Injuries

As I sat out from practice this past week I was left wondering if I would be in this position now if I had just taken the time to recover fully in the fall. I had strained my hamstring after Illinois Invite in October and instead of doing the smart thing and resting it and bringing it to full strength before returning to playing, I returned too soon, not only playing on it in practice but playing a full tournament on it as well at MLC. What would have been a 3-4 week injury went to a nagging season long one, preventing me from playing 100% when I was able to play and in my current situation, putting me on the sidelines for the next 3 weeks.

So why was it that I felt I needed to return sooner than I should have? Why was it that I played on it when I should have just sat out and continued strengthening it? Was it the pressure of tryouts and showing Stupca that I wasn’t a total scrub? Was it the pressure of my teammates?  Looking back to last year we might be able to see that team culture can have a lot to do with how one responds to injuries. There was a negative stigma about being hurt last year and this can help drive people to come back sooner than they should. Another driving factor is not wanting to let the team down. When injured you get to sit back and witness all of your teammates putting in work while you focus on recovery, its hard not to feel the desire to join them. This feeling is especially amplified around tournaments. You train all year for these few tournaments and having to sit on the sideline watching your teammates go to war without you is just rubbing salt in your wounds.

For an example, lets look at Greg’s injury progression from last year. Greg injured his knee at practice in the early spring and sat out for an extended amount of time letting it heal (good!). Greg then sat out for the majority of our first tournament before deciding to jump in during a close game. During the one point was in, he chased down a huck and re-aggravated the injury, putting him slightly for longer (bad). Come Easterns he was able to play a majority of the tournament before once again re-injuring his knee during the last game. This put him out until regionals where he eventually went for broke during our semifinal match up against Northwestern was able to play one point before getting scored on and falling back to square one once again.

The moral of this story and something I wish I would have considered more in the fall, is taking your full time to recover. You know your body, you know if you are healthy enough or not. If its even borderline something that could potentially sit you out for the rest of the season, take care of it the first time. Don’t risk injuring it again especially in a situation that doesn’t matter as much as regionals does. I believe all that Greg did was due to his love of the team and wanting to be able to help them win, but sometimes we need to step back and consider what really matters in the long run. Even though it may be hard to sit out as you watch your teammates grinding through practice and putting in the work, you have to think about the end result. Although it may suck to miss a regular season tournament, its better to do whatever it takes to ensure you can play when it matters come regionals. In my case I’ll be out for the next 3-4 weeks working on bringing my hamstring back to full strength. Its going to hurt not being able to play at Centex but if I can ensure my health for the rest of the season it will definitely be worth it. And in the meantime I’ll be doing everything within my power to expedite the healing process.