Injury Prevention and Recovery

Imagine its pre-season, you have been working hard and think you have been training properly then all of a sudden you pivot too quickly and sprain an ankle. The damage has been done, there is no going back. You must sit out for at least a week up to three depending on the severity of the injury. Then you think back to what you did wrong, you can’t think of anything. The biggest problem people run into is not if they train or not but HOW they do so. The number one cause of injury is lack of proper stretching. We all know what is going on here. The coach tells the team to stretch out while he goes and sets up the next drill or collects some equipment. None of the players take it seriously; they talk and joke and go through the motions but don't actually stretch. This can cause you to miss a couple weeks, a few games, but in some cases it can cause you to miss out on an entire season. Also, you need to think about the key parts on your body that you may be missing in your typical stretch. Have you ever tried playing soccer with a strained neck? It hurts a lot and makes your quality of play go down immensely. Another thing I struggled with was the recovery aspect of injuries. I have accumulated several injuries over the years and my number one goal was to get back to playing as fast as I could. This is a hard mind set to change but the mind set you need to have is taking care of your body and recovering properly. Proper recovery leads to better stretching habits because of missing out in the past.