Hopefully you are reading this with some positive energy still inside you. I suppose the lockdown was to be expected, with climbing cases of Covid-19, and little sense of self responsibility around the country, when the Prime Minister calls an 8pm address, you know what’s coming.
As the length of the lockdown was announced, ‘until the end of February half term’, I certainly got a lump in the back of my throat. How do you tell your kids? It was a weird feeling of disappointment for them. My son enjoys school, he is a social young person, and so for him it’s missing out of that social interaction he will miss. For my daughter, she is not too fussed about school, so telling her she has 7 weeks at home with Mum was less of a worry.
It is a real shame, but actually when I think about it, my children will not be affected by this long term. They will catch up and they will go on to achieve all they want to achieve despite all this. On the surface it seemed as though neither were too upset and I certainly won’t be pressuring them to make any great achievements over the next 7 weeks. Can they be fit and healthy, can they keep their brain engaged in some way, and most of all can they keep a smile on their face more often than not.
When I read about the impact of long term injury I can compare that to lockdown to young football players trying to get themselves on the pathway to elite football. Almost all the consequences of the removal of the ability to play/train are psychological and so, my job as a parent, or our jobs as coaches and mentors, is to ensure mental well being for our dependants.
This morning I read this paper on Australian Football League players and it was a good read. It brings clarity to my mind of what players/children will miss out on. It could be that you were injured, it could be that in January and February we had snow and wild rain and all your fixtures were cancelled anyway. None of us want our options to express ourselves taken away, but sometimes they are.
In the study above it was found that over the first 14 days post injury (i.e. when their sport was taken away) almost all players had negative emotional responses when asked. Feelings such as frustration, disappointment, anger, shock, worry, disbelief and devastation where listed by the players.
Social support was identified as a key component is a positive outlook on returning to sport. This is where ProFormance will have a big impact, being positive about the things we can do together will impact on the players perception of the social support they will receive.
The support and the positive mindset towards our activities will help improve health and act as a buffer towards negative thought. Being part of a group is important for them and we will be working on helping all our members to continue to achieve a growth mindset.
If the players needs are met, or even their perception of those needs being met it is much more likely they will have a positive outlook on returning to play. In the study above it showed that upon returning to training the players found that physically they were fine, but some still have the psychological scares on the injury experience. Our aim is to avoid this and keep players balanced and positive as much as possible.
We are here for you. Our ‘ProFormance’ door is open and we are just a simple WhatsApp or DM away.