Dealing with injuries

Broken left clavicle. You can also see the aftermath of my spine fusion.

Injuries are part of ours and any sport, I think it’s not about if you’ll get injured, but when. Let’s discuss ways and mindsets to help get you through your injury and to keep your sanity.

I often think that how an athlete deals with an injury or setback shows their level of character. You don’t truly see the potential of a rider until they’ve had a bump in the road and have had to keep pushing through.

So, you’ve been killing it and riding at your peak, life’s good! But you’ve just had a crash, broken a bone and now you’ve got to spend 6 weeks off the bike. Let’s talk about some ways to cope.

Like everything in life, it’s best to take a proactive approach rather than a reactive one.

Don’t Dwell
No matter how hard you try; you will never be able to go back in time and change what happened. “If only I warmed up a little more” “Man I shouldn’t have taken that last run after I was tired”. This type of thinking won’t change anything and will drive you insane. Rather than focusing on the past, bring your attention to the present. Think about being the best version of yourself every day.

 Focus on the things you can do
When faced with adversity, it’s easy to focus on the things we can’t do anymore. Instead, it’s better to focus on all the things we still can do. If you’ve got an arm out of action, you can still pedal a stationary bike, train legs in the gym or go for a walk on the beach. If you actually think about it, you’ll find an almost endless number of things to do.

Stay social
Bmx is such a big part of our lives, for most of us the people we see at the track are some of our closest friends. If you can’t ride, you can still head to the track and hang out while your training partner’s train. You can help by dropping the gate, filming or just offering some words of encouragement. They’ll appreciate that and it’ll make you feel good too. Plus, you’ll see a session from a different perspective.

Learn something new

Here's a bit of a story, At the start of 2017 I had a big crash which resulted in me fracturing 4 vertebrae in my thoracic spine. I had two unstable fractures which lead to me getting a spinal fusion, where they installed 2 rods and 8 screws into my spine.
I was adamant I was getting back to racing (although I wasn’t really sure to what level), but I knew it would be a while. I knew it was going to be a decent recovery and I needed to take things day by day. It felt like a lot of my life was put on hold and I had a lot of time to kill.
I had half an interest in photography back then, but never really go into it. I found my mum’s dslr camera that was rarely used, read the manual, and started messing around with it. I was extremely interested in long exposure shots; I watched a stupid amount of YouTube videos to try and learn more. As soon as I was able to drive again, I went out to a bridge and got my first long exposure shot of light trails from cars. Man, that was exciting.

To this day I still look forward to getting the camera out and taking photos, it’s become one of my favourite hobbies.

I look back at my broken spine injury with happiness, as it gave me time to reset, build a lot of character and find a new passion which I would have for many years to come.

Long Exposure overlooking Melbourne CBD from Ingles St Bridge

To conclude

One of my favourite Taoist stories is ‘The story of the Chinese farmer’

A farmer and his son had a beloved horse who helped the family earn a living. One day, the horse ran away, and their neighbours exclaimed, “Your horse ran away, what terrible luck!” The farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not.”

A few days later, the horse returned home, leading a few wild horses back to the farm as well. The neighbours shouted out, “Your horse has returned, and brought several horses home with him. What great luck!” The farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not.”

Later that week, the farmer’s son was trying to break one of the horses and she threw him to the ground, breaking his leg. The neighbours cried, “Your son broke his leg, what terrible luck!” The farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not.”

A few weeks later, soldiers from the national army marched through town, recruiting all boys for the army. They did not take the farmer’s son, because he had a broken leg. The neighbours shouted, “Your boy is spared, what tremendous luck!” To which the farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not. We’ll see.”

We don’t know if a situation is good or bad, we must wait and see. We may perceive an injury as bad, but if positive things come of it, we learn life lessons and build character, was it really that bad?