Injuries

Injuries are the bane of my existence. 2 ACLs, recurrent shoulder subluxations (and probably rotator cuff/biceps tendinopathy by now), ankle sprains, muscle pulls... You'd think I'd have it down by now. And in principle, the formula works: Rest, Ice/Ibuprofen, Compress, Elevate. But when you're training and you have practices 2-3x/week and workouts 2x/week and a tournament coming up on the weekend and you don't want to fall behind - well, it's hard to pull back. So what should we do?

Prevention is easier than rehab - do the weight lifting, learn the correct form and use the appropriate equipment, take the time to build up your base, and ease into the training. Many injuries come from trying to do too much too soon. Furthermore, lifting can not only help with muscle strains, but also with traumatic shoulder and knee injuries like dislocations and sprains by strengthening your muscles to improve stability at the joint.

Now what happens if you do get injured? Stop immediately and don't make it worse. You need to give yourself a chance to heal: acute injuries + immediate rest/rehab = a whole lot less time off than if that injury becomes chronic. I've had many players nurse an injury through an entire season - they try to come back too soon, hurt themselves again, take too little time to recover again, and repeat. It's frustrating as a coach, and even more frustrating to feel as if you were never at 100% the entire season. Take the long view, and stay off the field.

Rest is important, but it doesn't have to be total bed rest. You can still work out with most injuries, as long as you avoid aggravating the injured area. Knee problems? Swim or elliptical. Ankle sprain? Bicycle. And so forth. But if what you are doing causes any pain to the injury, then stop. Don't be bull-headed about it. Respect what your body is telling you and find an alternative.

Rehab is the other key component. You need to strengthen what has been injured, recover stability to your joints, and work on altering your biomechanics so you'll be less prone to reinjury. If it's your first time (or a chronic problem), getting checked out by a physical therapist will help you learn what to do. And on behalf of PTs everywhere, do your home exercise program! We give you specific exercises with the purpose of getting you back to playing sports, but you have to do the exercises to have progress.

As a coach, part of our responsibility to manage our players' fitness. So I am not shy about telling players to stay on the sideline, to use alternative workouts and get into rehab. I'd rather have them miss 2 weeks at the beginning of the season than 4 weeks during the Series.

As a player, you need to figure out what works for you. Are you someone who needs to be held back? (probably) Then tell your coach/captain/teammate to help keep you in check.

Final notes: If it hurts, ice. If it's swollen, RICE. And above all, give yourself time to recover.