You slammed hard. Really hard. Maybe you broke a bone or had a terrible sprain. Now that you’re recovered, you’re having trouble getting back onto your board mentally. What do you do?
This is a scenario that Andrew is in, who wrote in this question. He dropped in in the dark, misjudged it, and ended up breaking his wrist. 7 years later, he wants to get back into skating with his son. But there are a lot of obstacles – less confidence, lost tricks, and fear of re-injury.
What would you do in this situation?
I read quite a few articles from sports psychologists, who work with professional athletes to help them get back to 100% mentally once they’re physically cleared to play again. A lot more time and effort are being put into the mental side of recovery at the professional level. Here are 3 things that I learned:
First, visualization. This one comes up in pretty much all of the articles. Professional athletes are often encouraged to do just this – visualize running freely across the field. Or, in our case, dropping in, kickturning in a quarter pipe, Ollieing off of a curb. Whatever would be reasonable for your skill level. The Association for Applied Sports Psychology recommends doing it at the end of a rehab session.
If the injury is long past, maybe it’s a workout or after doing some stretching.
And they recommend external imaging – like seeing yourself on TV. Imagine the video clip you’re going to get once you’re back skating again. You always wanted to nosestall fakie at the skatepark. And you will. And it’s going to look exactly like this.
The second tip is to keep yourself involved with skateboarding at the level you’re capable of. I sprained my front ankle very badly back in the day, and I couldn’t do any flicking motions for kickflips without it hurting badly. But I wanted to keep skateboarding, so I did no comply tricks. Tons and tons of no comply tricks. I have a video part’s worth of clips of me doing no complies while my ankle healed.
How can you skate with your injury? Can you just ride a board? Maybe slappy noseslides on a curb? Maybe it’s only boneless tricks? Maybe carving on transition? Whatever you can do to stay engaged will help. But after a long gap, getting back in at a really basic level is a good idea. Pushing, rolling, dropping off curbs. Save the 360 flips for once you’ve built some confidence back.
The last important step is goal setting. These need to be SMART. I mean, not smart, but SMART the acronym, which stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. So, it could be that I’m going to drop in on the 6 foot quarter pipe by the end of the month. I used to be able to do it, and I know I can work my way up to it because there are smaller quarter pipes around the park. And it’s relevant because it’s a skill I need to get speed for other things. Or maybe it’s doing 3 kickflips in a row by Friday. Build up some goals like that, keep working on it, and you’ll be on the right track.
But remember that it’s okay to fail your goals. Just rework it and try again. A positive attitude helps recovery. And keep in mind – these tips are to get an athlete back in tip top shape so he can go back to making millions of dollars. For casual skateboarding, you don’t need to push quite so hard. Remember to enjoy yourself and have fun.