I’ve only experienced a few surgical injuries in my life. The first was when I was a teenager and destroyed my ankle skateboarding. As the trick I focused on to score wrapped up, so did my foot. I didn’t land the trick, but I did manage to take first place in spinning my whole ankle and foot 270 degrees, which caused a torn ligament and a discoloration of the outside bone in my lower leg. The doctors said it would have been better if I broke my leg. He also said I would never skateboard or do martial arts again. I look back over 33 years, and I wish I could find him and say thank you. Not for the repair but the challenge. He gave me the green light to prove him wrong.
“Once you say you’re going to settle for second, that’s what happens to you in life.” John F. Kennedy
During this long journey to rehabilitation, I was on crutches in an air cast for months. It started with them putting a screw in my ankle where I couldn’t put more than 10 pounds of pressure on my heel. During this period, I would stand on one leg in place and shadowbox with my hands and head movement. Six weeks later, they removed the screw, but my lower leg wasn’t strong enough to stand on much less walk. The next six weeks would be full of physical therapy, where we tested my range of motion and brought my leg back to life. During this time, I continued to do what I could to train, including reading every martial arts book and magazine I could get my hands on. This course took me over three months to get back to “normal.” Every day people walk around in daily life. They don’t skateboard or do martial arts. My first attempt to get back on a board and ride was a little shaky, and when I hit my first trick, I felt almost as much pain as I did when I initially hurt myself. The knot in my throat grew, and so did the biblical flood of tears in my eyes. Maybe the doctor was right, and I couldn’t shred a curb. Losing this activity felt like a shark had just ripped a limb from my soul.
At this point, I figured if I couldn’t skateboard, I should try getting fully back into my martial arts training. Here I learned what I could and couldn’t do. I learned to analyze each technique in three simple ways.
#1 Can I strike with the affected area? In my case, the ankle and foot I injured.
#2 Can I strike with the affected limb? In my case, the shin or knee of the same injured leg.
#3 Can I base or rotate on the injured limb? In my case, can I stand or pivot the injured ankle or foot while kicking?
These became my three ways to assess every injury or strain I have ever sustained. So instead of focusing on what you can’t do, ask yourself, “What can I do?” Based on this input, you will most likely be able to get back to doing what you enjoy and, in the process, find a way to set goals and monitor your rehabilitation toward the activity you love so much.
You will find out what you can do right now and build yourself up stronger mentally, physically, and spiritually. Your new mindset will transcend you from thinking about how to it is only a matter of time before you can do what you want. Life isn’t far from these situations. It is full of speed bumps, hurdles, and pitfalls that we must maneuver with persistence to live our full potential. It is up to us and us alone to accept the challenge and step up to conquer it.
“The way you are is not the result of what happened to you, it’s the result of what you decide to keep inside of you.”
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