As soon as Amy Larrabee, our athletic trainer, unlocks the trainer’s room, the herd of boys waiting outside the door walk in. They put their names on the nearly full sign-in sheet, then hop up on the table for help wrapping ankles, wrists, and casts. Larrabee goes through anywhere from seven to eleven rolls of pre-wrap and athletic tape a day, helping athletes protect and prevent injuries. Every time she tries to sit down, another person walks in asking for help. With all these injuries, what makes athletes want to push themselves to get back out there?

After a traumatic injury that restricts someone from continuing their sport, after they have healed they may be physically fine, but mentally it can be a setback. Taking time off of a sport sets back an athlete “We practice about 20 hours a week, and it’s so much repetition,” as Aspen Prucha, a sophomore and gymnast, said ”Breaking that pattern is going to throw me off a little.

Prucha  suffered a strain in her meniscus while doing a dismount on the uneven bars,making her take a week off of gymnastics practice. Pruca said the worst part about not being able to do gymnastics is “watching everyone else do stuff and […] going to the gym and seeing everyone and seeing people not take opportunities.” Having an injury makes athletes take time off of their sport. Preventing this injury and doing the right things to prevent an injury is important.

Linden Loren is not only an Anatomy and Physiology teacher, but he also helps the sports teams with strengthening and conditioning. Loren admits that preventing an injury is difficult because “ […] there’s a lot of variables within [preventing an injury]. I would say you can’t really control what happens in sports. I’d say in general, just strengthening and mobilizing the right tissues. So making sure certain tissues are flexible, and then certain ones are strong can then put you in a pretty good position with what you do.”

Larrabee says that the best way to prevent an injury is, “One of the best ways is a proper warm up, proper hydration, and proper strength training.” Preventing an injury is the best way to go, but if someone does end up with an injury, taking advantage of the break to learn and adjust into a positive mindset is one of the most important strategies to get better.

After Prucha returns to her sport she is going to, “I feel like I get really inspired and look at what other people think about when I come back and I’m going to be positive and stay focused.” Prucha is taking her set-back, keeping a positive mindset, learning from this experience and turning it into a positive.