Still improving while injured?

Psilocybe · Post by **Psilocybe** » 15 Sep 2007 09:40

I've been injured basically this whole summer and it pisses me off. I've had shin splints the whole time, mostly my left leg, they went away but then it turned into a stress fracture on my right. This summer was supposed to be a time of great improvement but instead it turned into shit.

Anyways, are there things I can do to still get better while not playing? Like dexercises? Has dexercising definitively helped anyone before?

I was thinking of doing lots of toe taps too, to strengthen my calves. I want to start landing on my toes, but I feel I just don't have the strength to at the moment.

/rant

Bringerofpie · Post by **Bringerofpie** » 15 Sep 2007 10:36

Don't push yourself too far.

Benzilla · Post by **Benzilla** » 15 Sep 2007 16:00

Yeah, don't make the mistake that many of us make and play through pain and injury, you will only make it worse or permanent.

I'd suggest resting completely. You could take up stitching, its fun, relaxing and cool to see how much you can improve from your first bag.

Dat · Post by **Dat** » 15 Sep 2007 16:38

I'm sure there are other activities sports you can play pain free for cross training, which still helps your footbag game. I recommend cycling, swimming and slackline. Rock climbing is really fun too; it's technical and problem solving like footbag, but at a much more manageable pace. See if there are any gyms near you.

Benzilla · Post by **Benzilla** » 15 Sep 2007 17:05

I meant resting completely from footbag or footbag related excercises, sush as the toe taps mentioned above, as you'll injury yourself and the excercises might make you have urges to play footbag and thus further injuring yourself.

But again this is all just my opinion and you have every right not to listen to me at all.

Chim-Chim · Post by **Chim-Chim** » 15 Sep 2007 17:26

you can always learn DATW both directions, i wouldn't imagine those upsetting your shins

Grade Zero · Post by **Grade Zero** » 16 Sep 2007 07:54

Dat wrote:slackline

off-topic question here, but what's slackline?

Muffinman · Post by **Muffinman** » 16 Sep 2007 10:57

I think it's where you balance on a rope.

Depending on how bad your injury is, you could work on some basics that will help even out your game. Like, for myself, when I was injured beyond playing I practiced basic kicks and stalls. My flip inside kick and stall are unbelieveably weak, and so even doing little things like that that helped out tons, and probably helped my flip clipper in the end too.

Definitely don't do anything that you know is a bad idea. There is nothing worse than trying to play when you shouldn't and just lengthen the time that you can't play by worsening your injury...

Dat · Post by **Dat** » 16 Sep 2007 11:52

off-topic question here, but what's slackline?

I started a thread about it:

http://www.modified.in/footbag/viewtopic.php?t=17222

Psilocybe · Post by **Psilocybe** » 16 Sep 2007 13:26

Thanks for all the replies everyone!

Actually datw's/atws are what I've primarily been doing. Swirls deserve practice also. Since its my right leg that hurts, Ive been also been practicing some moves which require no right plant like gyro legover or vortex. But thats about it.

Sitting toe taps don't hurt at all, because theres no pressure on the bone.

The doctor has me in one of those big boot things. It actually helps except its upsetting my hip.

Only a month to go...

Iron Clad Ben · Post by **Iron Clad Ben** » 16 Sep 2007 21:22

I've heard good things about dexercising from good players who have said it has helped them. Although I created a topic about it and a bunch of beginner to intermediate level people ripped into me (even though most of them had never tried one). The one I built I accidently ran over with my car and had no motivation to build a new one. But I say, rock w/yo bad self if you wanna make one.

This is also a good opportunity to build cardiovascular endurance. Exercise bike and ellipticals at the gym are great zero-impact ways to get a cardio workout and build that heart muscle. It will help huge with run length when you recover.

If you must play footbag of some sort other things you can work on are things like pinchers, rakes and dragons.

Seriously re-examine your form once you're able to shred again. I've made some adjustments and my shin splints have almost completely subsided. Still got some work to do to clean things up form wise, but doing tricks so they're not hard on your body can make a world of difference. Very sorry to hear it progressed to stress fractures. Best of luck in your recovery.

MatS21 · Post by **MatS21** » 16 Sep 2007 23:12

Maybe you could do like a 10-15 mins here and there of stuff like muted clipper, and freezed clipper. Just to help controls, that would help tremendously. Althought don't do it if it hurts or anything, I never had such an injury nor shin splints so I don't know how it prevents you.

Other than that just practicing consecutives toe stalls but REALLY focussing on the control of the bag on your toe and on slowing them a lot. But I'd say don't do more than 10-15 minutes at a time because you'd want to shred and will try harder stuff.

I'm not good at dexless stuff but I'm sure you could practice spin and duck if your not good at them by just throwing the bag with your hand than fast spin and EASY catch, or throwing it and ducking it before catching it like easily by focussing on where the bag is.

Again, I don't know much about your injury and those we're only some thoughts, I hope idea could help.