“It’s just like any other game!” – How many times have you heard someone say that?
Maybe you’re a coach who’s said it to players before an important match. Maybe you’re an athlete who’s heard it from teammates or coaches who are trying to make things as normal as possible in the build up to a big competition. “If we do what we normally do, we’ll be alright.” And you know what, in certain circumstances, yup, that works fine.
If you’re a basketball fan like me, you’ll be eagerly awaiting the return of the Chicago Bulls’ explosive point guard, Derrick Rose. Rose missed the whole of the 2012-13 NBA season after suffering a torn ACL the previous year, and a few months ago, I wrote a piece about him and some of the psychological factors that should be taken into account during an athlete’s return to play following injury. You can read it here if you like. It’s not bad.
There are psychological as well as physical consequences of sports injuries.
But one thing that I glossed over was the psychological impact that injuries can have on athletes, and the ways in which they attempt to cope with these often stressful, sometimes traumatic, events. So in this post, I’m going to try to summarise some of the ways that athletes respond to injury
