I have a simple, quick thought for you today. If something doesn’t:
- Enhance quality time with your tribe,
- aid in your life’s mission,
- or improve your health (physical and mental)
then you should say no to it. Get rid of distractors and detractors.
(This isn’t an original thought of mine, but I couldn’t remember or find where to attribute it. If anyone knows, please let me know.)
Baker Mayfield vs my bum hip
After my redshirt freshman year of college, I started experiencing intense burning pain on the outside of my hip. It hurt at the beginning of practice, then warmed up and felt better.
But, when I sat down in my car after practice, it felt like my hip was on fire. I would actually scream in pain.
After about 6 months of this happening, we figured out it was most likely femoral-acetabular impingement (FAI) and corresponding labral tears.
Conservative rehab wasn’t working. I needed surgery.
Well… we had just graduated 4 safeties the year before and I was battling for a starting position with a transfer that we brought in from USF.
We opened that upcoming season against Baker Mayfield, Lincoln Riley, Joe Mixon, Samaje Perine, and a loaded Oklahoma team.
In other words, there wasn’t a chance in h*** that I was losing out on the opportunity to live my childhood dream of being a starter in big time D1 football.
I didn’t have the surgery. I won the starting job. We went on to win our first bowl game in school history (a game in which I led the team in tackles).
I still had a lot of pain, but it turns out that at the Division-1 level, you are literally always fighting for your job.
I repeated this cycle until my playing career was over. Be in pain, fight for my starting spot (and win 😉), rinse, repeat.
Even though research is very clear that FAI in your younger years almost guarantees that you’ll have arthritic problems in the future, I decided the injury cost was worth it to play at the highest level possible.
I’m not alone in this experience. There are always going to be times that an athlete has to decide whether playing through an injury is worth it or not.
But, you have to realize that the above situation is not the same as icing up your daughter’s aching shoulder so she can limp her way through another 12u tournament.
You only get one
The average American gets a new car every 6 to 8 years.
We take care of the car meticulously to make sure it lasts that long. Change the oil regularly, have it professionally inspected, have the brakes replaced, get the tires rotated.
You know what’s wild, though?
You only get one human body.
No, really. Take a moment to think about that.
Look down at yourself. Look at your arms. Look at your legs. Look in the mirror.
That’s it. You’re not getting another flesh suit.
You darn well better take care of that one.
Go people watch at your local WalMart for an hour and see what happens when you don’t take care of it.
That’s why 3 out of the 5 pillars of LTAD aren’t even about what happens during your child’s athletic career.
- Instill lifelong health behaviors
- Instill translatory life skills
- Minimize injury cost
At times, those pillars are going to be contradictory to the 1st pillar (and to a lesser extent, the 2nd pillar).
- Optimize athletic potential
- Maximize athletic enjoyment
But, you need to take a bird’s eye view of the grand plan.
A voice of reason
Everything feels ridiculously important in the moment. Every tournament. Every game. Every practice. Every drill.
“If I miss this game, then…”
It’s your job as the parent to fight the FOMO. You can’t expect a teen/pre-teen to see the big picture.
Sometimes it is worth it. Sometimes it isn’t.
Sometimes having an athlete push through pain is worth it, so they can develop translatory life skills. Life is hard. When you’re struggling to pay rent and put food on the table, you have to find a way to get the job done. Sports help us prepare for that better than almost anything else.
Sometimes having an athlete push through an injury will cause massive damage on the backend and turn a little brushfire into a full blown Canadian wildfire.
It’s your job to take a step back and be the voice of reason. Remove your emotion. Consult a 3rd party.
Don’t lose sight of the forest for the trees.
One last request..
If you think this newsletter doesn’t suck (or maybe you even enjoy reading it), I would really appreciate you sharing it with some other parents that might benefit from reading it on a weekly basis.
You can just send them to gtperformance.co/newsletter and they can subscribe there!
Thanks so much for your help in spreading the word about long-term athletic development!
Best,
Zach
Dr. Zach Guiser, PT, DPT, CSCS