Supporting, resourcing, and advocating for permanently-sidelined student-athletes

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Insightful articles for helping permanently-sidelined athletes find a meaningful way forward.

Posts tagged forever sidelined
Life Beyond Sports: Shedding Our Athletic Armor

Sports do indeed offer valuable life experiences. We learn incredible skills such as persistence, work ethic, and how to set and work towards goals. We push our limits and learn about our own physical and mental strength. We learn how to sacrifice and discipline ourselves as we work through challenges. Ultimately, we experience a deep sense of passion and purpose as we try to attain our highest potential in sport.

Unfortunately, we also realize that in order to succeed in such a competitive world, we need to protect ourselves. So, we start to grow thick skin and a type of protective outer armor.

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Beyond the Game: Harnessing Your Competitive Edge for Life

The room is so very bland.  That icky not-quite-beige, not-quite-white color.  My heart is racing. Tiny beads of sweat are starting to form on my forehead.  I can’t sit still, my legs bouncing in nervous anticipation. The doctor walks in, his face as bland as the walls.  I try to make a read on what’s coming next, but can’t. File folder in hand, he sits down. 

“Well, it is not good news.  Your MRI shows a full thickness tear in your meniscus.  I think we can fix it, but it would be my recommendation that you never skate again.” 

Wait, what?!  What did he just say? 

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Beyond the Game: The Power of Mental Vigilance in Overcoming Challenges

When we witness the likes of LeBron James compete at highest level of play, when we watch in awe at the power behind one of Serena Williams’ serves, or when we behold the command of Clayton Kershaw’s fastball: what factors do we immediately contribute their success to?

As fans (or haters) we can speculate advantages or debate statistics, but few would dare to argue that these dominating athletes have not worked tirelessly to achieve success. What is less often considered, is the work these athletes have done within the confines of their own mind. As anyone who has competed in any arena can attest to; change, improvement, and success take hard work. If we were able to work as hard on our minds as we do in our work, sports, and relationships, we would see big change in many facets of life.

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Healthy Adjustment to Career-Ending Injury or Health Condition Part 4: The Rebuilding Phase

Sometimes difficult transitions can make treating yourself kindly even more challenging. Evaluating emotional responses and internal dialogues while proceeding to implement change can be a tiresome task, as discussed in our previous articles here and here. Despite its potential difficulty, the exercise of evaluating internal dialogues can impact powerful change. Once you have learned to “mind your mind” and create more healthy internal dialogues, you are ready to start rebuilding what was lost.

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Healthy Adjustment to Career-Ending Injury or Health Condition Part 5: Retaining Physicality

The reality is, for many athletes, the peak performance era in competitive sports is sometimes ended sooner than expected. Whether that be a career-ending injury, repeat injuries that eventually make a comeback next to impossible, a new medical diagnosis, or a series of concussions that threaten to impact long-term brain health, being forced out of a competitive sport due to medical reasons can be devastating.  More than “losing your sport” at this point, you may feel like you’ve also been stripped of your identity. Somehow, you need to make a mental shift and create a new identity. Granted, this can be extremely difficult and can take years. However, there are many ways to make this transition easier. One specific way is to retain your physicality.

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Becoming Sidelined: Managing Negative Self-Talk

Being forced to retire from competing in a sport that you love is objectively heartbreaking. You’re allowed (even encouraged) to let yourself feel every negative emotion that comes with grieving the loss of a really important aspect of your life and identity. What remains important throughout this process though, is that you treat yourself with kindness and patience. You owe it to yourself to alter any internal-dialogues which threaten to convince you that these circumstances are more disastrous than you are strong.

As we begin to analyze our internal dialogues, we should be wary of unhelpful thought patterns that have manifested themselves so deeply that they impact our entire perception of the world, our experiences, and ourselves. These thoughts are not reality-based and overtime they are reinforced, resulting in biases, irrational thoughts, and groundless beliefs.

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Becoming Sidelined: Examining Body Dissatisfaction Post-Retirement

Retirement from elite sport can impact every facet of our lives. This transition can feel like utter chaos. To some degree, almost every aspect of our life may look different; from our social circles, to our routines, to the way we see ourselves as people. On the most tangible level, our bodies themselves will likely change after retiring from elite sport. It is incredibly difficult for our self-esteem to be left unscathed after such a significant life transition. The things we once took pride in may not be feasible to us anymore. We may grapple to understand ourselves which leaves room for doubt to creep in and insecurity to take form. 

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