Episode 87 | Athlete Wins 4.0

What’s up team? We got a short one for you here today. This is talking all about Athlete Wins 4.0. And I first started this when I started the podcast, the series of athlete wins. And the reason I started this is because I saw a lot of negativity or a lot of things in groups or I’d get messages about people’s experiences, which are very valid and very fair. And I think that social media can be filled with a lot of negativity and comparison, especially when we’re dealing with this ACL rehab process and we’re trying to take it head-on. But sometimes these types of things can just get in our heads. We want to celebrate the other person, but we also can’t help but compare ourselves to it.

I want to share something positive today with an athlete win. As a reminder, check that comparison as we talk about this and just appreciate the story and then see how you can also come out of this on the other side. So let’s talk about Tyler. Tyler is one of our remote ACL athletes. And some background on Tyler, he has a super busy schedule. He runs his own business. And he reached out in the earlier part of this year and he wanted to work together. One of the things that he had been dealing with, is a long history of injuries, including an ACL surgery that he had back in 2005. That was 17 years ago. And so this happened when he was pretty young, but he never really recovered from it. 

And I’m sure some of you listening are going through this process or are about to start going through it. But many of you are probably even months to years out and never got to a hundred percent. And this is how Tyler felt. But this is 17 years later. One, make sure that this is not you 17 years later. But if you are, just know that it’s not too late. And one of the things that Tyler mentioned is that he had always felt like he was walking on eggshells. He never got to a hundred percent. He never felt like he could really use his own body well, his capacity, his knee. And so he opted out of a lot of things that he wished he could do because he was scared he would tear his ACL or he was just worried about his performance.

One of his goals was to get back to cutting and pivoting sports, and ultimately just being confident in his knee and not second guessing it. We started with testing his baseline and then laying out the game plan of essentially what is the end goal and where is he currently at. And then we built out training blocks and made sure that we tested near the end of those in different periods of time, to make sure that our training reflected the needs of the goals. And so that’s what we do with any of our athletes and with Tyler, we made sure that was consistent throughout his entire process. 

Tyler was incredible with communicating and being laser-focused. But there were some weeks where things were off since he had his own business. Maybe there were workouts that got missed or he had to juggle and cut down some of them. And that’s okay as long as we were communicating and making sure that we adjusted the plan, that was what was so key. And we just made sure that we were in tune on the same page. And that’s what I’m hoping that a lot of you guys with the physical therapist you’re working with, the coach that you guys are on the same page in terms of where you’re at, as well as what the game plan is and the goals ahead.

And so that’s the one thing that I think is very important to highlight here, is that even though we had a plan, that plan was agile and we had to adapt it as we go. And so even when there were missed workouts or maybe something had come up, travel, sickness, we had to pivot. But that doesn’t mean that you automatically start back from ground zero. We just pivot to make sure we meet the person where they’re at. And that’s what we try to do with Tyler. And Tyler did such a great job executing whenever he was in control of that process. Now, where is Tyler at? He recently just tested and hit all of his criteria he needed to hit, and he is cleared and ready to go.

Now, more importantly, I want to talk about some big takeaways from working with Tyler, this athlete wins, and this whole experience. One, it’s never too late to start. If you are someone who is years out, maybe you never regained your knee extension, maybe your quad strength never got there, maybe you are trying to do a certain goal like play with your kid or be able to play on a recreational soccer team. Whatever that might be, just know it’s not too late and this is something where you just got to start. And if there’s anything I’ve learned in life and especially in business, there’s not going to be a perfect time to do it. You just got to do it and you just got to start. 

And so that’s a big thing for Tyler is that he got fed up with it. And it’s been a long time, but he finally was like, okay, I want to get on top of this and get in front. And so he was like, I’m going to do it now. It’s never too late to start. Don’t let this injury define you. So that was the biggest thing that he expressed on our initial call. I feel like this injury is defining me, it’s impacting the way that I want to move, be healthy, and just play the sports that I want to play. And so he was like, I’m done letting this define me. And so that’s what he did is take control and start it. 

Another big takeaway is going to be pivoting the plan. And the plan is never going to be perfect, just like there’s not going to be a perfect time. Things come up in this ACL rehab process and there’s not a single ACLer that we have worked with that we haven’t had to adjust the program or change things up. And that’s because life just happens. And so that leads me into this last point of making sure that you have an individualized, agile, and adaptable plan, that’s going to be so big in this process. Because there are so many variables we’re not going to be able to control in this ACL rehab process. We’ve recently had ACLers who have gotten sick, so we’ve had to pivot the plan. We’ve had some ACLers where their knee got grumpy, so we had to pivot the plan. And then there are some people who are right on track and where they need to be. But we are ready for anything that is going to come, and that’s where an expert in place is going to be key to help guide you. 

If you’re going through this process right now, maybe you are in Tyler’s position and you’re years out and you’re like, I need to do something about this, start now. That is the big advice today. Don’t wait for the perfect time; it’s not going to exist. Make sure you have an agile and adaptable program. Make sure that you have someone there to help you along the way. That is going to be key. And as a reminder, run your own race. Don’t run Susie’s race. Don’t run Johnny’s race. Run your own race. That’s what’s most important here. And if you don’t know where to go or if you don’t know where to start, reach out. My email is in the show notes below, or you can hit us up on Instagram at ravipatel.dpt or the ACL Athlete, and we are here to help you. 

All right team, that’s going to do it for today. Lastly, what I want you to do is just grab a positive win from the day you are having. Whenever you’re listening to this, wherever you’re listening to this, reflect for a hot second about something positive that’s been happening today, and write it down. Celebrate it. Go and win the day. Until next time, this is your host, Ravi Patel, signing off.