Taking Care of Your Injuries | Softball is For Girls

The first time I start training new teams or players, I ask “is anyone injured?” You should see the number of hands that go up. I would say I’m guaranteed at least 3-4 in a team setting. These injuries range from knee pain, shoulder pain, chronic injuries to hips, or back issues. You name it, it’s there, I’ve heard it. My next question is “what are you doing for your injury?” That’s when I get a complete stare, nothing, no words, no plan for injury recovery, no icing , no elevating, nothing.

I have yet to understand how any player can understand the fact that they have pain, enough pain to prevent them from performing at 100% capacity, yet never do anything to try and take care of their injuries.

I had a player come up to me before a team workout last week and say, “Kris I was running in PE and my ankle rolled under and it really hurts.”

This is how our conversation went

Me- Did you tell your teacher?

Her-NO

Me-Did you tell your parents when you got home?

Her-No

Me-Did you ice it?

Her-No

Me-Did you elevate it?

Her- NO..

You get the gist of this conversation. I hate to add this because I don’t think it’s acceptable, but this story is so normal. Players with multiple injuries that they ignore, plat through, think will magically go away. The reality of the situation is that no injury just goes away. It usually stays around as a nagging problem or turns into something much worse.

I know that I’m preaching to the choir when I present this to most parents, but for those that thin your kids are responsible for addressing their injuries and then caring for them, it just wont happen. I know I sound like I don’t have faith in the players of today to take care of an injury, but history has always shown me that they are still too young to realize the importance of injury prevention and care.

So when I get a player tell me the same injury hurts them, weeks after I’ve made suggestions a parent needs to step in and make sure its done. What I would actually really like is an honest conversation about making injury prevention a necessary action. I would love for parents and players to treat it with the same respect that buying new cleats gets. I’d like to think a players ability to play is more important than new cleats. But I’ve yet to see it take precedence. Here’s some simple reminders on treating softball injuries, remember I’m not a doctor, nor do I pretend to be one. Take your daughter to the doctor when in doubt. Here’s some simple reminders; first 24 hours of an injury-ice, elevate, stay off of it.

There’s some chronic injuries that may be caused to muscle tightness. This is based on a very individualized basis. So make sure your players are foam rolling.

I always take a very cautionary approach, I don’t want to make any injury worse. It’s easy to adjust workouts,

Lastly when in doubt, talk to a doctor.

For more training tips, you can catch up with Kris Massaro at Softball Strong!