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Physical And Mental Rehabilitation Of Athletes

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There are a multitude of individual and psychological aspects that go into athletic injury rehabilitation. Ievleva and Orlick (1991) found that athletes who recovered from injury faster than their peers were more consistently positive, had an internal locus of control, took personal responsibility for their faster healing, were more involved in goal setting and engaged in positive healing and/or performance imagery. Most athletic trainers believe in the use of psychological skills in the rehabilitation of athletes (Wiese, Weiss, & Yukelson, 1991). There are a plethora of different psychological skills to choose from when deciding which technique will be the most facilitative to athlete. As a result the Wiese et al. (1991) recommend the athletic and training staff take time to talk with the athletes to determine their reasons for being involved in sport, also to make sure to assess their feelings about returning to competition. This will help the trainers to individualize both the physical and mental rehabilitation process. Across the board, research has shown that the majority of athletes use psychological skills on their own accord during injury rehabilitation. For sport psychologists the challenge it to determine which skills and techniques are have the highest facilitative effects. This paper will examine the effects and uses of cognitive coping strategies, imagery and social support on athletes during the injury rehabilitation process. The

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