122 | Coach Carrie Answers a Question: Reese’s Roller Coaster
The Injured Athletes Club
“I am a cyclist. I have had multiple surgeries for an injury that occurred 2.5 years ago. Things are going downhill again, and it looks like I’m going to be faced with a third major surgery. If I do have this surgery, there is a good chance I will not be able to ride a bike again, even recreationally. I am completely heartbroken. I remember the beginning of this journey when I thought 6 weeks non-weight bearing and 6 months to recovery sounded insurmountable. I can’t believe that I’m still here and still in pain. I feel like I’m drowning and I need help navigating what is becoming a...
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121 | Football Player and Entrepreneur Will Bartholomew: The Gift of Perseverance
The Injured Athletes Club
“Injuries, you can use them as opportunities to go do something great. I feel like that was ingrained in me early on in my life. I look back now and I'm very fortunate for having those injuries because they set me up for some great things.” This week, Coach Carrie and Cindy chat with Will Bartholomew, founder and CEO of D1 Training. Will shares his journey from being a promising football player who faced career-altering injuries to the founder of a successful nationwide network of athletic training facilities. Will discusses the significant moments in his athletic...
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120 | Coach Carrie Answers a Question: Emily’s Emotions
The Injured Athletes Club
“ How can you deal with anxiety not of a specific reinjury, but a more generalized fear about your sport being taken away from you again? That fear does help me appreciate what I have now that I'm running again, but also makes disruptions to my training or race plans—whether from how I'm feeling physically, or work/life stress—harder to deal with. How can I cope?” In this episode of The Injured Athletes Club podcast, mental skills coach Carrie Jackson answers a question from Emily regarding handling the anxiety associated with the potential permanent loss of her sport due to...
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119 | Ultrarunner Aum Gandhi: Your Inner Coach
The Injured Athletes Club
“Instead of being mean to myself and saying, ‘You’ve got nothing else outside of running,’ I said, ‘Look at all the other multi-faceted things you are. You are a son, you are a brother, you're a business owner. Humans are multi-faceted; you have an identity outside this sport. The sport may have helped you find more of your authenticity, but you're not bound to this sport. It's only a piece of the puzzle, a part of your identity.” When Merrell Professional Athlete Aum Gandhi first started running six years ago, he barely went a quarter of a mile—and he describes it now as...
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118 | Coach Carrie Answers a Question: Cecile’s Situation
The Injured Athletes Club
“ How can you let go of the injury? Sometimes when you spend a long time with a chronic injury, it shapes how you move, plan, and think about life and your body. How do you let go when the time has come?” In the seventh season of The Injured Athletes Club podcast, mental skills coach Carrie Jackson answers a question every other week about the mental side of overcoming injuries. This week, Coach Carrie delves into the complex issue posed by listener Cecile on letting go of the identity formed around a chronic injury. She points out how this attachment can make the...
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117 | Strongwoman and Author Alyssa Ages: Learning through Failure
The Injured Athletes Club
“Because I wasn't a competitive runner, I don't think I ever had to face failure in that situation … but in strength sports, when I compete, I'm doing that in front of a crowd and a judge who is just looking at me. And it's totally changed the way that I have to handle that fear of failure because it's right there in front of me. I can't escape that someone is looking directly at me and judging whether I've passed or failed. And what I've learned from that is just that it makes you, I think, a better person when you face failure in that way.” On this week’s episode of The...
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116 | Coach Carrie Answers a Question: Cassandra’s Cocoon
The Injured Athletes Club
“ As someone in long-term recovery, likely 12 to 18 months before I'm running again, I've struggled a lot with the muscle loss and atrophy to the point it's causing identity struggles. I don't look or feel like an athlete anymore. My coach and I will have to literally rebuild my strength and my body. How can I cope?” In the seventh season of The Injured Athletes Club podcast, mental skills coach Carrie Jackson answers a question every other week about the mental side of overcoming injuries. This week, listener Cassandra is struggling with losing her athletic identity. Coach...
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115 | Former NCAA Basketball Player Britt Hunter: Pour Into Others
The Injured Athletes Club
“You need to equip your young adult for how to get through it on their own. So shepherd them. Get them the tools and resources. Let them mess it up a little bit. It's natural to protect, protect, protect, and direct, direct, direct—but your child needs to explore this time on their own a little bit with the right resources and the right people around them. They're going to go through this again and again and again at different stages of their life and going through an injury at a young age, they're going to have to grow up a little bit faster. So help them, but don't control them.”...
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114 | Coach Carrie Answers a Question: Jennifer’s Junction
The Injured Athletes Club
“ How do I walk the fine line between being independent and self-reliant in recovery—a positive—and opting to go it alone, which can be a negative? Separately, I’d love to know more about managing an injury in the context of a chronic condition. For example, I have epilepsy but seizure meds are not great for bone density. Flip side, reducing meds is good for bones but bad for the brain. Doctors can offer guidance but making the decisions is ours alone.” In the seventh season of The Injured Athletes Club podcast, mental skills coach Carrie Jackson answers a question every...
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113 | Ultrarunner Amelia Boone: The Best Days Are Ahead
The Injured Athletes Club
“I would tell [Amelia of four years ago] that you may not believe it, but it's gonna get better, and recovery is possible, and honestly, your best running days are to come. And that's something that I've had to tell myself now too. I actually still do believe that, especially as we're seeing women in their 40s just blossoming in distance running.” In this episode of the Injured Athletes Club, Coach Carrie and Cindy are grateful to catch up with our first guest ever—and first repeat guest—elite ultrarunner, championship obstacle course racer, and eating disorder advocate Amelia...
info_outline“People who have a growth mindset believe that success is possible through your effort and strategies. So if you encounter a setback, there is a solution, you just haven't figured it out yet. Part of that solution might be getting assistance from others. It's knowing that someone else out here has gone through this and has the answers and has the expertise, I need to find that person and get information from them. They see it as a resource and a tool instead of a sign of failure.”
When you’re an injured athlete, it’s easy to feel isolated and alone. There are a lot of legitimate reasons for this, and factors that make it challenging to reach out and ask for the support you need. Many high-level competitors, for instance, fear seeming weak or incompetent.
But social support—along with other types of assistance—are critical to the rehab and recovery process. They can also make you a happier, healthier person outside of sports. So, what’s a sidelined athlete to do?
In this episode, co-host and mental skills coach Carrie Jackson talks us through exactly why support matters so much. And, she gives you specific tactics for determining which support you need and when you need it, and how to assemble a willing crew around you to offer it.
A huge thank you to our sponsor for this episode: Fluid Running. Fluid Running makes it possible to maintain your peak physical fitness even when you're injured through the power of deep water running. Listen for a special discount code in the episode!
In this episode, we discuss:
- Why support is so crucial to injured athletes in the first place (2:23)
- The difference between perceived and received support—and the shocking fact about which one is more important (4:09)
- The four crucial types of support injured athletes need, and an easy acronym to help you remember them (5:54)
- Some of the common reasons injured athletes don’t ask for support (9:20)
- What you can start to do today to turn it around and empower yourself to seek support (12:37)
- Why your support system may fall short, and what to do when it does (15:17)
- The two big myths of support, and how busting through them can change everything for your recovery (18:43)
- The importance of having a good medical team (21:03)
- A little bit more about The Injured Athletes Club Facebook group, and how it can help provide a few different types of support during your recovery (24:17)
- A mental drill—a specific, step-by-step exercise—that can help you identify the types of support you need, then reach out to get them (28:02)
- Another drill, Found in Translation, that can help you manage communication between you and other people who care about you (31:55)
- Other life situations where it pays to be deliberate about seeking support (36:54)
You can subscribe to The Injured Athletes Club on Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts, and if you like what you hear, please leave us a rating or a review in Apple podcasts. That helps other injured athletes find the show.
To access more resources for injured athletes:
- Join The Injured Athletes Club mailing list, for news and updates
- Join The Injured Athletes Club Facebook group, for support and camaraderie
- Like The Injured Athletes Club Podcast Facebook page, for the latest episodes
- Email us at [email protected] with questions, guest suggestions, or other feedback
DISCLAIMER: This content is for educational & informational use only and & does not constitute medical advice. Do not disregard, avoid or delay obtaining medical or health related advice from your health-care professional because of something you may have heard in an episode of this podcast. You should not rely on this information as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Please consult with a qualified medical professional for proper evaluation & treatment. Guests who speak on this podcast express their own opinions, experiences, and conclusions, and The Injured Athletes Club podcast hosts nor any company providing financial support endorses or opposes any particular treatment option discussed in the episodes of this podcast and are not responsible for any actions or inactions of listeners based on the information presented. The use of any information provided is solely at your own risk.