Sport injuries are hard. When athletes are injured, they are often left on their own to mentally muscle through. This course will help you understand the psychology of sport injuries with the goal of increasing your understanding of your own mindset during your injury, rehabilitation, and return to play process. Injuries can impact mood, motivation, identity, self-talk, etc.
In looking at injuries from a sport psychology perspective, there are three phases. During each phase, there are different physical and psychological responses. You can use this chart to see other mTrainings that might help you wherever you are in the process. The best way I’ve found to present this material is in a chart.
Phase Description | Physical responses | Psychological responses | Psychological strategies helpful for this phase |
Phase I: Reaction to Injury | 1. Pain and swelling
2. Movement/function of the injured body part is either: a) Involuntarily limited because of pain, swelling, muscle spasm, etc. or b) Purposely restricted by immobilization in casts, splints, slings, etc. | Change in emotions and affect due to:
A. Sense of loss
B. Lack of coping resources
C. Withdrawal symptoms | 1. Injury education
2. Goal-setting
3. Imagery
4. Relaxation
5. Social support |
Phase II: Reaction to Rehab | 1. Activities of Daily Living (ADLs)
2. Fitness | 1. Motivation needs
2. Resilience- building | 1. Goal-setting
2. Imagery
3. Self-talk
4. Relaxation
5. Social support |
Phase III: Reaction to Return-to-Play | 1. Fitness
2. Sport-specific skills | 1. Lack of self-efficacy for returning to sport
2. Re-injury anxiety | 1. Goal-setting
2. Imagery
3. Self-talk
4. Relaxation
5. Social support |
What researchers find, is that we can often predict who will be injured. The key is stress. Sports are stressful and unpredictable. We value our performances in them. Therefore, we are going to be more stressed than when we do an activity that doesn’t matter as much to us. If athletes are already stressed prior to performance, the sport performances can put them at a greater risk.
Ultimately, higher stress during a performance is thought to increase risk of injury by changing mental and physical aspects of performance. As we mentioned earlier, when you are relaxed in practice, you perform differently than when you are stressed.
How can it decrease performance?
Injury immediately impacts performance because athletes are either not able to perform at their usual level (and there’s a whole mental aspect to that) or they are out of sport for a while (or permanently depending on the injury). The injury can make playing harder because athletes have to hold back effort/force, are using extra mental resources to monitor their pain and effort, are struggling with the mental components of not playing at their typical level. After recovering from an injury, returning to play can create feelings of uneasiness, anxiety, or frustration.
How can it improve performance?
Injuries, if viewed through the correct lens, can help a performer in two main ways: they can provide mandatory rest and recovery or they can provide an opportunity to work on mental skills, reevaluate sport participation, adjust or expand identity. Physically, an injury can improve performance if the injury finally required an athlete to have surgery or do rehabilitation on an area that had been giving them trouble.
Strategies to Pivot
Strategies vary depending upon the phase you are in. Use this chart to decide what is best for you right now.
- Prevention of Injuries: focus on 1) stress management strategies and 2) relaxation.
- Phase I, Reaction to Injury: 1) learn more about your injury, 2) goal-setting, 3) imagery, 4) relaxation, or 5) social support.
- Phase II, Reaction to Rehab: Focus on 1) goal-setting, 2) imagery, 3) self-talk, 4) relaxation, or 5) social support.
- Phase III, Reaction to Return-to-Play: Focus on 1) goal-setting, 2) imagery, 3) self-talk, 4) relaxation, or 5) social support.
Each of these strategies is specialized for the phases and perspectives. To learn more, take the course Psychology of Sport Injuries. These strategies also vary based on if the injury is short-term, long-term, or career-ending.
Training Questions
Using your mental performance log, answer these questions. Remember that the more thought and effort you put into them, the more you'll get from the experience.
- Which phase are you in right now?
- How did stress (inside or outside of sport) play a role in your injury?
- How are you viewing your injury? As a threat to your sporting future or more as an opportunity to grow?