Sports medicine and athletic training

Sports medicine and athletic training are still in exact sciences, and nowhere within this area is this more evident than in the psychological phase of recovery from injury. Plato mentioned never attempting to cure the body without curing the soul. Current clinicians have found that people with negative self-concepts suffer more injuries.

Most athletes have the self-confidence to adapt to a mild or moderate injury, and most have the support, understanding, and proper encouragement to adapt to more severe injury, but even the most self-confident have their doubts. One athlete put it this way: |

The best competitors like to compete and to me this is just a game — an inner game. It's an inner soul game. Can I beat my knee back? But he also expressed doubts about the real test when a tackier "takes a whack at the knee" and how I haven't thought about it, but I've had nightmares about it. My buddy told me he broke his ankle. He said once you get that real good hit and you pop up and it pops up with you, then everything is going to fall into place and you're going to be rolling. You're going to go out there like it's never been hurt and just play.

This quote expresses the positive aspects of return to competition but also some of the doubts involved.

With the emergence of sports psychology, more mention is paid to getting the mind ready to return to competition to match the adjustment of the body. Athletes have begun to describe the nightmares, fears, «id anxiety of returning to competition. Also, in the current trend of high-salaried athletes, some describe their knee or other injuries and surgery as the most important things in their lives since they will either make or break them. These operations can allow the athletes to make either millions of dollars in a sports career or only thousands in a regular job if their careers end.

Athletes don't all deal with injury in the same manner. Rotella describes how one may view the injury is disastrous, another may view it as an opportunity to show courage, and another athlete may relish the injury since it prevents his or her embarrassment over poor physical performance, provides an escape from a losing team, or discourages a pushy parent. If the injury is career-threatening, the athlete whose whole life has revolved around a sport may have an identity crisis.