Injury Inventory

Nothing is more frustrating than a recurring injury keeping you from practices and games.

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I think that the frequency of injury within a team can have a significant impact on a team's ability to improve over a season.  A quick thought experiment:

Let's say:

- the team has a roster of 25 players.

- the team has a total of 25 available practices in which to get better (winter/spring)

- Players try as hard as they can when healthy and attend all practices.

- If a player is healthy and practices, they earn (1) point for the team.

- If a player is injured and does not practice, they earn (0) points for the team.

This means the maximum potential for the team is (25 players) * ( 25 practices) = 625 points.

The best case scenario is that obviously that everyone is always healthy, attends every practice, and every point possible is claimed.  This means the team improves as much as they possibly can.

But injuries are part of the game.  Wear and tear, collisions with other players and the ground, etc. can cause injury.  Let's say that our team has an average of two players injured per practice.  Not always the same players, let's assume it rotates around a bit.

With 2 injured players per practice, we can now only earn 23 points per practice.  This caps our max potential at 575 for the season, around 92% of where we started.  So the best possible version of our team is 8% worse, just due to injury.

I know I have been at practices with 5 or more players unable to cleat up.  If this happened every practice, the team would be losing a full 20% of it's improvement potential, solely due to injury.  (Note: I'm not even bringing attendance numbers into this, but it's not a stretch to see how teams could dip down to 65% or lower, just on number of practicing players.)

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Some injuries can heal with time and rest.  More often, I have found that my injuries are symptomatic of a bad movement pattern, and that time and rest isn't enough.  This is when physical therapy and weight training come into play.

Ren (http://www.renfitness.net/xhtml/resources.html) talks about how she works with new clients and develops an "Injury Inventory" - A list of all the injuries a player has sustained.  The purpose of this is to gain a better understanding of what might be going on, if any movement patters are wrong/needs fixing, and to better determine how a player should train/identify areas of improvement.  The end goal is to determine how to get on the right path towards maintaining health and being back on the field.  I think it's a pretty cool idea.  I'm not a certified strength and conditioning coach, but I don't think I have to be to go over my injury history and try to develop a better understanding of my historical problem areas.

My Injury Inventory:

Problem Area - Time Frame

Ankle Sprains (R/L) - Jr. High School - 6 weeks Physical Therapy (2-3x/wk)

Low Hamstring Pull (R) - High School - No formal PT

Shin Splints (R/L) - 2008 College - No formal PT

High Hamstring Pull (R) - 2008 College - No formal PT

Separated Shoulder (R) - 2012 College - No formal PT

Sports Hernia (Low Back) - 2012 College - 8 weeks Physical Therapy

Low Hamstring Pull (R) - 2013 - No formal PT
Groin Pull (R) - 2013 - No Formal PT

ACL Tear (R) - 2013 - Surgery, 6 months Physical Therapy

Groin Pull (R) - 2014 - 6 weeks Physical Therapy (2-3x/wk)

I have learned that I have much to learn about my body.  I like to think I have made some progress towards understanding how to keep it healthy and ready to play.  My most important lesson would be that coming back from a recurring injury requires listening and working with your physical therapist, great patience, and the iron will to complete rehab/prehab exercises day in and day out.  I have never been able to overcome a recurring leg injury without those 3 things, and especially not without the help of a physical therapist.