Immeasurable progress — BASC | Strength & Conditioning

Take home message

USE THE SMALL WINS AND LESSONS FROM OTHERS AS STRATEGIES IN REHAB.

For Coaches

Your acknowledgement of progress has profound impact on a players’ emotional rehabilitation journey.

For Athletes

You can help injured teammates with lessons from your own journey, or by acknowledging the progress they are making.

Rehab is not a lot of fun. First, the athlete does not want to be there. They’d rather be off training and playing with their teammates. Second, I don’t want to be there. That might sound harsh. But I want them off training and playing with their teammates also. No one takes up sport to do rehab!

Depending on the length of rehab, it can be very lonely, seemingly never ending place and it can be depressing. Not an uplifting post this, is it?

My point is that it is a critical role for a coach to help guide the athlete through this darkness.

A couple of rehabs in recent years have been lengthy and unique (unique in, not your common injury). I was fairly certain during those rehabs, and very confident now, that some of the best people to have in your rehab team are fit and healthy athletes that have been through significant rehab. I’ve never been talented enough as an athlete to be in a situation where I have been hurt. Hard to get injured running a few laps or collecting balls from the field. So I have limited personal experience when it comes to injury. So I recognise the value of “word-of-mouth”, of peer recommendations. I make a point of playing match-maker, whispering in the ear of previous “customers” (previously injured athletes) to help pick up, encourage and mentor the currently injured. It is all well and good for me to say, “This is the plan and it will work” – but I’ve never truly been injured. I have found that reassurance and sharing stories about rehab experiences between athletes are very powerful.

Another powerful tool for lengthy rehab is to highlight and celebrate the small progress that is often overlooked (because it is small). Athletes at any level take movement or physical performance for granted and fail to recognise even the smallest steps on the road back from injury. It might be distance covered in a session, an advancement in a rehab exercise or a new skill progression. Whilst I can highlight these, it is even more powerful if you can have a skills coach or fellow teammate also recognise the progress. In rehab I see the athlete daily, often multiple times a day. So I see the progress and am encouraging. However, it means so much more if a teammate or coach makes an acknowledgement.

If you are injured:

please seek the wisdom of other athletes who may have been through a similar process. There are rehab processes they would definitely do again, and definitely not, and
celebrate the small wins all the time. They add up.

If you are a coach or teammate of an injured athlete, resist asking about the injury as sometimes your genuine concern is actually a frequent reminder they’re hurt. Try instead to highlight the progress you are seeing. Your emotional support enhances recovery.

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Thanks again. BA.