There is nothing I hate more than injuries. While I have had my fair share and learnt how to deal with them, it breaks my heart when an injury happens to someone, in their prime, only a few weeks out from a key race. Then when it happens to someone you love it breaks your heart to see them have to undergo another lengthy break from training and from playing the sport they love.
Over the past 5 years Oscar has endured a broken ankle (both tibia and Fibular after a McDonalds playground incident) which wiped him out for an entire footy season, last year he had a navicular stress fracture which wiped out another footy season and then on the weekend he dislocated his little finger, with the bone coming out through the skin (it wasn’t pretty!). The result is another 12-14 weeks of recovery.
At the same time, we are dealing with Louis who has been diagnosed with stress fractures in his back which, after going through the process with Oscar last year, has a lot of question marks over when he will return to soccer.
While Oscar and Louis are brothers they are certainly chalk and cheese when it comes to their personalities and especially in how they deal with their injuries!
Louis, having never been injured before, hasn’t coped that well, wallowing a bit in the woe is me world, often getting angry at his situation, mostly out of the frustration of not being able to do what he loves. He is also dealing with the thought of falling behind in his quest to be a professional player.
Oscar while a little annoyed is simply amazing. His coping skills are first class. He processes the reality quickly, works his way very quickly through the stages of grief and starts to see hope. I am sure there will be some regression through the next 3 months, but he is already working out return dates and what opportunities he can explore, and he even said last night that if footy doesn’t happen this year, then we will definitely be taking up a summer sport like Basketball.
The positive from Oscar’s accident is that it has given Louis some all-important perspective and a chance to learn some coping skills. He suddenly realises he is not the only one who is injured, and that injuries and accidents are just a part of life. Sure, you can do some things to prevent them, but sometimes they just happen.
Once he accepts that injuries can happen then he can better appreciate just how fortunate he is to have good health and the opportunity to train and do what he loves. Hopefully when he returns, this will be his knew mindset and hopefully he will be a little less emotional when things don’t go exactly to his plan. He is also starting to learn that there are no guarantees in life and that just because you do the work and think you deserve a certain outcome, things can change in a blink. Sometimes in the most innocuous way, as was the case with Oscar.
He will also learn to listen to his body more and understand that training will only improve your fitness when it is combined with adequate rest and recovery. In the holidays he would soccer train for 2 hrs in the back yard, do another 1hr of other strength and recovery work, then either go to soccer training or to running in the evening. Throw in the odd race and it was a recipe for disaster. His drive to achieve and improve is something to admire but when it borders on fanatical, he is going to have to learn it may come at a cost. But like most things in life the best way to learn is the hard way.
One of the most important skills I try to work with athletes on initially is to listen to their body. To not get fanatical about hitting every session especially when they are tired or sore. The real skill is to be able to skip a planned session and feed your body some bonus rest when it is required. When you learn that missing a session won’t set you back in your training, and in most cases will actually help, then you are truly in control of your training plan and not just a slave to it. You can also learn about pain when you listen closely. Some pain is just the part of life, but learning when the brain is telling you the body is getting close to breaking point, is extremely important.
Obviously the Pietsch’s will have some interesting months ahead, but we will try to turn it into an opportunity. For Louis it is a chance to work on building his chassis, his core strength is very weak, leaving him vulnerable to injuries, while for Oscar it is a chance to work on his left foot and see if he can become a true two-sided player.
Happy training and please feel free to contact me if you have any triathlon training, coaching and racing related thoughts or questions and thanks for all the well-wishes to Oscar.