How to Recover Mentally After a Basketball Injury

Recovering from an injury can be just as tough mentally as it is physically.

Being injured can be just as hard on a player mentally as it is physically.

The pain of having to miss games, not being on the court with your teammates, feeling like you aren't contributing, not being able to play the game you love is all difficult to deal with.

Just like you take steps physically to recover from your injury, there are ways to recover and get through your injury mentally as well.

This mental recovery plan I'm about to share with you will help you to stay upbeat, at peace, and maintain a positive outlook on your recovery.

I also believe that with this positive mental approach, your body will actually heal faster too because of a variety of reasons...one of them being that you will minimize the amount of stress you feel.

Read on to learn how to make the most of your injury and recover faster.

Listen: Guided Meditation to Help You Heal >>

Use Visualization

What is visualization?

Visualization is when you close your eyes and you imagine yourself doing something in your mind's eye.

In basketball terms, it means closing your eyes and picturing yourself playing basketball: imagining yourself on the court practicing or playing in a game.

Studies have shown that getting mental reps through visualization is an effective way to manifest a desired outcome.

Visualization while injured

You can also use visualization to help you when you're injured.

For injury recovery, you can use visualization in a few ways:

• visualize an upcoming surgery going well
• visualize your injury healing and getting stronger every day
• imagine yourself playing basketball like you normally would to keep your skills sharp
• work on a new skill - in your mind's eye, - see yourself doing shooting drills, ballhandling drills, finishing drills, etc 

What to do:

• In the morning when you wake up and at night before bed, take 5 minutes to close your eyes and imagine your injury healing
• Imagine yourself using that injured body part and imagine it getting stronger
• Picture yourself playing basketball as if you were fully healthy 

Visualizing for just 10 minutes a day can help you heal faster and more efficiently and help you to return to playing at a high level faster and more efficiently. 

Listen: Guided Visualization for Before Games >>

Celebrate the Mini-Milestones

Depending on the severity of your injury, recovery can be a long, slow road. 

To maintain a positive outlook, it's important to celebrate the mini-milestones in your recovery:

• getting through surgery

• getting a cast removed

• walking again for the first time

• running

• jumping

• shooting

• playing full speed whether 1v1 or 5v5

Celebrate those moments. Enjoy them. You deserve it with all the hard work you put in to overcome your injury.

Kobe Bryant gave this advice to Gordon Hayward after Hayward broke his ankle. Kobe, who had been through a tough injury himself with his torn achilles, had this to offer:

"...focus on the recovery process day by day by day. It’s a long journey but if you focus on the mini milestones along the way you will find beauty in the struggle of doing simple things that prior to this injury were taken for granted. This will also mean that when you return you will have a new perspective. You will be so appreciative of being able to stand, walk, run that you will train harder than you ever have. You see the belief within you grow with each mini milestone and you will come back a better player for it."

- Kobe Bryant

If you stay in the moment and just focus on getting a little bit better and a little bit stronger each day, next thing you know you will be back to 100%.

If you dwell on the future and how long it's going to be before you are fully healed, that can make it seem even longer and make the recovery go by even slower. 

Focus on the process and celebrate each step along the way.

You might like: How To Have The Mamba Mentality >>

Find a Silver Lining

An important part of the injury recovery process from a mental standpoint is to find a silver lining.

Of course being injured sucks, it's painful, it's something we'd rather not go through.

But when it does happen, you have to just the make the most of the situation. You have to stay committed to the fact that for some reason this happened to you -- maybe there's a lesson life's trying to teach you.

Also, remember that in some way, you will come out stronger from this adversity. 

Maybe you come out physically stronger. Maybe you come out mentally stronger - a harder worker, more appreciative of the simple things, more resilient, etc.

Here's what I like to do to try to make the most of an injury:

• find something else to get better at:
  • my mental game - meditate more, visualize, read affirmations 
  • getting better at a different basketball skill - ex. - if you hurt your strong hand, work on your off-hand ballhandling, shooting, finishing. If it's an upper body injury work on your footwork
  • watch film, watch youtube videos - find some way to keep learning and improving even though I can't physically play    

Don't let an injury get you down. Find the silver lining. See the positive in it. And find another way to keep improving and getting better. 

Read also: How to Mentally Prepare for a Basketball Game (5-Step Routine) >>

Express Gratitude

Finally, a big part of staying mentally well and strong is expressing gratitude.

The hardest time to be grateful is when something tough happens to you, like an injury. But it's also the most helpful, most necessary, and most powerful time to express gratitude.

Being thankful, even in the face of adversity, will help you to maintain a positive outlook that things will ultimately turn out ok.

Here are some things you can be thankful for, even while injured. You can read these affirmations to yourself out loud or in your head.

• I am grateful for my body.

• I love my body.

• I am grateful for my body's ability to heal itself

• I am healing at exactly the right pace for my body.

• I am grateful for my doctors/therapists/trainers who are helping me get better

• I am thankful for what I can still do despite my injury

• I am thankful for this challenge that my injury has provided me with.

• This adversity is only going to make me stronger in the long run.

• I am grateful for every moment that I get to play this game.

You might like: How to Be Mentally Tough in Basketball >>

15 Inspirational Quotes For Injury Recovery

Check out these injury recovery quotes from athletes and coaches for a little extra motivation as you heal.

1. "...focus on the recovery process day by day by day. It’s a long journey but if you focus on the mini milestones along the way you will find beauty in the struggle of doing simple things that prior to this injury were taken for granted. This will also mean that when you return you will have a new perspective. You will be so appreciative of being able to stand, walk, run that you will train harder than you ever have. You see the belief within you grow with each mini milestone and you will come back a better player for it." - Kobe Bryant

2. "I’m here. I’m not going anywhere. No matter what the injury – unless it’s completely debilitating – I’m going to be the same player I’ve always been. I’ll figure it out. I’ll make some tweaks, some changes, but I’m still coming." - Kobe Bryant

3. "Injury in general teaches you to appreciate every moment. I’ve had my share of injuries throughout my career. It’s humbling. It gives you perspective. No matter how many times I’ve been hurt, I’ve learned from that injury and come back even more humble." - Troy Polamalu

4. "That time gave me so much gratitude to do what I do. It gave me perspective on what really matters." - Klay Thompson

5. "My appreciation of the stuff we have to do every day to play this game is a lot higher than it used to be. The losses you take. The shots you miss. The off-nights and slow mornings. All of it. It’s special." - Klay Thompson

6. "You got two options...it's either fight or flight and I'm fighting all day." - Klay Thompson

7. "Never say never, because limits, like fears, are often just an illusion." - Michael Jordan

8. "Pain is temporary." - Lance Armstrong

9. "Through every injury or shortcoming, I think about how lucky I am in so many other aspects, but also that [I can overcome it]." - Candace Parker

10. "Don't give up. Don't ever give up." - Coach Jimmy Valvano

11. "Unless you have bad times, you can't appreciate the good times." - Joe Torre

12. "If you don’t fall how are you going to know what getting up is like." - Steph Curry

13. "Life is meant to be a challenge, because challenges make you grow." - Manny Pacquiao

14. "I've learned life is a lot like surfing. When you get caught in the impact zone, you need to get right back up because you never know what's over the next wave... and if you have faith, anything is possible, anything at all." - Bethany Hamilton

15. "When you're in a situation, you can complain about it, you can feel sorry for yourself, you can do a lot of things. But how are you gonna make the situation better?" - Tony Dungy

Mentally Recover From Your Injury

Follow these tips to stay happier, more positive, and heal faster while you are injured.

Also be sure to check out this guided meditation and visualization to help you implement these tips!