Using Your Injury-Timeout To Your Benefit
Injuries STINK!
It can be devastating when injury strikes, especially when you are coming off a personal best season… or have busted your butt in training… or had a great start to a new season.
Withdrawing from a tournament in which you have advanced past the quarterfinals, nagging injuries that interrupt training or season injuries that dash your hopes of accomplishing your seasonal goals are hard to take but all is not lost.
You might think a season-ending injury puts a halt on your career, but what if something good could come out of it?
What if you could use your injury-timeout to your benefit?
Even though injuries are mentally difficult to deal with, if you approach it with the right attitude, you can benefit from your injury-timeout and come back stronger than before your injury.
Let’s review different ways you can use your injury-timeout to your benefit:
- Your injury-timeout can giving you a mental break from the grind of competing and rejuvenate you mentally and physically.
- Your injury-timeout can help you strengthen a body part and prevent injury in the future.
- Your injury-timeout can give you time to develop mental skills that will greatly advance your game in the future.
- Your injury-timeout can be the impetus that strengthens your resolve and ramps up your levels of motivation and determination.
- Your injury-timeout can provide the much needed time to re-assess your game and create a plan for how to improve your game technically, emotionally, physically and mentally.
- Your injury time-out can allow you to watch other players, evaluate their play and determine how you can apply their strengths to your game.
- Your game need not suffer because of injury. With the right mental approach, you can come back mentally and physically better than ever.
Kei Nishikori is in the midst of an injury-timeout, and has been out of tennis for about six months following a wrist injury…
Nishikori climbed to ninth in the rankings before a torn tendon in his wrist caused him to withdraw from the US Open and ended his season. Due to his extended absence, Nishikori dropped out of the Top-20 in the rankings for the first time since 2014.
Nishikori has utilized his time to improve his overall game, in hopes of breaking into the Top-5 and challenging for Major titles when he returns to competition.
NISHIKORI: “I hope I’m mentally stronger and hungrier next season. There was a lot of good that came from this experience. If it weren’t for the injury I wouldn’t have undergone a rehab period in Europe. I wouldn’t have met the physical trainer who introduced me to a conditioning method that was new to me. I feel like it could change my body. I know I’m getting tougher, so I’m actually looking forward to the challenge.”
What will you do to extract positive from your injury-timeout? Choose wisely!
Making the Most Out of Your Injury Time-Out:
After an injury interrupts competing, take some time to think about what you can do to improve your overall tennis game.
What can you do to improve mentally? How will you focus on rehab to get a weak body part stronger than before? What kind of physical training can you undertake to improve your technical skills and conditioning?
With the additional downtime, you can improve your mental toughness by working on your mental game…
Related Tennis Psychology Articles:
- How to Bounce Back Stronger After Injury
- Returning From An Injury With Mental Toughness
- Focusing on Your Match Plan
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