10 Things All Modern Athletes Should Own

10 Things All Modern Athletes Should Own

By Des Shaw

15/02/14

Sport, like most things around us is constantly evolving. The demands and expectations placed upon athletes now are higher than ever. Acquiring that vital edge or optimum performance is a never ending journey athletes must navigate. Athletes spend their careers trying to obtain that edge, generally looking to coaches, fitness specialists, and psychologists etc. to help them acquire it. They use mediums such as strength and conditioning, nutrition, skill acquisition, video analysis; the list goes on and on….

Thinking about the countless athletes out there striving for that elusive edge, I decided to devise a list of tools that I feel every serious athlete should own which will help them to stay ahead of the average and to at least compete with elite competitors. I have made use of these items during my own career and cannot recommend them strongly enough.

Foam Roller

Foam rollers are cylindrical, dense foam products used by athletes to perform Self Myofasical Release (SMR). SMR is basically self massage, a process where athletes roll particular muscle groups along or over the foam roller, in order to find areas of adverse tightness or soreness. Once this area is identified, a short period of direct pressure or bodyweight is placed upon it to release some of the tightness. It must be noted that this will not reduce all soreness or remove all tightness and must be accompanied by adequate mobility and flexibility work.

Other tools used for SMR are sliotars, hockey balls or other hard balls for the difficult areas that the foam roller can’t reach such as the psoas, pectoral or deep gluteal muscles. These are great for releasing tightness from problem areas which most athletes don’t even know are tight and restricted.

Resistance Bands/ Thera Bands
These are very versatile tools and ones I definitely recommend to have in your kit bag at all times. Resistance bands come in a variety of resistance strengths from very light (8-35lb) to heavy (80-180lb) and Thera bands which are much lighter in resistance. Resistance and Thera bands have a wide range of uses, too many to list here completely. I have listed some of my favourite uses below:

1.     Warming Up. Bands can be used to perform a range of exercises with light resistance to engage and activate the muscle groups required. Examples below – band pull aparts (Shoulder and Back) and band walks (Glute Activation)

2.     Increasing/ decreasing resistance in the different ranges of contraction (eccentric & concentric) while performing an exercise. Examples below – pull ups (big help for beginners or weak athletes) and bench press (adding more resistance in the concentric phase of the lift)

Dumbbells

Owning a good set of adjustable dumbbells is, in my opinion, a must for all athletes. I have an adjustable set, along with some extra weight plates and I can perform a full workout at home even when I can’t make it to the gym or to training. A spacious, clean and well equipped gym is great but not essential to get a good workout completed. A lot of my workouts can be done in the comfort of my own home. Basic dumbbells can facilitate a full body workout when you use compound exercises (exercises which involve more than one joint or muscle group) and dumbbell complexes (series of exercises flowing one after the other).

Here’s a good video by Mike Boyle talking about dumbbell complexes.

I also like dumbbells because they can allow even experienced athletes the possibility to work on improving lifting techniques away from the gym environment with lighter loads. Using dumbbells also offers a great opportunity to try correcting subtle imbalances in an athlete’s composition.  For instance whilst performing a bench press exercise, using dumbbells allows for both arms to be strengthened evenly which is beneficial for athletes who have a favoured side in sports such as tennis, hurling etc. and may have developed slight imbalances in their musculature.

Diary

A diary is great way for any player or athlete to monitor a multitude of different performance related elements on a daily basis. It can be used to record their;

1.     Training Schedule and Training Loads

2.     Dietary and Fluid Intakes

3.     General Mood

4.     Heart Rate

5.     Reflections on Performances

6.     Goals and Training Targets

By recording these elements you are providing vital information for self reflection. Perusing these records can indicate areas that may need improvement or adjustment. Nutritional improvements are commonly made upon reflection of a food diary but monitoring your training load, mood and heart rate you can also determine when you are overtraining. Without going into too much detail, a high resting heart rate in the morning plus lack of appetite for training can be simple indicators of overtraining. If this was the case the training load may need to be reduced or altered and more rest & recovery time may need to be introduced. This is a simple example of what keeping a diary can provide.

If given to a fitness specialist or strength and conditioning coach it can alleviate their jobs significantly. It will provide them the specific information which they can utilise to manage and alter the athletes training load with more certainty.

Heart Rate Monitor

As mentioned above the heart rate manager is a great tool for any athlete to monitor themselves throughout the season. All players should check their resting heart rates every morning in order to see if there is any irregularities. The resting heart rate of the body (RHR) is the number of contractions of the heart that occur in a single minute while the body is at complete rest. RHR are dependent on many factors age, health, physical activity etc. but whatever the baseline number is, a significantly elevation of this figure can indicate overtraining is occurring. Athletes need to be aware of this as overtraining is a major risk factor for potential injury.

Heart rate monitors can also be used to ensure the required training intensity is being achieved and will help you from overtraining but also from undertraining. They can be used to ensure you are in the appropriate training zone or intensity. By estimating your max heart rate (MHR) you can use this figure to train at different training zones or percentages of your MHR. A simple estimated calculation for your MHR is 220-AGE (for men) and 226-AGE (for women). Mine for example is 220-29 = 191 MHR. However as this is only an approximate reading it is not precise for all individuals, but it can be used as a general training indicator for intensity levels. There are many other methods for monitoring training, such as GPS, blood and lactate testing but this is a cheap and cost effective method for personal use outside of organised training.

Clean Eating Cookbook

Nutrition is a key aspect of the pursuit for improved performance and we’ve all heard the saying ‘Garbage in, garbage out.’ So an athlete’s nutritional intake is so important to achieve optimum performance. There are many ideas, methods on what to eat and when to eat that I could write a whole article on it but to keep it short I believe in clean eating or a healthy whole foods diet. This means no processed or packaged foods just natural earth grown nutrients and wild caught or grass fed animal produce. This is a lifestyle more than a diet but as I found out at first, it’s one that can be hard to adhere to because my meals tended to be so bland and plain. This is why I recommend that every athlete purchase a good quality clean eating recipe book to give them options and directions on how to make their meals tasty but at the same time clean and healthy. My favourite to use is one by Mike Dolce, called ‘TheLiving Lean Cookbook’ as it contains lots of options and great recipes to try. I would suggest checking online where there are plenty of excellent websites providing advice and recipes for free. These can provide a good starting place for improving your diet.

Blender

A good quality blender is a great investment for any household but an even better one for an athlete. I use mine quite regularly make many of my recipes, like homemade pesto, clean eating ice cream etc., but I use it mostly for making smoothies and shakes.

Smoothies and shakes are great way to pack a lot of macronutrients into one meal and more importantly into your body. Some people have issues with; consuming solid foods immediately after training, eating certain types of foods in particular vegetables or haven’t the time to prepare cooked meals. Side note, I had issues eating vegetables in my teens mainly because I didn’t like the look or taste, now I’m packing the blender with them and creating great macronutrient dense smoothies and shakes to eat. So if you’re like me then give blending a try. There are many great sites online with countless recipes to try. One of my favourites is Jason Vale’s website, I was so impressed that I even bought one of his recipe books.

Protein Shaker & Water Bottle

These are definitely a must for all athletes to own. Having a protein shaker packed with either a smoothie or workout shake in your training bag is a great way for making sure that you have an easy and convenient source of macronutrients for before during and after your workout. Preparing cooked meals for demanding training schedules or work schedules can be quite hard and the nutrition demands of an athlete can be neglected because of this reason. I find that using smoothies or workout shakes are often the best and most cost effective solutions to this problem. I use mine all the time, in particular post workout and also whilst attending college, when I had very few healthy options on offer in the college canteen. It made sense to blend the night before and consume my shake throughout the college day along with other snacks too.

A personal measured water bottle is crucial for every athlete to own and in my opinion an item they should have in their possession at all times. Too many athletes do not consume sufficient amounts of water to match their training loads and often are dehydrated while training. Dehydration has major impact on performance and for athletes seeking that elusive edge, maintaining proper hydration levels throughout the day could be a step in the right direction towards optimum performance. I used to carry a two litre bottle with me throughout the day and I would generally try to drink at least 6 litres each day. Couple of tips that I found helped me achieve this were:

1.      Fill the bottle at night and leave it on your bedside locker. It must be the first thing you reach for, not the light switch, not the phone or laptop. A great habit to get into and immediately starts your hydration process.

2.     Drink your bottle (mine was 2litre) until empty and then refill. This way you can monitor the exact amount you have consumed during the day and record it in your diary.

Tupperware
If you like to cook, have time to prepare your meals or get meals prepared for you (by mammy!) then storing them in Tupperware is perfect for the busy athletes that are on the go. Carrying your own prepared meals with you eradicates this issue of not making healthy nutritional choices because there was no other option than eating out or going to McDonalds. You can prepare and section your meals or snacks into different Tupperware for different periods of the day and bring them with you anywhere. I used them all the time whilst attending college or at long coaching conferences. This way I can ensure that I am always eating a clean, healthy and properly prepared meal and I can monitor my portions and the content of my meals. It will takes a little more effort particularly if you are preparing the meals but again when striving for that ultimate goal, you have to start making sacrifices, dedicating more time and doing things differently in order to achieve them.

So this is a rough breakdown of the costs of each item approximately.

                                                                   €

Foam Roller                                                20                                  

Resistance Band                                         10-20

Dumbbells                                                  30-40

Heart Rate Monitor                                     50

Clean Eating Recipe Book                           20

Diary                                                          05

Blender                                                       50

Tupperware                                                10

Protein Shaker                                            05

Waterbottle                                                 01

Total                                                          221

I would advise you to shop around, you can get better prices but I don’t think that around €200 is too much to pay if you’re chasing a dream or a goal. Also ask around you’d be surprised who has some of these item lying idle and only happy for you to take them off their hands. 

So there you have my list of things all athletes should own and there is probably some other items that could be added but these are the few I think are most important. If you can think of any others or disagree drop me a comment here.

Do Everthing Better.

Des Shaw

New Team, New Challenge, Where To Start?

New Team, New Challenge, Where To Start?

12/02/14

By Des Shaw

So I was chatting with a fellow coach about the potential of taking a managerial position with a field sports team. It would be a season long gig and I would have complete control of how things would be done. In the past I have held managerial roles and similar coaching roles but never had complete control or it was only for a short period and not enough time to make a significant impact. So he asked me where would I start and what approach would I take?? As any coach or manager will tell you, you’ve got a base of knowledge and experiences that have influenced you, lots of coaching resources and coaching mentors that you can draw ideas from but at the end of the day you have to filter through all of the above and develop your principles and coaching ideals from these.

So after a long reflection on this topic and I have come up with some areas, thoughts or principles which I feel are important to practice and establish when heading into a new coaching job or dressing room more to the point.

Take It All In

Take an opportunity to firstly ask questions, observe and listen. Get an idea for the club culture, strong characters, previous failings etc within the club itself. This will give you much needed information to make decisions later on.

Know Thyself

Think deeply about what your coaching principles, ethics, and expectations are. Examples of this would be ‘It’s all about development of the younger players’ or ‘Performance is key, not the result.’ It is crucial that you know these before you start as they will be the foundations on which your team are built.

‘To know thyself, is the beginning of wisdom.’ – Socrates

Stay True To Thyself

Once you have an idea of your principles and expectations, you need to stay true to yourself and to your coaching style and principles. Far too often coaches fall into the pitfall of mimicking other successful coaches. If you’re not a passionate, animated coach like Mourihno (Chealse FC) or Davy Fitzgearld (Clare Senior Hurling Manager) they don’t try to be, players will see through you and you will lose them and become less effective as a coach. Coach your way and be confident in your methods and beliefs. Repeat and emphasise these on a daily basis; it will take time for player buy in and an impact  to be made but stay the course and it will happen for you!

Be Professional, Be Accountable and the Driving Force at All Times

Conduct yourself in a professional manner at all times; be organised, be on time, finish what you start, never get personal, do what you say; all are good staples of being a professional coach. If things are sliding in the wrong direction, your accountable, it’s a reflection of your work as a coach. Always be enthusiastic and energetic, bring it each session. Players or athletes love an energetic coach, it motivates them and they will strive to do better and improve in an energetic and positive environment. You must be the driving force of this environment. 

Turn Them Who You Want Them to Be

Get back to basics from day one. Focus on game fundamentals or technique, strength and conditioning, good nutrition, scheduling of sessions, simple tactics and most of all discipline. Simple non-wavering standards of punctuality, honesty in absence, two-way communication (responding to texts or calls), respect for club representatives, coaches, fellow players, club’s equipment are all crucial for creating an environment or culture that you want.  

Always Follow Through

It vitally important to follow through with whatever you say, especially with regard to discipline. No deviations. Ever! Players will quickly lose respect for you and will begin to see through you and your idol threats. Never ever let any player be held to a different set of rules, it’s a bottomless hole that you will never dig yourself out of. Often you will be met with resistance by some players at the beginning but if you’re consistent they will begin to pull with you rather than against.

'Words are meaningless without intent and follow through.' - Unknown

Surgically Remove Any Cancerous Elements

I believe everybody can contribute to the team, but if there is a truly resistant person or contingent in your team, I suggest removing this, as I call it a ‘Cancerous Element’ from your coaching environment. These elements can hold some power or influence in the team and will only be detrimental to what you are trying to achieve if you allow them to sway others to their way of thinking. Often when your standards are high and kept high these people like to resist, will disagree with everything you do or say and more often than not eventually will leave the team on their own accord because they realise this is not for them.

Create a Great Environment

You control the environment your players are subject too, so make it:

POSITIVE - Encourage players regularly and be specific. Use positive language, emphasise strengths and work quietly on weaknesses. 
CHALLENGING - Challenge players with lots of decision making both as a team and as individuals. Small sides games are perfect for developing this.
THOUGHT PROVOKING – Create problems or situations and encourage them find the solutions. Don’t always tell them what you are looking for or what you wish they would do. You create better decision makers this way. 
FUN – Coaches often think that fun is for kids to keep them engaged and that everything has to be serious at adult level. Do you think adults don’t like to laugh and joke about too? So throw in fun games or exercises into your sessions, it will break up the mood from constantly being serious and it can be a great way to bring you and your team closer together.

Check out this good atricle I read The Power of Positive Coaching about the current superbowl champions Seattle Seahawks' head coach Pete Carroll's (pictured above) positive approach to coaching.

Monitor Them

Try to monitor your players over the duration of your time in the job. Fitness monitoring is the most common for coaches to use. Performing a barrage of standard fitness tests with your team which can easily be replicated at different stages of the season. This will provide an indication of their fitness levels progression or regressions. and is a great tool for any coach for decision making purposes i.e. team selections. It also enusres that each player in the program is developing at the rate that, you the coach want. Do not fall into the trap of testing for testing’s sake or worse test once or twice. Build up a repertoire of standard tests that you can use in the long run, these can be used in monitoring your current players but also for the rest of your career to reference back to.

One on Ones

Have one to one meetings with players. This should be done regularly and will provide you an opportunity to get to know your players more personally. Emotional Intelligence is often overlooked by coaches when dealing with players. Remember players are people first; they have problems, issues, good days and bad days like the rest of us. Showing them you care about them and their development is hugely important. They will play harder for you when they know you care about them. This is also a great opportunity for performance appraisals; use objective records, video footage etc so it gives you and them a clear indication of how they are performing. You have got to be honest and direct in your appraisal or it will be of no benefit to them. To often I find coaches avoid this or worse they only give their subjective opinions in their appraisals of players which can never give a true refelction of performance.

Delegate Work

If you have selectors, assistants or volunteers then delegate the workload to them especially for training sessions. A common mistake made by coaches is to try and do everything themselves; set up, warm up, take the session, look after the equipment, referee, hands on coaching, observe, motivate and the list goes on….Delegate as much of the less important stuff to assistants in order to free yourself up to provide more hands on coaching and also to give you more opportunities to just take a step back and observe.

Do Everything Better

Build on what was done before and do it better. Whatever was done by predecessors in the past, make sure and do it better and to a higher standard.  Don’t drop these standards ever and you will in time, see the rewards from it. This ethos can be instilled in the players, to 'Do everything better' and by holding them to these high standards this will increase your chances for success drastically.

Reputation Follows after You

Whether you’re an aspiring coach or a well known coach already, remember that your reputation follows you wherever you go. So what I mean is, build a good reputation for yourself and it follows you. A good reputation will lead to other job opportunities opening up for you. Always do your best to improve yourself and the team even when things are going bad. Becoming complacent or indifferent as a coach can damage your reputation; word of mouth and reputation are everything for a coach when securing future work, so always give your best effort or your reputation will suffer. Players are often told ‘you’re only as good as your last game’ to avoid complacency and same goes for coaching you’re only as good as your last job. Reputation is everything!

So these are a few areas which I feel are important for a coach to be aware of when beginning a new job. If you can practice and adhere to these principles I believe you will be on your way to having a productive and successful year. There are probably many more items you could include in this list but these are ones which I feel are most important. If you have any more or disagree with mine, leave me a comment I’m always open to debate. So If I do choose to take up this role or another role this season I hopefully will be able to report back in the future with additions or modifications to the list for you guys.

Do Everything Better!

Des Shaw

Overcoming Injury

Overcoming Injury

By Peter Shaw
02/02/14

Dedicated to my best friend Jonny Byrne. RIP my friend.

Firstly, I would like to thank Des Shaw and Shaw Sports Performance Solutions for asking me to write on such a relevant topic in modern day sport. For anyone who knows me that reads this post, they will already know that I have a lot of experience with this subject (my friends probably think I hurt my finger writing this).

Man is now at rest more than ever and this leaves us more susceptible to injury. Over my short career I have pulled hamstrings, compound fractured my collarbone in four places, fractured my talus bone, fractured my right ankle, fractured my right wrist twice, undergone a hip arthroscopy surgery, undergone a sports hernia operation, tore my anterior talofibular ligament in my left ankle twice, been placed in a brace for two days as my vertebrae was out of line and have had many more less significant injuries which could fill up this whole article. I spend a substantial amount of my time rehabbing rather than training and one might say I am dysfunctionally functional as an athlete. My main sport is hurling but I also play Gaelic football and have played soccer at a very high level in my early teens but this has taken a back seat now to my hurling endeavours. My objective here is to give advice, both mental and physical which I feel worked for me in overcoming injury. The number one goal when injured is overcome the injury and come back stronger. Here is my perspective based on my experiences with injury.

Prevention

Recently the majority of my time spent in the gym has been what many people would consider strength training and a few years ago I would of too. However I feel now that it’s now morphed into more of injury prevention and a prehab strategy. Currently I allocate a lot of my time to foam rolling and doing self myofascial release (SMR) which is basically a form of self massage and a great tool for athletes to identify muscles, or muscle groups that are adversely tight. My hips are a priority area because they become very tight and they need extra flexibility work to mobilise them. I also use large resistance bands to distract the hip joint, a technique introduced to me by my physiotherapist Damien Sheehan and this has vastly improved my hip flexion, extension, internal and external rotation. Because I spend so much time sitting in college and watching tv etc. my muscles tend to ‘shut off’ and not produce the desired muscle contractions when I’m training or playing. Using SMR and hip distraction with resistance bands has helped this problem greatly.  Physical therapist and author of “Becoming a Supple Leopard” Kelly Starett’s body of work in the area of mobility has impacted greatly on me and I recommend everybody to check his work out here at http://www.mobilitywod.com/. Glute activation or lack of more to the point was a major problem of mine and was the reason for a lot of my early hamstring problems and hip instability. I use exercises like glute bridges, band walks, crab walks and unilateral strength exercises in my routine to develop better glute activation and this has also helped me drastically in my injury prevention strategy.

Knowledge of the Injury

The first thing when you get injured I suggest you to do is be evaluated by a physiotherapist, GP or in extreme circumstances a specialist. They will do an initial assessment and develop the course of action(s) from this. Generally most injuries will require treatments such as massage, trigger point therapy, ultrasound, laser treatment etc. but some may require referrals for CT scans, x-rays or MRIs to diagnose correclty. Some may even send you to have an evaluation by an orthopaedic surgeon depending on the severity of the injury. So when you are in the presence of these injury specialists it's important that you ask lots of questions regarding the injury like:

·        What is the diagnosis?

·        The recovery time for the injury?

·        What treatment is required?

·        What to expect during rehab process?

·        What exercises/workouts can I do while injured?

·        Is there anything I should avoid doing while rehabbing?

Your knowledge of the injury is very important. If you understand it a little better you can engage in a more effective rehabilitation programme. If you feel any pain during rehab and you should stop, you know your body better than anyone and its better to be slow and steady when rehabbing. Remember tomorrow is a new day! Far to often players fail to ask what workouts they can be doing while injured and just stick to rehabilitation exercises given to them by physiotherapists and are missing a great opportunity to improve other areas. Being injured is the best opportunity to come back stronger. A good example is Roy Keane, whilst injured he used this time to build his upper body strength whilst having a lower extremity injury. There is always something you can be doing to get better whilst injured but always remember to ask the injury specialist before conducting any workouts.

Developing a Relationship with Your Injury Specialist

One of my biggest failings when injured was my willingness to change physiotherapist based on my fellow teammate’s recommendations, ‘Oh this guy is great he’ll sort you out have you back in no time.’ or other times I was pushed towards certain physiotherapists by my coaches and this creates a vicious circle of never actually developing a relationship with the one physiotherapist. While I was suffering different injuries, I was travelling around to different medical professionals and all of them had varying opinions and methods of treatment. Some would look to treat the area of injury and I would be back on the training pitch quickly but these never get to the root of the problem, whilst others looked at the bigger picture assessing my movement patterns and but this meant longer rehabbing times and more corrective work to be completed. Being a typical competitive player and wanting to get back as quick as possible, the quick fix was usually the choice. However this led to further injuries down the road and it’s can be hard for a player to choose the long term option and have faith in someone when there is no relationship built up.

My advice is to find a qualified and experienced physiotherapist. They should a good reputation for their precise rehabilitation techniques and assessing the bigger picture and also for constantly keeping up to date with new proven methods of treatment.  Once you find this person stick with them. They will build a profile of your body type, your dysfunctional movements and injury history which makes it easier for them to diagnose you correclty. Moving from one physiotherapist to the next will mean starting this process again each time. My current physiotherapist is able to tell me my complete injury history, the exercises I struggled with during rehabilitation, my trials and tribulations with rehab and the times I lay on the physiotherapist’s table disillusioned with the whole process. Building this type of relationship with my physiotherapist I feel has benefited me greatly in reduction of injuries and also has helped with reducing rehabilitation time when injured. 

Fitness While Injured

A problem I had with my long layoffs was when returning to full training I had a poor fitness base behind me. I recall during the late stages of my collarbone injury, doing wall squats, lunges and interval sprints on a spinning bike and this work proved to reduce my muscle atrophy and allowed me to focus more on strengthening the shoulder muscles when the sling was removed. Too many times I had been injured, returned to training and my hamstring would cramp or worse my back would spasm because of returning to training with a poor fitness level. Try to work on your fitness and do lighter versions of your regular training before you return to full tilt training. My belief is the only time you shouldn’t train is when you are sick. You can always be working on something to prevent a decline in your fitness levels. A video I seen recently exemplified this belief, it showed a professional rugby player was doing seated intervals of boxing pads while he had a knee brace on for an MCL injury. My advice is speak with your physiotherapist and they can advise you best on what strategy you can adopt to keep your fitness levels from dropping too low whilst rehabbing your injury.

Positive Mindset and Support System

I can admit during my hip injury in particular that I was in a dark place at times. After being injured for so long and being diagnosed some many different times with varying opinions, I became very frustrated. It was very difficult to remain positive when medical professionals didn’t quite know what the root of the problem was. It took me two and a half years, 6 medical professionals, over 30 appointments and who knows how much money to find the root of the problem. My first Hip Arthroscopy for a Femoral Acetabular Impingement didn’t rectify my injury. Eight weeks later I underwent a sports hernia surgery and this all during my final year in second level school (leaving cert).

It took 23 weeks in total to return to full training and competition. Remaining positive proved arduous during this long rehabilitation but I was determined to get back better than ever. Initially, during the rehabilitation process I was enthusiastic and looking forward to getting back training. But when the exercises are very monotonous; such as lifting your leg while lying down or squeezing a small ball lightly between your knees, my attitude quickly changed to one of apathy. Setbacks caused me to become disillusioned with the whole process and a comeback seemed further away than ever especially when i was told I had a small chance of making it back to competition and possibly only a few years before impending retirement because of my hip injury by one medical professional.

What helped me greatly in staying positive was having a strong support system. My physiotherapist, coaches, friends and family were pivotal to helping me keeping a positive mindset. The constant reiteration that I would make it back from these injuries kept my spirits high through my rehabilitation. I found comfort in talking with other players who have come back from serious injuries before and this proved invaluable in staying positive during my darkest days. Getting their perspective and advice was instrumental in giving me a keeping me focused to get back to my best. Also viewing motivational videos (there are loads to choose from online) lifted my spirits when I was getting very disillusioned with my progress. Also reading about sporting greats who had previously had injuries and made full recoveries gave me hope too such as Ray Lewis (Baltimore Ravens Linebacker) returning from what was believed to be a season ending triceps surgery to win an superbowl and lift the Lombardi trophy.

Goal Setting

This is vital in the rehabilitation of any injury. Goal setting will provide you targets and timelines to achieve which will hold you accountable. I would set goals to do a certain amount of reps of an exercise. For example, I couldn’t do 10 bodyweight rear leg elevated split squats. Goal setting changed my attitude right around, I developed a tireless work ethic which involved doing strength work before I would go to school. Then I would do core strengthening and hip flexibility at 4:30pm after school.  My thought process was not a rehabilitation programme, it was more like an American footballer in pre season and I used the rehabilitation process as a strength programme. It was determined to be the strongest I had ever been. I developed on to doing rear leg elevated split squats with 20kg dumbbells in either hand and a 10kg weighted vest for 8 reps. Developing simple goals in conjunction with you physiotherapist, that are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time oriented will help you get back on course to full fitness and competition.

From my experiences with injuries I have had, I feel that these are the major areas which I found most important in the journey back to full fitness & competition. I have over time, improved these areas greatly in order to make sure that I reduce my chances of acquiring future injuries and also to reduce the amount of time I am removed from competition when injured. I hope this article can help some athletes out there who are currently injured, in despair because of the potential long layoffs and rehabilitation I also hope it will act as a guide for athletes in the event of future injury. Remember there is always someone who has had a more severe injury than you, constant reoccurring injuries or been to a darker place than you. If they have made it back, so can you! Remain positive and work hard with your physiotherapist and you can be back stronger than ever!

Peter Shaw


About the Author
Peter is currently studying for a BSc in Strength and Conditioning at Limerick Institute of Technology in conjunction with Setanta College. He comes from a Gaelic Athletic Association sporting background. He is currently a member of the Carlow senior and U21 hurling teams and also a member of the Carlow U21 football team. He has also competed at a very high level in soccer on FAI emerging talent squads, regional level in cross country and basketball while attending Knockbeg College (2007-2013). He has three years coaching experience with underage GAA teams and is about to undergo his GAA level 1 coaching qualifications.