Managing Your Own Injury

There’s no greater feeling than playing the sport you train hard for, the one you excel in, surrounded by a bunch of mates. A young athlete’s body is a highly primed machine, conditioned by hours and weeks of training to thrive in their chosen sport. The thrill of performing at a state or national level can be exhilarating, but what happens when injury strikes and playing sport is off the cards?

Aside from the huge disappointment, the journey is only beginning with a solid diagnosis of your injury. Your body as a teenager is physiologically different to that of an adult and can require a different consideration when treating and rehabilitating injuries. Whether your injury is traumatic (a more acute injury which often happens in competition or training like a sprained ligament ankle) or is a repetitive, overuse injury (like knee cap pain), you’ll firstly need a great physiotherapist who specialises in sport AND adolescents and secondly, to fully recover, you’ll need to take ownership of your recovery.

At Twelve9teen, we’re huge on involving you in the treatment of your injury. Dependent on your age, we may ask you to record your symptoms, teach you how to self-massage or help design some of your own rehabilitation program. In asking older teenagers to complete a detailed training diary, we teach you how to listen to your body and adapt your training load accordingly. It’s about you being accountable for helping yourself to recover, but also prevent further injury by moving too quickly on your rehabilitation journey. Aside from imparting our medical knowledge to provide you with a world class rehabilitation program, we’re passionate about guiding you to make sensible choices about your recovery and owning the decisions and choices you make. Studies show evidence that young athletes who help lead their own recovery are more likely to make it onto the team or even succeed as leader of that team, thanks to the tenacity, determination and pure grit required to partake in shared decision making with medical experts and parents. Athletes who have suffered a painful ACL injury for example, will face many decisions along their physiotherapy rehabilitation and possibly, surgical journey. Only those truly committed to be an active participant, will gain the full benefit of programs such as Twelve9teen’s ACL competitive edge program.

It can be easy to fall victim to the disappointment and frustration of injury – but we trust you to make the right decisions jointly with your parents and your sports medicine team.

Focus on the journey, not just the outcome.