Sport Psychology During Injury Rehabilitation
Understanding the extent of sport psychology usage during injury rehabilitation for collegiate athletes is essential to establish a foundation from which to build upon. Determining sport psychology’s role in the rehab process will tease out ways to: improve athletic rehab outcomes, facilitate healthier outcomes, tailor interventions, and grow the field.
In their article, Arvinen-Barrow et al. (2015) discuss athletes’ use of mental skills during injury rehabilitation, where these athletes learned these skills, and which skills were the most effective. The article sampled collegiate athletes from 5 colleges worldwide to study their interaction with mental skills during injury rehab. Below are some of the key findings.
How do athletes interact with sport psychology during injury rehab?
64% of the athletes mentioned previous mental skills usage for athletic training
27% of the athletes said that they used mental skills for injury rehab specifically
What were the top 3 mental skills?
Goal setting
Positive self-talk
Imagery
Who did they learn these mental skills from?
27% of the athletes said that they were taught by their medicine professionals
3% of the athletes were taught by a sport psychologist
What can we take from these results?
Despite a majority of athletes sampled mentioning that they have used mental skills previously, only a fourth used the mental skills for injury rehabilitation specifically. Based on widespread benefits of incorporating sport psychology into the injury rehabilitation process, these results highlight the need improve accessibility of sport psychology resources for athletes.
By understanding the top 3 reported mental skills, sport psychologists and sports medicine professionals can hone their practice. Utilizing what the literature has shown to work with athletes streamlines the process for incorporating mental skills.
TLDR, what does this mean for you? There is a clear need to incorporate sport psychology and mental skills into the injury rehabilitation process to improve return to sport outcomes. Goal setting, positive self-talk, and imagery have all been mentioned by athletes for being helpful.
Not sure how sport psychology can improve the outcomes for you, your athletes, or your patients? Contact now.
Arvinen-Barrow, M., Clement, D., Hamson-Utley, J. J., Zakrajsek, R. A., Lee, S.-M., Kamphoff, C., Lintunen, T., Hemmings, B., & Martin, S. B. (2015). Athletes’ use of mental skills during sport injury rehabilitation. Journal of Sport Rehabilitation, 24(2), 189–197. https://doi.org/10.1123/jsr.2013-0148