Injuries often take their toil on athletes mentally as well as physically. The more we focus on what we are missing or what we can’t do, the more that grows. After all, what we focus on grows. The key is to keep your mind busy with positive and/or productive thoughts that will help you during the injury and your return from injury. Below are some suggestions.
1. Use productive self talk. For ex. “I am getting better every day.” Tell yourself each day you are doing what you need to be doing to get better.
2. Visualize your injury getting better. Send positive vibes to the injury, seeing and feeling it getting better. There is research that shows imagining the injury healing can speed up the healing process.
3. Compartmentalize the pain. If you have decided to play hurt then you have to make a commitment to not give the pain any life; place it in the back recesses of your brain during competition; don’t think about it, talk about it, etc.
4. Find the positive. List all the ways, your injury will make you stronger. Keep adding to this list and keep it visible.
5. Visualize. Practice in your head. Your brain doesn’t know the difference if it’s actually doing something or thinking about it. Therefore, practice all your skills in your head so you won’t miss a beat once you are back to playing.
(Look up Laura Wilkinson for proof that this works. She won an Olympic Gold Medal after missing several months of practice leading up to the Olympics. She kept herself prepared by visualizing her skills)
6. Do the little things. Become focused on taking care of your body especially the injured area. Getting proper rest and eating healthy spreads recovery. Focus on your therapy.
7. Better yourself. Work on other parts of your game that won’t effect the injured area even if this is just the mental game. Work on being the best teammate possible.
8. Get creative. What other ways can you use positive energy to make you better?
Create a daily plan and stick to it and I promise you will recover quicker, return stronger, and deal with the injury in a more productive way.
Tami Matheny is a Mental Game Coach and Author of “The Confident Athlete: 4 Easy Steps to Build and Maintain Confidence” https://r2lc.com/the-confident-athlete-4-easy-steps-to-build-and-maintain-confidence/ and “The Confidence Journal”. Both books can be purchased online at Amazon or Barnes and Noble. For group discounts contact tami@r2l.mysites.io.
Tami owns and runs, Refuse2LoseCoaching which provides mental coaching for athletes and teams at all levels. For more information on mentally training contact tami@r2l.mysites.io, follow us on twitter @tamimatheny and @r2lcoaching and visit our website:https://r2lc.com.
For daily confidence tips, sign up for the monthly confidence calendar: https://r2lc.com/monthly-confidence-calendar-newsletter/. If you are on Facebook join the group Parents and the Mental Game for daily advice, tips, and motivation: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1491446574332599/.