How to Cope and Even Improve as an Injured Athlete (Part I)
Being injured as an athlete can be demoralizing. The activity that you love doing has been taken away from you, and you now have to watch your team and/or other athletes compete while you sit on the sidelines. Many athletes in this position feel isolated from their teammates and coaches. They cannot play with their teammates and share the challenges and joys of competing together. Some coaches may be less intentional about interacting with injured athletes. By not actively participating in competition, they may feel disconnected from the team’s goals and lose their sense of purpose within the team, leading athletes to question their worth on the team. Even though being hurt limits an athlete’s ability to both help the team and improve themselves, these things are still possible! Following some of the below guidelines can help give athletes a greater sense of purpose and motivation during a difficult period.
Develop a New Role
Many injured athletes struggle with navigating their new role once they get hurt. They want to be able to help the team with their play on their field, but that ability is not possible anymore. However, injured players can still play a role in helping their team. Team chemistry and morale are important for successful performance. The negative attitudes that injured players might be tempted to take can rub off on other people and bring the team down. The best teams do not have to all be friends, but they typically are characterized by respect and a willingness to work together and push each other to achieve the same goal. What can you do in terms of your relationships with your teammates to help them in competition? Take the same attitude of trying to be the best player you can be to being the best teammate you can be. Support and encourage your teammates. Stand next to the coaches during practice and talk to them about what you are seeing. Help with setting up and packing up equipment. Imagine what you would want from your teammates if they were injured, and you were the one playing.
Set Goals During Recovery Period
Rehabbing injuries is never as exciting or fulfilling as playing the sport itself. The exercises are often repetitive and simple, and progress can be slow. Using goal-setting can increase motivation and focus during the recovery process, just as you might set goals for your sport performance for the same reasons. You might set goals for how many reps of a certain rehab exercise you can do and try to beat yourself each day in terms of increasing that number. If you can only bike while recovering from an injury, set certain goals for your biking, such as biking a certain number of miles in a certain amount of time. You cannot compete against other teams/athletes, but you can always compete with yourself. Reaching these goals can then result in a feeling of accomplishment and increase further motivation and purpose to continue pushing yourself in your recovery process. The more committed you are to your recovery process, the more likely it is that you will have a successful and efficient recovery.
Practice Imagery
Imagery is the practice of creating or recreating experiences in our mind (many know it as visualization). When we imagine acting out a certain movement in our minds, the same neural pathways in our brain that fire when we actually do that same movement in real life also fire. It is as if our brain really believes that we are performing the same movement. Those neurons do not fire as strongly, though, when we imagine the movement as compared to literally doing the movement. This means that imagery allows us to get a “mental rep” in, even if these mental reps do not have the same power as an actual “physical rep.” Injured athletes in particular can benefit from imagery when they are physically unable to perform. Many athletes struggle with feeling rusty when they return from injuries and find that it takes some time to return to the same sharpness as before their injury. These injured athletes could spend time imagining themselves playing their sport and practicing certain movements/skills while they are injured so that they have a head start when they return from imagery and do not feel as rusty (For more information on imagery, check out a blog post I wrote focused on imagery.
Injured athletes could also benefit from a specific type of imagery called “healing imagery.” This involves imagining in the mind the actual process of the body healing. For example, one might imagine blood flowing in the area of the injury and associate that blood flow with healing properties. Another example would be to imagine a restructured ligament after surgery being strong and supple. Healing imagery can help induce a more relaxed state in the body, which is more conducive for healing. They can also evoke a greater sense of control and purpose in athletes, as they take on a more holistic, positive approach to their recovery. With this improved mindset made up of a belief in the healing process and willingness to make it happen, athletes are more likely to tackle their rehabilitation with greater commitment and motivation, which is also associated with healing (For more information on healing imagery: https://appliedsportpsych.org/resources/injury-rehabilitation/using-the-mind-to-heal-the-body-imagery-for-injury-rehabilitation/).
Stay tuned for Part II of this blog for more tips on how athletes can manage being injured!
If you are injured and need help managing the recovery process from a mental standpoint, contact our sport psychologist today!
1. Contact Sunrise Counseling
2. Meet with one of our caring therapists
Mental Health Services at Sunrise Counseling in Dallas, TX
Sunrise Counseling offers a variety of other mental health services in our Dallas TX-based therapy office and offers telehealth therapy to those residing in Texas. Mental health services we provide at Sunrise Counseling include: