Virtual Sport Psych

From Setback to Comeback: The Body Confidence Training After Injuries

March 18, 2024

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Thank you for joining the Better Together Newsletter! This bi-weekly newsletter is dedicated to sharing insights into applied sport psychology and science-based tools that can aid us as sport psychology professionals in helping athletes, teams, and coaches enhance their performance and well-being. The goal is to deliver actionable insights in a concise and engaging format, making it easy for you to apply them in your work in sports.

Again and again, I encounter athletes grappling with both minor nuisances and major setbacks due to injuries.

Consider Daniel (a pseudonym for privacy). In the lead-up to the World Championships, Daniel, a national player, sustains an injury so severe that his participation in the championships becomes unfeasible. This incident marks Daniel’s 12th injury-related absence over the past five years, encompassing a mix of severe injuries and recurring minor issues such as strains and tightness.

Some observers link Daniel’s frequent injuries to his apparent uncertainty and occasional fearfulness on the field. Coaches and medical staff highlight the role of inappropriate hesitation in critical game moments, anxiety-induced coordination lapses, and a lack of self-confidence, all potentially heightening Daniel’s susceptibility to injury.

This example underscores the complex nature of injury crises. Biographically, injuries seem almost inevitable in the world of sports. Adopting a holistic perspective, injuries emerge as bio-psycho-social phenomena, each demanding tailored mental interventions throughout an athlete’s recovery journey.

When addressing injured athletes, sport psychology professionals face distinct challenges aimed at facilitating swift recovery and sustained well-being. One of these challenges is reduced trust and confidence in their own bodies, combined with increased anxiety about getting re-injured.

Today, I’d like to explore one strategy with you that can help us and our athletes rebuild trust and confidence in their bodies and abilities during rehabilitation, while prioritizing long-term health.

Let’s get better together…

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

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TRAINING OF THE WEEK

Confidence is a significant factor in multiple facets of the healing and rehabilitation process.

Each injury serves as a reminder to athletes of their body’s limitations and vulnerability, often resulting in a loss of confidence, particularly in their own physical capabilities.

Lack of body trust manifests in different forms:

  • Lack of confidence in healing: The athlete doesn’t believe in a good and smooth healing process. This is often the case for athletes dealing with recurring injuries (“my knee has let me down again”).
  • Lack of functional trust is expressed through the athlete’s mistrust in the healing outcome, such as the stability of ligaments or the durability of a bone after a fracture. This type of lack of body trust is often linked to insufficient or incorrect knowledge about medical procedures and backgrounds (dangerous half-knowledge).
  • Lack of competence expectation is related to the lack of functional trust. Here, it’s not the loss of trust in the anatomical or medical condition of the body that’s crucial, but rather the lack of trust in the muscular and coordinative functions of the injured or even uninjured body regions. The athlete feels unfit and insecure during sports movements.

It’s not unusual for many of the mentioned signs to emerge when athletes exhibit a lack of confidence in their bodies during rehabilitation or at the onset of training. If, as illustrated in our case with Daniel, the primary reasons for low self-confidence stem from underestimating one’s physical abilities, Body Confidence Training (Kleinert, 2002) might be a viable solution.

During Stage 1, Daniel collaborates with his coach and physiotherapist to create a hierarchy of training or competition scenarios that progressively evoke discomfort, injury fears, anxieties, or avoidance behaviors within himself (forming a fear hierarchy).

In Stage 2, Daniel receives instruction in techniques aimed at bolstering self-confidence and alleviating uncertainties in the immediate term. The following techniques may prove particularly beneficial in this context:

  • Attention redirection: Daniel learns to direct attention to muscle strength development and the stability of capsule and ligament structures. These techniques are best learned and improved during strength therapy or strength training, as this is where the activity and tension in the corresponding body regions are strongest.
  • Positive imagery: Daniel develops or finds images and memories with which they associate physical strength, power, and functionality. These images or visualizations can come from reality or take abstract forms (metaphors, colors, music).
  • Positive self-reinforcement: Daniel applies short self-instructions or self-commands that motivate them and remind them of their physical capabilities.

In Stage 3 of the Body Confidence Training, the situations from the fear hierarchy are linked with the learned confidence-building techniques. Daniel begins to perform exercises in the lower fear range. If discomfort or anxiety arises, the corresponding exercise is interrupted, and individual confidence techniques are applied. Ideally, Daniel simultaneously completes simple strengthening exercises to enhance the effect of the body confidence techniques. Only then does he continue with the corresponding exercise from the fear hierarchy. With higher skill levels, Daniel can also apply the confidence technique during an exercise from the fear hierarchy.

This way, Daniel gradually climbs higher in his fear hierarchy until he can perform exercises that previously caused strong fears, confidently and fearlessly.

Certainly, this approach represents just one method of assisting athletes during their rehabilitation journey and fostering confidence in their bodies and capabilities.

How do you typically provide support to athletes following injuries?

CHUCK NORRIS JOKE OF THE WEEK

Chuck Norris’s injuries heal before they even happen.

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