The Psychological Side Of The Injury

Tendonitis, concussions, shin splints, torn ACL’s, pulled groin muscles, sprained ankles, dislocations, and torn rotator cuffs are just a some of the many injuries you can receive while participating in any type of sport. Many athletes’ injuries start small, and escalate depending on how hard and how often the person works. This leaves two of the biggest decisions for injured athletes. One, knowing when to stop before they hurt themselves more. Two, deciding when to get come back. Even after surgeries, physical therapy, and time off, these can be two of the hardest decisions an athlete can make after being injured.

This has affected me by making me play even if I’m in a bad condition. One time, I fractured my finger in practice, and when I went to take an X-ray, the doctors said I had to wait for 2 months until I can play again. I told myself that these were the times that would make me different from other people. On the following week, I couldn’t stand watching anymore, so I got the closest tape I could find. I wrapped my fingers together to stop the pain and I started playing. This paid off for me because the coach can now rely on me to stay in the game even if I have the worst

When playing any athletic sport, there are multiple risks that a player, such as I, may encounter while participating in each sport. Growing up in a sports family, meant I played multiple sports as a young athlete, such as, baseball, football, basketball and swimming. During my younger sports years, I cannot recall any major injuries or concussions in any of the sports I played. While practicing and participating in any sport or activity it is necessary to take precautions, by using the proper equipment and good technique before, during, and after the activity. As an athlete with many hours of practice and conditioning, I felt I ready for almost anything life could throw at me. As an athlete, I have pushed my body to the limit and my body started to push back with injuries leading to partial fractures, MCL tears, and UCL strain.

Most collegiate athletes receive injuries during his or her athletic career. There is an astonishing 750,000 injuries reported per year in the United States. Injuries are the worst part of being a college competitor. Even worse, is the possibility of a requiring injury or multiple injuries in one’s career? Breaking a bone or tearing a muscle puts both a physical and mental toll on the athlete. It sucks to

In sports, the probability of getting an injury is very high. Players don’t even have to try and may get severely hurt. Some teammates and coaches say that the players just need to be more careful and watch their surroundings more intently. But, players have to be continuously aware of their surroundings to keep themselves from getting hurt by others, much less self-inflicted injuries. Mark Hyman and Nathan Pitcock, writers from The New York Times, write “Half of all sports injuries among kids each year are caused by simple overuse… injuries-stress fractures, ruptured ligaments, and growth plate injuries- can be quite serious, and many can cause lifelong problems” (Pitcock, Hyman 1). These injuries are all very common with today’s youth. The lifelong injuries are not worth the risk of playing one more game. If players really want to avoid self-afflicted injuries, they should prepare themselves for the sport year around so that they are conditioned for the next season, but players should play more than one sport to cross-train and avoid overuse of specific bones and

A psychological response to common sports injuries is anger. Anger can be towards the person who caused the injury, as they may have ruined their chances of getting into a higher level in the sport. The anger can be towards yourself because you could have come back to the sport too soon and the injury had reoccurred. You can think to yourself it I had only given it another week before I did the sport again the injury may not have happened.

The integrated sport injury model consists of three main components. These components are cognitive appraisal, emotional response and behavioral response. The model

When they get injured, they often wonder why and what exactly is going on. This is a critical part in whether the article will recover in the right timeframe. Diagnosing the athlete’s injury will also soothe or stress them on a mental level depending on what type of person they are. Depending on their mental state, this will determine if they understand their injury and how it happened. Further details into the injury will sometimes help the athlete and their parents cope with their injury because most athlete’s don’t know how to explain what happened to them. Once the physical therapist helps you figure out why you got injured, they will teach you exercises and techniques related to your injury. These exercises/techniques will help the athlete reduce pain. Whether they have a sprained knee or torn meniscus, every injury is different and everyone’s rehab plan is different than the next. There is a wide variety of injuries and physical therapy that helps the athlete focus on their injury then tries to strengthen that injury. According to Jennifer Robinson, M.D. of WebMD, “Physical therapy is like a super-focused type of workout (Physical Therapy for Chronic Pain). In some cases, “if physical therapy helps you eliminate pain or heal from an injury, surgery may not be needed” (10 Ways Physical Therapy Can Help). “Physical therapist can help these patients control pain, often reducing

Physical sporting injury and the treatments in place are much published within literature today. However, there is little attention paid to that of the psychological treatments needed by sporting athletes and also the fears and emotions they might feel during the injury process and/or on return to full participation of their chosen sport. While the physical injury may be treated effectively and athletes are at the stage where returning to sport is permitted, they may be apprehensive or carry a fear about the possibility of returning to training and play (Herring 2006). In 1997, Crossman stated that effective injury management requires an understanding of the psychological processes involved and the knowledge of the strategies that can affect healing. In 2006, Herring backed up this statement believing that team physicians must be considerate of psychological factors to a similar extent as that of physical when treating and coordinating care for injured athletes. Psychological factors have been shown to be associated with the recovery and rehabilitation period following sports injury, but less is known about the psychological response associated with returning to sport after injury.

As a sport psychology consultant, there are several courses of actions that might help Matt deal with his shoulder injury. These courses of actions include goal setting, positive-self talk, imagery, and relaxation training. First of all, personal performance goals can reduce the time and length of shoulder healing during Matt’s recovery time. In addition to goal setting, self-talk will help Matt to rebuild his confidence, so he could learn to prevent negative thoughts that will hinder his ability to perform in competitions. Accordingly, Matt can also visualize himself weightlifting, so it can quicken his return to competitive lifting. Lastly, Matt can also relieve the pain and stress that’s associated with recovery process through relaxation training, which will allow him to become a better competitor during future weight lifting

In work with injured athletes, some sport and exercise psychologists have proposed that certain attitudes might predispose athletes to injury (7). According to this

“My body could stand the crutches but my mind couldn’t stand the sideline”. Michael Jorden said this while he was physically hurt. This is one of the key reasons as to why people who get injured while playing sports push threw the pain; while there is huge excitement preforming on the court, there is little excitement sitting hurt on the bench. Yet, pushing threw the pain is not a good preference when the extent of the pain is unknown. Sports injuries can affect you your entire life depending on how major the injury is. With knowing the importance of sports injuries, money can be saved, and enjoying the sport will be simpler. Along with different kinds of injuries, there are two different levels of injuries that are easy to prevent once the causes are known.

My experience with injuries aren’t a whole lot, because I would like to say I don’t put myself into situation to get hurt a whole lot. I have faced a lot of bruises in lacrosse and they hurt, but they eventually go away. I have been in a lot of pain after a few slashes to my hand, I came out right away because of the pain. I hung in there and finished and it eventually went away. I’ve never broken a bone, and I have never gotten hurt to the point where I won’t play and go out and give everything I

Research for this paper is gathered from several different articles discussing the many different aspects of psychological and sociological effects of individuals. These effects targeted specifically are studied using athletes that are or have at some point suffered from some kind of sports injury. Shpigel(2012), discusses how the injuries of society’s “heroes” could lead to a sociological downgrade in the involvement in sports in the future. On the other hand, Weise(2010) discusses how the sociocultural can affect the risk of injury as well as response to injury and recovery after injury. However, the initial psychological thinking of individuals about their surroundings falls under the same article. In regards to psychological aspects of

Mental toughness is not a new concept in sport, but is generally misunderstood. Coaches design programmes to develop mentally tough athletes, predominately in professional sport, to separate elite performers from good performers (Gould, Jackson, & Finch, 1993) as physical talent itself is not the only component that can lead an athlete to success (Gucciardi, Gordon, & Dimmock, 2008).