Lets Both Self-Talk Through This!

WHAT:  As an athletic trainer, a volleyball player comes to me with a torn ACL and is expected to be out 6 to 8 weeks.  Since an ACL injury is quite serious she probably has great concern about whether it will affect her long time playing ability in terms of mobility and her ability to play aggressive in the future without re-injuring her ACL.  As with any injury it is vital to use various cognitive skills to keep the attitude of the athlete optimistic and focused on the rehabilitation at hand. 

SO WHAT:  As a trainer I think it is most important to develop specific long term and short term goals.  The long term goal is already in place as a physician estimated her return to be 6-8 weeks.  The short term goals, according to Gill (2008), provide instant feedback and are important for keeping the athlete on track in regards to meeting their long-term goals.  Self talk will also be a vital part of the rehabilitation process in order to reach both short and long term goals.  Self talk can be used by both the volleyball player and myself in order to work quickly and efficiently towards re-habilitating the ligament. 

NOW WHAT:  Goal setting is a very valuable tool if used right; if used wrong it can be detrimental to the athletes rehabilitation.  As a trainer I would first sit down with the volleyball player and implement weekly or bi-weekly goals.  The key is to avoid making the goal so easy it does not benefit or challenge her, or so hard it is un-attainable or puts an excess amount of stress on the ligament.  The goals created at the beginning are not set in stone.  If she experiences minor setbacks, the future goals can be easily adjusted if needed.  On the other hand, the goals can also be made more difficult if needed, but it’s important to not try to move too fast and cause further damage to the ligament. The ultimate goal is obviously getting back full mobility of the knee and being able to play with the same level of confidence and skill as she had pre-injury.  If she were to begin doubting her ability to make a full comeback and play at a high level again, similar to Rob from last week’s case study, she may be losing some of her athletic identity.  That is why it is vital to be optimistic as a trainer and encourage her meet each individual goal in order to make a full recovery to get back to playing volleyball with her team on time.

Self-talk is generally something that comes naturally for people, therefore I don’t think much needs to be done in terms of making it a vital part of the rehabilitation as it will most likely already be present.  From the volleyball players point of view I think Gill (2008) mentions some good points in that it can be used to change negative thoughts into positive ones.  In any rehabilitation setting it’s far too easy to think about the negative aspects of the recovery because it can be so painful and difficult to improve.  I would reassure the volleyball player that the process WILL work and that if she encounters any negative thoughts to regroup herself and tell herself that everything will be okay. Self-talk is obvious and useful on the athletes end, but I thought it might be interesting to also incorporate it into my strategy as well.

Thelwell et al. (2008) discusses various psychological-skills utilized by coaches that can be utilized by me, the trainer in this situation and I believe self-talk was the most useful.   As mentioned before, self talk comes naturally for most of us.  When most people think of self-talk they think of it as being only used by the athlete, but Thelwell et al. (2008) brought up many scenarios in the coaching and training realm we may not think of.  One of the coaches in the article mentioned telling himself to “keep it simple” as to not provide the athlete with so much information that their brain was flooded with information.  I think it would be important to tell the athlete just what she needed to know while performing different exercises.  If I were to tell the volleyball player what could go wrong during training she may be overly-cautious and not perform the workouts to their fullest as her thoughts would be focused on the negative aspects instead of the positives. This is one area where you could encourage her to use imagery or vicarious experience so she could better perform the task at hand.  Another coach used self-talk to get through difficult sessions.  ACL rehabilitation would be a painful and strenuous ordeal, so it would be important to remember to tell myself that things will be okay and she will get through it, and hope she has the same frame of mind. 

CONCLUSION:  In conclusion, I think it would be vital for the athlete, and myself (the trainer) to utilize various cognitive skills.  Goal setting is the most important aspect of the recovery plan, and both short-term and long-term goals need to be implemented.  It would also be important to remind the volleyball player to use self-talk when negative thoughts are present.  From a slightly different perspective I think it would be useful for myself to utilize self-talk strategies in order to not let my knowledge cloud the conscious of the volleyballs player and have her worry about what could go wrong.  There are many ways a trainer could utilize all sorts of cognitive skills while assisting in rehabilitation, and no single strategy is right or wrong.  It would be important to always consider individual differences with each person, and then to act and train accordingly.

REFERENCES:

Gill, D. L., & Williams, L. (2008). Psychological dynamics of sport and exercise (3rd Ed.). Champaign,               IL: Human Kinetics.

Thelwell, R. C., Weston, N. J. V., Greenlees, I. A., & Hutchings, N. V. (2008). A qualitative exploration

of psychological-skills use in coaches. The Sport Psychologist, 22, 38-53.