Sooner or later most skaters have to deal with injuries. So did Breanna. In a series of articles, she writes about her experience. After she tore her shoulder labrum, Breanna had to have surgery to fix it. What she also had to fix was her mojo. Here are her tips.
During my recovery after having shoulder surgery to repair my torn labrum, I wasn’t allowed to rollerskate at the skatepark for over a month. Once I was allowed to park skate again, it took almost a month until I felt myself again. Essentially, I had to “get my mojo back” after my injury.
Depending on the severity of your injury and length of recovery time required, it may be a process that takes time and patience until you’re back to 100%. You may have restrictions from your doctor on what you can do and what you shouldn’t as your body heals and regains its strength and mobility again. Don’t worry! You’ll be back at it and the time will pass.
Even though injuries feel like setbacks, know that it’s also an opportunity to rebuild. You can come out of an injury stronger mentally and physically!
How do you get your ‘mojo’ back post injury?
When you sustain an injury that takes you away from skating for a time –especially after a long time away- you may feel like you ‘lost your mojo’ at first when you return to skating. The truth is, you still have it! You may face some obstacles in finding it again, but know you can overcome them.
Obstacles you may face:
- The fear of getting hurt, or re-injury
- Doubt you can still do it
- Confidence needs built back up
- Physically, your body may need to re-learn the muscle memory again
- Your doctor may give you restrictions on what you can do while your body is still healing
All of these things are something you can overcome!
How to Overcome Them:
- Be patient with yourself. This is by far the most important thing you can do!
- Skate when you can, and enjoy it!
- Relax, choose to not pressure yourself.
- Listen to your body and take care of it.
- Give yourself time. Focus on having fun and doing what you can now, and let it come back naturally as you keep skating.
- Work hard when you feel inspired and curious if you can do something new.*
(*Even if it was something you did in the past, everything is “new” after an injury when you do it for the first time again). - Understand everyone’s timeline is different; your healing and recovery post-injury may be not the same as someone else’s. So embrace your own unique journey!
- Respect the guidelines laid out by medical professionals for you.
- Be aware of your comfort and skill level and stay near that range as you build your ‘mojo’ back up.
- Believe in yourself and skate
- When thoughts like fears, negative thinking, self-doubt arise in your mind, replace them with positive affirmations!
- Write down some Mindset Mantras to repeat to yourself.
- Celebrate and enjoy your skate journey!
STEP BY STEP:
- Start with the basics. First, just skate around: on the street, indoors, the rink. Get comfortable again, enjoy the movement. Test out what your body can do. Skate as often as you can!
- When you’re ready and allowed to return to the park, start simple. Go up and down small ramps. Pump the transition. That may be enough for the first time back. Simply ‘get a feel’ again.
- Skate often to get comfortable again! Hang out on skates. Go to meet-ups with fellow skaters for encouragement, community, and support.
- Build up from the basics and do the moves you are most confident doing. Stay in your comfort zone.
- Once you feel more confident and skating like yourself again (aka you’ve got your ‘mojo’ back!), integrate new tricks and challenge yourself!
The most difficult part of returning to skating after recovering from an injury is allowing your body to relearn what it can do and finding your self-confidence again. Learning to be patient with the time it takes to regain what you can is key. Your ‘mojo’ is still there and you will find it again.
The most rewarding part for me during this journey was realizing how grateful I’d become for being able to skate again. Enjoy skating every moment you get to! Everything else will follow.
Words and photos by Breanna Simon
Graphic by Jonas Vietense