Returning from a Major Injury
We’ve all had injuries. They can be painful, emotionally draining, and frustrating. Minor injuries happen all the time, but some may require extensive time off, physical therapy, or even the dreaded word no athlete wants to hear…surgery. After a major injury like that, returning to your sport can be a stressful and scary experience. I know how it feels; at age 24 I’ve had more injuries, surgeries, and physical therapy treatments than I’d like, both softball and non-sport related. Today I want to share some injury recovery tips from my experience with you.
There are a lot of “what ifs” that may be going through your mind when it’s time to return to your sport:
- What if I’m not as good as I was before the injury?
- What if my team has found someone to replace me?
- What if I have been out of my sport too long?
- What if I’m out of shape?
- What if I have missed too much?
- What if I get a new injury?
- What if I re-injure the thing that I just fixed?
- What if I have to go through all of that again?
- What if I fail?
I’ve had these same thoughts. After developing a nerve condition in my forearm and tearing cartilage in my wrist during high school, I wasn’t sure if I would ever be able to pitch again. I would go out into the backyard with Coach Phil for pitching practice and I would intentionally slow all of my pitches down. He would ask me why I was doing that and my response would always be “I’m scared.”
For both of these injuries, it took months of medication and physical therapy for me to be cleared to play. I was afraid to go back because I didn’t want to go through all of that again! But Coach Phil would always say, “If you’re afraid of hurting yourself again, then there is no point in playing.” Of course at the time, I would yell and cry and say things like “you just don’t understand!” He’s my dad and it is my job as a daughter to not listen to anything he says. But as time went on, I realized that what he was saying was true. I had seen the best doctors, and the best physical therapists, and they helped me prepare not only my injury, but also the rest of my body for returning to softball. I had to trust that I would be OK.
As athletes, we are always at risk for injuring ourselves. If we play in fear of that, we will never be able to give 100%. The best thing to do is take preventative measures—warming up PROPERLY before every game and practice no matter what; nourishing your body well so it can work effectively; strength training to eliminate injury-causing weak areas; and balancing your practice with proper rest and other activities that work different muscle groups.
But injuries can happen anyway, and if they do, my best advice is to take BABY STEPS. When you’re injured it’s easy to get depressed about it, to want to give up, and to feel like the therapies you’re doing aren’t accomplishing anything. Keep these baby steps in mind and know that there is light at the end of the tunnel:
- Even if you aren’t in pain or sore, apply ice and heat to your injury anyway to keep the inflammation down and encourage healing.
- Take your physical therapy seriously. Your PT is not there to punish you or bore you; his/her job is to get you better. Really focus on your exercises while you are with your therapist, and if he/she tells you to do your exercises at home, DO THEM AT HOME. Even if you can’t see/feel progress every day, it’s happening. Don’t make it happen slower by getting lazy with your work.
- Rest. If you are in pain, stop. You increase your chance of re-injuring yourself and being out for even longer if you push yourself too hard when you’re not ready. Patience will lead to less down time in the long run.
- Trust your doctors, but trust yourself too. Your doctor won’t clear you if it isn’t safe for you to play, but at the same time you are the only one who can feel your own body. Keep step 3 in mind when you first return to play.
I hope that these suggestions are helpful, though I know that the recovery process is still a stressful one. Just remember that you can’t control your injury, but you can control your reaction to it and your attitude about recovery. If you take your recovery process and your preventative measures seriously, you won’t let your injury defeat you.
My daughters 15. And she recently is having forearm problems. The coach thinks it tendinitis. Is that how your injury started out? Is forearm soreness a common injury for a pitcher? She started pitching when she was 12. We have been doing forearm fire pitching for about 5 months.
Hi Jose!
Thanks for the question, I am sorry to hear that your daughter is having pain while she is pitching.
My forearm and wrist issues were not diagnosed as tendonitis, and they did not stem from the mechanics of my arm in my pitching motion. My problems came from a combination of a few things; my wrist injury came from hitting. The forearm injury came from getting hit with the sharp edge of a helmet (as weird as that sounds) and hitting my hip during my pitching motion. Please understand that hitting your hip while pitching is NOT good. It just so happens that my body is built in such a way that I cannot avoid it sometimes.
To answer your question though, I have not worked with any girls who have complained of forearm pain, nor do I know anyone else who has. My suggestion to you is that you watch your daughter and make sure she is not hitting her hip like I did, because a direct trauma can definitely contribute. Also, please remember that forearm fire utilizes a totally relaxed forearm an wrist. If your daughter is even a little bit stiff or is muscling the ball, which is very possible considering she is still so new at these mechanics, then that stiffness will create joint and muscle tension, which can cause pain in the shoulder, elbow, forearm, and wrist. My advice would be to maybe video your daughter pitching, there are great apps on smartphones, the two I use are called “Burst Mode High Speed Camera” and “The Coaches Eye.” These allow you to use slow motion, and rapid photos to see what your daughters body position and arm position look like throughout the entire pitch. You will be able to tell if her arm is hitting her hip or if her arm is too stiff by looking at the photos. If the pain persists, I would definitely get in touch with your doctor again and possibly look into getting an MRI to see what is going on, but I can tell you with 100% confidence that if she is doing forearm fire correctly, it will not cause forearm pain.
I hope this has helped! Feel free to contact me if you have any other questions.
Jill
Funny you mention hitting yourself. That’s what she thinks it is. Like you said it’s not the motion of the pitch. What’s the correct action to take? I ask Phil about 5 months ago if he knew of anyone that taught his technic. Here in Houston Tx.
It’s definitely a common problem! But everyones body is different, and even though a lot of girls hit their hips, they may be hitting on a different part of their arm based on their height, arm length, etc. Sounds like your daughter is similar to me! My suggestion would be to utilize wall work, I will explain it but here is a link to a video describing it:
https://www.fastpitchpower.com/wall-drills-for-improved-pitching-mechanics/
Wall work is great because it really helps reinforce the proper mechanics. But first I will explain what is probably causing your daughter to hit her hip, there are one of two main reasons:
1) She is not staying tracked long enough and her hip is closing too quickly, making it impossible for her arm to stay on the power line, so she hits herself in the hip
2) during the arm circle, her arm is going back behind her head and body instead of staying on the power line, causing her to hit her hip.
Wall work will help with both of these issues. What you will do is have your daughter stand about 2 inches away from a chain linked fence or net (she should be facing the wall). She will then do all of her drills from that position, this includes the isolated forearm fire drill, end game, reach track fire drive, etc. What this will do is allow her to see and feel her arm staying on the power line. If her arm gets behind her body, or her hip gets in the way, both her hand and the ball will hit the wall, and you will be able to tell what she is doing wrong. Once she does this a lot and the mechanics build into her muscle memory, she will have no problem keeping that arm away from her hip.
I hope this has helped!! I know, we are sad we can’t be everywhere to help all of our followers. If you ever have any questions or concerns though, you can always chat with us through the website, or you can even email us or Skype with us. I sometimes will do Skype lessons for people I have trouble seeing on a regular basis. But for now, good luck and I hope that your daughter’s arm feels better!
Jill