. That means, of course, following your physical rehab program to the letter. But it also means developing and following a mental rehab program as well, so that your body and your mind are fully recovered and prepared for the rigors of sports from the very moment you return to practice.

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About the Author: Jim Taylor

Jim Taylor, Ph.D., competed internationally while skiing for Burke Mountain Academy, Middlebury College, and the University of Colorado. Over the last 30 years, he has worked with the U.S. and Japanese Ski Teams, many World Cup and Olympic racers, and most of the leading junior race programs in the U.S. and Canada. He is the creator of the Prime Ski Racing series of online courses and the author of Train Your Mind for Athletic Success: Mental Preparation to Achieve Your Sports Goals. To learn more or to contact Jim, visit drjimtaylor.com