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In this article Craig will show the sports injury mental impact on young athlete and how to help.

Question: What kind of trouble can a serious injury have on a youth athlete’s confidence?

Wow, this is a very loaded question as I just finished creating an extensive video training to deal with conquering sports injuries.

The thing that parents and coaches need to understand about youth athletes getting injured is that this isn’t just an injury. This is destruction to a young athlete’s identity as a person at a time when that is a primary objective of all kids.

The best thing you can do is to mitigate that destruction by making sure that the injured athlete stays connected to the sport or the team in some manner as much as possible. Coming back fast and strong mentally and physically from injury requires successful completion of a 3-phase process: 1. Acceptance 2. Physical Healing 3. Clearing the mental blocks.

GirlSoftballPitching1Jean was a softball player on her high school and select sports travel team. She is naturally a fairly shy person and her parents reported to me that prior to getting involved with softball, had difficulty making friends.

It didn’t help that the family had moved a couple times making it even harder on Jean to feel like she fit in. By the way, “Fitting In” is THE MOST important thing to a teen or pre-teen and adults need to always keep that in mind.

Once Jean discovered her talents in softball, her personality flourished. Her smile and positive attitude were regularly commented on by other team members and coaches and along with her skills gave her a sense of belonging and confidence.

One game, mid-season, Jean slid hard into 2nd base and injured her knee quite badly. The doctor said it would take 6-9 months before she might be able to play again. She told me how that sounded like an eternity when she first heard it.

(Remember parents: teenagers have a different sense of time than adults who have been on the planet for decades). Her parents tried to help her keep her spirits up during her rehab but 4 months after the injury, Jean seemed to becoming more and more depressed and hit rock bottom when the new season started and she couldn’t play and was not on the team.

The first couple months, Jean stayed connected to her team but as time went by, she felt like she was becoming more and more distant from her teammates and the identity she had built for herself as a softball player.

By the time Jean was finally healed and cleared to play by the doctor, she had developed a mental block about playing. She was very tentative and felt pain whenever running in practice, especially around the base paths.

This is when athletes usually come to work with me and I assist them through the process of clearing all of the mental effects of the injury. Parents and coaches often think that the fear they are witnessing in their young athlete is a fear of re-injury. Yes, this is a part of it, but the greater fear is in losing who they are as a person.

Even though they have been cleared to play, the devastating effects of having lost a significant part of who they are (in their mind) is still with them. How can you go back out and be something you believe, at the subconscious level, that you’re not?

I have had athletes tell me that they feel like they have PTSD and I believe them!

Guiding young athletes back to full power and strength requires a fine balance of support, ego-boosting, and yes, some gently pushing but you’ve got be very careful about that.

You can push them to stay connected to their team and you can push them to do the rehab exercises by reminding them that’s the way to get back to full speed as soon as possible. Mainly, just continuously offer to listen and support in any way your athlete wants you to. If you’re not sure how, just ask! Do not assume you as a parent or coach always know what’s best for your young athlete. The sports injury mental impact is usually greater than you think and you would be wise to err on the conservative side until the athlete tells you otherwise.

Craig Sigl

p.s. If your athlete is dealing with coming back from an injury, do not take chances and “hope the issue goes away.” You can tell if an athlete is back to normal or not. The mental impacts of an injury can go on for years. Take action now and Click Here to Conquer Your Sports Injury with my proven complete solution.