- Dec 29, 2015
- 488
- 1,682
My dd has had stress fractures in both of her shins since December. (It started with shin splints last summer that she just ran through.). She actually competed level 7 this spring with the injuries, before it had been properly diagnosed. She has been on complete leg rest since mid-March.
it has been a nightmare. She spent months in physical pain, but I think the rest period was worse. I was a complete leg-rest Nazi. We allowed her to still go to practice every day, but only bars without landings and conditioning. She watched her teammates get new skills, start flipping vaults, perfect new skills that she wasn't even allowed to try.
She was miserable. Her coaches did as I instructed, but I heard plenty of comments from other kids and parents about how other girls came back from lesser injuries faster. But she put all of that energy into extra conditioning -- pike rope climbs wearing 10 pounds of ankle weights, pull up with ankle weights, pike dips with ankle weights, every ab exercise you can imagine. Her arms and abs are now the best in the gym.
She came back to full practice last week with medical clearance. She is pain free for the first time in years. And she already has all of her old skills back and several new ones. She is happy again at practice, after so many months of pain and bad practices followed by so many months of restrictions.
I am so glad we held to our guns and enforced the rest and recovery. I see girls in arm casts flipping on beam, girls in ankle braces tumbling with more and more tape every day and it just makes no sense to me. Why not let their bodies heal a bit? I get it that you sometimes do what it takes to get through state, regionals, etc. But in the off season? Let them heal.
So consider this a celebration that she is back and also a plea to let them heal.
it has been a nightmare. She spent months in physical pain, but I think the rest period was worse. I was a complete leg-rest Nazi. We allowed her to still go to practice every day, but only bars without landings and conditioning. She watched her teammates get new skills, start flipping vaults, perfect new skills that she wasn't even allowed to try.
She was miserable. Her coaches did as I instructed, but I heard plenty of comments from other kids and parents about how other girls came back from lesser injuries faster. But she put all of that energy into extra conditioning -- pike rope climbs wearing 10 pounds of ankle weights, pull up with ankle weights, pike dips with ankle weights, every ab exercise you can imagine. Her arms and abs are now the best in the gym.
She came back to full practice last week with medical clearance. She is pain free for the first time in years. And she already has all of her old skills back and several new ones. She is happy again at practice, after so many months of pain and bad practices followed by so many months of restrictions.
I am so glad we held to our guns and enforced the rest and recovery. I see girls in arm casts flipping on beam, girls in ankle braces tumbling with more and more tape every day and it just makes no sense to me. Why not let their bodies heal a bit? I get it that you sometimes do what it takes to get through state, regionals, etc. But in the off season? Let them heal.
So consider this a celebration that she is back and also a plea to let them heal.
