http://www.interaksyon.com/interaktv/rob-reyes-the-long-journey-back-from-an-acl-injury
AKTV/Paolo Papa
First, I want to talk about some of the minor bumps, bruises, aches and pains — the things every PBA player deals with at some point.
I can’t imagine that there is a PBA player who’s played in the league for three or more years who doesn’t wake up during the season with an ache or pain somewhere. You might think that PBA players are like robots, but if you stopped by any PBA practice just when they wrap up, you’d probably see at least half of the guys covered in ice.
Along with the aches and pains that come from just the grind of playing, you also have the minor injuries. Every practice or game, it just takes stepping on a teammate’s foot to have an ankle sprain and then spend the next two or three days (unless it’s a bad one, which could be much longer) icing your foot on the sidelines.
It just takes one errant pass or miscatch of one to have a sprained thumb or finger. You might have to deal with that little nagging injury the whole season. A hurt finger is one of those injuries that nags you, but you can play with it if you can handle the pain.
So that’s a little bit about minor aches and pains or injuries we deal with in the PBA. Most, if not all, PBA players deal with things like that.
Unfortunately, I’ve also dealt with the crushing ACL tear that knocks you out at least six months. I would like to take you down the road of an ACL recovery and how I felt during my fight to get back on the court. Fortunately major injuries like that aren’t as common.
It isn’t the worst injury you could get as a basketball player. Actually, today, an ACL reconstruction surgery is a common procedure in any orthopedic clinic. It still is a tough injury though, and the rehab is usually a minimum of six months, and some players never feel quite the same again.
I tore my ACL my first year in the PBA. When it happened I was so scared and I had no idea where my PBA career was headed. I prayed and hoped it wasn’t torn, until I got the results of the MRI, which concluded that it was torn.
Then I had to schedule surgery. The surgery is quick, and you can go home the day of surgery. I was actually awake for part of my surgery. I didn’t have my contacts in (kind of like one out of every five games last year!) so I couldn’t see what the doctor was trying to show me, so they just put me back to sleep.
Once you’re done with surgery the long road back to playing begins. It’s painfully slow at first, and at times is actually painful.
Priority number one is to get the swelling on your knee down. Then you have to get it bending. Getting it to bend, for me, was the worst part. It was frustrating when I couldn’t bend it as far as I wanted, and at times bending it was excruciating.
You spend a lot of time early on just strengthening the small muscles that support the knee. This part is tough mentally, because most PBA players are strong and are used to exercising at a high level with a lot of weight.
Imagine going from trying to push Asi Taulava around to having to hold a 5-lb. weight on your ankle. It’s pretty demoralizing when working with that little ankle weight is as challenging as keeping a 235-lb. Fil-Tongan from getting to the block. You’re welcome, Asi!
Once you are permitted to work with heavier weights and start doing some basketball type movements, it’s a huge relief. The excitement of graduating to the weight room wears off after a while though, and after three or four months you’re chomping at the bit to play already!
There is another aspect to dealing with an ACL injury, and that’s the issue of being forgotten. What I mean by that is, after a few months of not being able to practice or play with your teammates, it feels like you’re not even on the team anymore.
You become nothing more than a cheerleader. You experience only some of the satisfaction of your team winning, plenty of the pain when they lose, all the while realizing that you couldn’t help in any way other than to shout on the sidelines. It’s tough to deal with, but you can either let it bother you, or you can use it as fuel to motivate your recovery.
The last step before you are allowed to start practicing again is to pass a hop test. It’s a series of tests that put your injured leg versus your healthy leg. You have to get the same score on both legs to be cleared.
Some people pass it right away. I had trouble with it at first. It was mostly a mental battle for me. I lost confidence in my leg. After some more strengthening (mental and physical) I was able to pass it.
For me, it was an awkward transition. My mind hadn’t really forgotten what to do, and I knew my body was capable, but my mind and body were in different time zones. The most difficult part of returning from an injury like an ACL is that you haven’t played in so long, you have to get your timing back. If you remember my first column, I was also adjusting to a new team so it wasn’t really until near the end of the season before I actually felt “normal” again.
When you’ve had an ACL surgery and you run in to other players who have had it also, or who are going through the surgery and rehab, you always offer some words of support. It’s as if you’re a member of a group made up of the “survivors”, and the “recovering”. Those who are survivors have a general respect among other survivors, and are always encouraging to those who are recovering. Players who aren’t in the group are supportive to the members, but hope they never have to join.
As a PBA player, sometimes I feel invincible, but our bodies remind us regularly that that is far from true. You may watch PBA games and see guys like Kelly Williams and KG Canaleta look superhuman when they soar through the air and make high-flying, blazingly-fast plays.
But I have no doubt that some days their bodies fail them, too. We train and get therapy, but at some point our bodies fail all of us, if even just a little. So the next time you see a PBA player and give him a pat on the back, be gentle, because it might hurt.
Rob Reyes is a center for the Air 21 Express. He writes a regular column for InterAKTV. For more PBA discussion, follow Rob on Twitter @theREALrob22
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