Psychology of Pain

Discussion in 'Injuries' started by Eurasian =--(O), Oct 29, 2006.

  1. Eurasian =--(O)

    Eurasian =--(O) Regular Member

    Joined:
    Sep 3, 2004
    Messages:
    1,158
    Likes Received:
    1
    Location:
    aujerbajan
    So my coach says to push through anything. Anything can be placed in your mind. Push yourself all the time. Hes a former world champion, I take his advice very seriously. I always try to push myself as hard as I can when I train. Even if I feel I'm injured or really sore.
    Last week I was doing a ton of abdominal excercises. Afterwards I had to play doubles for our mens league. There are several former Olmypic badminton players in the mens league and the level of play is fairly high. My abs were really tired but I would jump smash and hit hard. Its really good doubles practice to play against all these former champions and see all the different styles of play.
    So my back is killing me after the games. I go to practice the next day, my back hurts. I keep training because I have the belief the pain is not pain at all, its just sore because its not strong enough yet. Two weeks later I play in a tournament, my back is progressively getting worse. Now my mindset is if I can get through the pain / soreness it will make me even more confident.
    I do terrible at the tournament. I have maybe 2 good rallies in singles, because I don't feel comfortable bending my back, or rotating. I can't jump because on landing my back hurts, my around the head is out of the question. I have my worst singles game of the year.
    Doubles, easy games until quarters. Play, realize that this game is going to be tougher but should win. We lose, I give it basically all i have left in my back. Now I'm planning on taking a week - 2 off.
    When do you feel soreness becomes pain? Or soreness becomes injury. When my legs get sore they are fine after a day even when I train hard. Back it seems is a different story. Why is that?
     
  2. Cheung

    Cheung Moderator

    Joined:
    Apr 25, 2002
    Messages:
    23,793
    Likes Received:
    4,775
    Occupation:
    wannabe badminton phototaker
    Location:
    Outside the box
    The simplest explanation is that you've injured your back.

    The mind can overcome mental obstacles but cannot overcome a physical obstacle. Being an elite athelete, you have to be very sensitive to days when your condition is good (t'fore can train more) and days when you just don't feel right (quality of your input into training is worse).

    Did your coach say you must push yourself even when you have pain or are injured?
    Have you actually told him you are in pain?

    I suspect you have taken his advice too literally.
    Back pain should not be taken lightly - it's a leading cause of work disability AND it can turn into chronic pain (long term pain).

    You might see atheletes on TV trying to play through physical pain of injury. It makes great viewing. But I suspect they suffer loss of training time and a more prolonged recovery. The effect is more marked on individual sports such as badminton, tennis, gymnastics, skating, atheletcs and so on. Team sports cope much better becuase yuo can simply replace the injured person and the performance as a whole might not drop very much.

    Get some rest and gently move that back.
     
  3. jgao_net

    jgao_net Regular Member

    Joined:
    May 2, 2006
    Messages:
    281
    Likes Received:
    0
    Occupation:
    student
    Location:
    canada
    usually when i get sorness/pain in my legs, or arms or abs ill probably push through it and suck it up. however, if my back starts hurting, even if it's sore, i immediatley stop playing/training. my take on it is that the back is to important to screw up. to recover from a back injury usually take a lot more time than other injuries.
     
  4. kabalen

    kabalen Regular Member

    Joined:
    Jan 5, 2006
    Messages:
    22
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    daly city, ca
    well listen to peter rasmuseen interview about injuries and training hard on badmintonsite.com interview #7 on trash talk. one of the best mentally strong player at his time. a former world champion and i enjoyed watching his games. he said, listen to your body! if you hurt, stop. hope that helps. cheers.
     
  5. morewood

    morewood Regular Member

    Joined:
    Sep 12, 2006
    Messages:
    545
    Likes Received:
    2
    Location:
    UK, Derbys.
    Pain is there for a reason, (like when you stick you hand in a fire, pain makes you retract your hand). Now if you choose to ignore the pain and carry on be aware that you could be at risk of serious injury. Yes you coach is right, a little pain in training is not a problem but significant pain is often a sign that you’ve gone over the line and aren’t getting any benefit from what your doing.
     
  6. ViningWolff

    ViningWolff Regular Member

    Joined:
    Nov 2, 2004
    Messages:
    849
    Likes Received:
    7
    Occupation:
    Process Engineer
    Location:
    Strathmore Alberta
    "Are you hurt, or are you injured?"
    "What's the difference, coach?"
    "If you're hurt you can play, if you're injured..."

    ( The Program. 1992 - James Caan/Omar Epps)

    I understand where Ardy in coming from, for years while still doing the Rugby thing, I played with a tons of "hurts" - the fine line was determining where the hurt was headed for an unjury. I'm not referring to acute ones like when you tear a ligament or muscle.

    I have constant lower back pain - a combination of many factors - but I can tell when soreness is normal and when it's not good.

    If you fatigued your abs, this can lead lead to back pain due to unbalanced load. you back is now taking more load beacuse your abs are fatigued.

    I'm now working on a core strengthening program ( from men's health that is meant to be be a back stablizing) - it targets your core from all sides. I'm doing slowly as to give my body time to adapt. The key is TIME. I could probably to the whole program at the high end of the reps/time, but i'd be doing more harm than good.

    Sam Smith - he made could comment about his back being okay now that "He sin't beating the **** out of it 3 hours a day" which iterates the point that even though yuo can push through - the body can take only so much beating before it simply breaks down.

    Ardy had to take time off beacuse of a calf injury ( think he said it was his calf). Was that acute - or the product of wear too much wear and tear combined with not enough recover time.
     
  7. Eurasian =--(O)

    Eurasian =--(O) Regular Member

    Joined:
    Sep 3, 2004
    Messages:
    1,158
    Likes Received:
    1
    Location:
    aujerbajan
    ardy has torn each calv 3 times and his hamstring once... the guy is crazy. he pushes himself so hard eevn now 12 years after his career.
     

Share This Page