How sport psychology enhances your recovery

The heart of injury recovery lies with your doctors and physical therapists. Sport psychology will never substitute the physical work necessary to rehabilitate injuries. It does, however, facilitate improved recovery results. This is because many sport psychology methods used in injury recovery are aimed at improving your motivation to do the difficult work, confidence in the recovery plan laid out by your support team, and offers a space for you to talk about the stressors that result from your injury.

Sport psychology skills trained in injury rehab stay with you when you’re back to competing

I’m a big fan of efficiency, which is why I love this truth about sport psychology and injury rehab - these skills are directly transferable to competition when you’re back to playing.

The time you spend training and developing these skills is not just for injury rehab, it’s for your athletic career.

To best explain how this works, let’s look at the mental skill of imagery, sometimes called visualization.

There are many ways imagery can be used within injury rehab; let’s talk about it in the context of managing fears of re-injury, a common mental obstacle everyone faces.

In the weeks leading up to you being given the green light to return to competing, you’re probably going to feel super excited. With this excitement, however, also comes anxiety.

You might have thoughts along the lines of: “my body doesn’t feel ready” or, “what if I have a setback and have to miss a big game coming up?”

If you ignore sport psychology through your recovery, the best you can do is complete your exercises and ask for evidence from your doctors that you are indeed healthy. Sometimes, this builds enough confidence in an athlete upon their return. Other times, it only gets you so far.

To use imagery to decrease your fears of re-injury and instead boost your confidence and excitement in returning, all of my athletes are trained in visualizing their return to play.

This involves the whole process of getting your equipment on once again, stepping onto the field or rink and giving your injured area a test run.

Throughout this process, athletes are encouraged to incorporate multiple senses, not just sight, in their imagined experience. This is a key part of using imagery, whether you’re injured or competing.

Additionally, you’re told to imagine the injury not feeling great upon return. Rarely do injuries feel perfect at the first chance of returning, so it’s important to prepare for this.

This discomfort is normal, but it can also send athletes spiraling at the thought of their injury not being healed if they haven’t prepared for this possibility.

From there, you continuously engage in imagery exercises in those weeks leading up to your return, becoming familiar with how it may feel to get back to your sport - from that first time you return to your field to being back in mid-game form, like you don’t even remember the injury happened.

You’ll develop a sense of preparedness and confidence in the face of adversity if it hits you.

On a personal note,

I’ve dealt with injuries that lead to lengthy recovery times. My shoulder still doesn’t feel the same, 8 years post-surgery.

For my Master’s degree graduate project, I made a workbook titled Mental Skills to Facilitate Rehabilitation in Injured Ice Hockey Players. I learned about some amazing research and numerous sport psychology exercises that back up everything I have to say on this page.

And better yet…I broke my leg in the middle of the year I spent making this workbook.

While I wouldn’t ask for that pain again, it allowed me to have a fresh perspective on so many mental obstacles that injury rehabilitation puts up.

If you’re ready to take the next step in pursuing sport psychology training, click the button below to schedule a free intro call with me. You can discuss the mental obstacles you’re facing right now, ask me any questions you have about our work together, and determine if we’d be a good fit to move forward.