Can Growth Mindsets Work with Sports Injuries?
Should People Keep Fighting Even with An Injury?
In this book, Mindsets, Dr. Dweck introduces that there are two main groups of people according to her years-long theory. One of them is those who have fixed mindsets, which is what Dr. Dweck mostly argues against while she mostly stands for the other group of people, those with growth mindsets. In the statements made by Dr. Dweck, people with fixed mindsets tend to prevent and avoid themselves from something that they are not expert in or obstacles in their path to access success. In contrast, those with growth mindsets are showing more courage to embrace the challenges and more capability of accomplishing some outstanding achievements than the other group. After the first time of brief reading, I did not make a lot of naysayers of her works and questions to the theory. Nevertheless, when I thought of my favorite leisure activity, playing basketball, a confusion was commenced in my mind when I recall that a wave of injuries coming to my high school team a year ago.
I can image when basketball philosophy comes to most people’s mind, there must be such proverbs showing up as “Practice makes perfect.”, “You can make it happen or watch it happen.”, etc. But what happens when it comes to injury? I am convinced that this is one of the most important issues for every athletes worldwide and not only for basketball, but also for tennis, soccer, and even tchoukball, a sports designed to prevent any injuries as much as possible. I have to admit that it definitely does take perseverance to expert in any sports and it requires a really strong willpower to make through every obstacles, which sounds really matching to the growth mindsets. However, I heard some stories from my coach of basketball as he was playing basketball for his college that he chose to get off the court with an emergency injury even though it was a crucial game, which completely influence my attitude facing to the injuries. As a result, when speaking of the sports injury, I would mostly maintain fixed mindset toward sports injuries and stand out and against Dr. Dweck and her statement with growth mindsets.
Sports injuries are results of two kinds of factors and the first one is injuries due to short-time extreme damage to our bodies and the other one is called “overexertion”, which are usually caused by repetitive motion, such as typing, lifting heavy objects, or working in an awkward position according to the article from healthline. In another article in healthline, the author claims “Injuries related to overexertion account for millions of emergency room visits each year, reports Kansas State University. Most of those injuries are preventable. To lower your risk of experiencing them, avoid pushing your body past its limits.” It is a common sense that both professional and amateur athletes always have to confront the problem of injuries, which are probably caused by the two factors mentioned above and I am no exception.
I remember that in my high-school basketball career, there was a horrible wave of injuries occurring to almost entire team, including me but thankfully, that terrifying challenge happened in the offseason. However, our coach did not miss this chance and decided to give us a lesson with a true story that he did actually experience in his basketball career. “When we were struggling with whether we were able to make to the playoffs that year, in the most crucial game, I was down with a scary fall. After our team doctor’s evaluation, he suggested that I was not supposed to continue to fight anymore with the view of our probable future to playoffs. I chose to sit aside and watched my teammates to win the game. Then, we still get to our goal.” While recalling those memory, I started to consider whether the fixed mindset saved my coach’s career and it seems that he also agrees with the decision without growth mindsets, which means that people should maintain fixed mindsets while facing the sudden injuries. “Aren’t we basketball players meant to leave ourselves behind for the team reputation and victory?”, one of my teammate questioned. To clarify, my coach told us that sometimes we should put our heroism aside and trust our teammates, which sounds like the fixed mindset really takes the role. In other word, in some cases, people are supposed to care themselves more than the team especially when there is an emergency.
To expand his idea, my coach enumerated a few examples, and one of them was Kobe Bryant, who is five-time champion in NBA and so-called Black Mamba because he is known or , more precisely, notorious for his diligence and heroism. However, he was also down for tearing his achilles tendon and never turned back to his peak period again in the season he almost carried the whole lakers. Linking with the information provided by healthline, overtraining could definitely do harm to our muscles, which are our bridges between the tendon and ligament and they are the most important part to connect and protect human joint. There was news saying that Kobe and his whole health team had been able to avoid this tragedy, but however, he chose to stick to the terrible situation. In this occasion, I regard the terrible situation as the challenges that Kobe was facing and he kept growth mindsets and thinking that he might be capable of overcoming it just like what he did in the past. Eventually, he failed. When my coach stopped here, there was another teammate questioning,”It was so because he trains so really really much that he finally ended up injured.” Then my coach gave a response,”Yeah, he did train so much that we could never train like that. But so what? Is any of you a superman like him? Probably not, right? Even you are, there must be some cautions from your bodies before the injury occurs.”
I totally agree with my coach. When I was almost going to have the injury then, there was really some cautions from my body but I thought I could make through it, which was absolutely the growth mindsets telling me to make through the obstacles. Same as Kobe, I failed. Besides, when the injury happens all of a sudden, when fixed mindsets are in need, people should never continue putting their bodies on risk. As a result, I can not stand for my coach any more that when it comes to health, people should cautiously evaluate the condition, and mostly quit as soon as possible.
The main point that I am writing about is really wide but specific as well because on one hand, this issue is for every athletes in the world no matter what kind the sports is, but on the other hand, my focus is specifically always on the sports injury. In Mindsets, Dr. Dweck enumerates various kinds of examples from traffic tickets to an international business. According to Dr. Dweck, there is an example of a famous businessman who ran a reputable major brand, but unfortunately, the company went bankrupt. At the time that everyone around the man regarded his story as a comedy, tragedy, and irony, he still stood there and confidently announced to the mass media,”It is just going to take me a few years to return back.”, which is an really impressive and inspiring example of growth mindsets and I completely admire the man for his dedication and perseverance. However, it is absolutely incomparable between health and the business. Take the businessman mentioned above for example, he probably could spend several months, years, or even decades to return to his position and status but when an injury happens, the aftermath could be unlimited. They might take people years, decades, or even the rest of their lives, which is more tragic than having the company bankrupt.
In fact, I stand with having growth mindsets not only for business but also for the sports as well. In Mindsets, Dr. Dweck take one of the greatest coach in UCAA, John Wooden, for example of growth mindsets. There is an interesting quote from him,”Did I win? Did I lose? Those are wrong questions. The correct question is: Did I make my best effort?” It is easily observed that he is always emphasizing the process of the games but not the results. I do agree that most coach should have this attitude toward their players and make them pay attention on their practice much more, which eventually lead them to victory. Just like what Dr. Dweck says,”When you enter the world of the growth-mindset leaders, everything changes. It brightens, it expands, it fills with energy, with possibility.”, I believe that such a great coach can definitely lead a team that lose the whole season and make them better with the growth mindsets of focusing on the effort they make but not the results of the games.
Here is another quote from Michael Jordan in this book,”The mental toughness and the heart are a lot stronger than some of the physical advantage you might have. I’ve always said that and I’ve always believed that.” and that is also an encouraging example of growth mindsets hearing. Nevertheless, I am wondering whether there is anyone ever considering what would happen if Michael Jordan’s physical advantage had all collapsed just once. He might never have been called as the Greatest Of All Time. Although he was able to conquer the obstacle of being cut off by the high school basket team, of rejection from the college he wanted to play for, and of being undrafted by the first two NBA teams, nobody is able to predict or promise that he could be MICHAEL JORDAN today if he had had some career-destroying injuries.
Therefore, people can see that basketball players are hiring a lot of private doctors to help their bodies recover any injuries from intense games and get away from the limits like LeBron who spends 1.5 million per year for taking care of his body. Besides, other than basketball, there is another sports really popular in US as known as one of the most dangerous sports, football, and in fact football is the most obvious sample sports as combining the two factors that cause the sports injury. During the games, players will hit one another hundreds times and the harm is being accumulated and then becoming an injury. While there were more and more players getting down during the games or even passing away, more and more people are conscious of the issue for the players’ health. According to the official NFL websites, there are more and more team mental assistants in the company of each teams, and they are expert in telling or even persuading those players that they should stop at once in order to maintain their own safety. Isn’t that a another kind of expressing fixed mindsets to protect the players when injury comes? That definitely is. Their work is to prevent the players from growth mindsets that is always pushing players to the limits no matter what “obstacle” it is.
In conclusion, there are two different factors causing the sports injuries as one of the factors is overexertion and the other is extreme damage. If someone trains too much over and the body is sending some cautious messages, or if someone has already injured while exercising, he / she should start to rest or just stop immediately. Although I do appreciate Dr. Dweck’s work about the growth mindsets in most occasion that people are in pursuit of business, achievement, and dream, when it comes to sports injuries, those are not comparable at all. As a result, in my opinion, confronting the injuries, fixed mindsets should always take the role in everyone’s minds because health is not supposed to be put on risk.
