Before reading this blog post, you should check out Gavin’s GoPro video edit of his and Mac’s adventures here:
Want to come visit now? 🙂 I’m pretty sure you could make daily chores look amazing with a good GoPro edit and good soundtrack- but they really did have so much fun and saw so many incredible things!
The bad news now: In January I sprained my ankle on a weird transition play. In training before our first match back from the holiday break my toe was hurting after every landing- but I wasn’t going to let it stop me from playing- so I started using a more padded insert for my shoe and that stopped the pain. I practiced with the insert for a couple days with no problem- but in the match I made a hard cut on an inside out approach and my guess is that the pad threw my proprioception off enough- combined with me favoring and adjusting for the pain in my toe without thinking about it- and my ankle gave out for a fraction of a second. I finished the rally- jumped for a block and then even jumped to kill a low overdig but rolled back onto my back afterwards- my body knew it was hurt. I walked off the court (I haven’t sprained my ankle in 8 years) and didn’t think it was bad at all. Maybe out a few weeks at most is what it felt like.
Unfortunately this is what it looked like after I took off the compression a couple days later.
1. Princeton ’16 hockey player Denna Laing faces a much more intense and steep recovery after suffering a spinal injury in her pro game http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3393371/Hockey-teams-form-number-14-ice-honor-Boston-Pride-player-injured-spinal-cord-NHL-Winter-Classic.html
2. Cara McCollum Princeton ’15. Our Miss New Jersey beauty queen died in a car accident. There are no words- just a reminder of the randomness of life and to hold your loved ones closer:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/former-miss-nj-dies_us_56cb1627e4b0ec6725e32382
So for me this is basically nothing- only a test in patience. Not what one would wish for their rookie season, but I’d be damned if I didn’t make the best out of the situation.
I’ve stayed on with the club and have found a lot of ways to add value to the team and keep learning- we are in the midst of the 10-game playoffs right now and sit 5th out of 6 teams but can still make the 1st place final series (or the 3rd place series). I come and code DataVolley for all our practices and basically have just become an assistant coach and scout man. Still keeps me pretty busy going to every practice, doing film, and working out the rest of my body everyday plus rehab- I also read a lot, work on my mental game, spend time improving my flexibility and expanding my cooking repertoire. The German is still coming along rather slowly…
Karch and the USAV women talk a lot about expecting and then embracing adversity as it is bound to come:
Also see: http://www.jamthegym.com/jamming-in-five-questions/2014/11/18/cultivating-the-ultimate-trust
“Tori Dixon, the youngest player on Team USA eluded to this as well. “When something doesn’t go our way, we embrace it. Karch calls it ’embracing adversity’. This can come in small notions, such as not getting upset when a referee makes a bad call, or bigger things, like food poisoning” Karch explains it so well in his blog. “One of my goals is to prepare the team for as many speed bumps as possible, both in volleyball and in life. I’m going to call it “Adversity School.” Its mission will be to condition ourselves – players and coaches alike – to handle adversity so it doesn’t detract from what we’re trying to accomplish on the court.” From the youngest to the guy in charge, this team gets it.” Good stuff.
This injury is just a great opportunity for me to work on so many other things.
And thank you Internet!! I’m sure this kind of strange injury would have been much harder to deal with without being able to learn from and be inspired by so many stories of other elite athletes who have gone through much worse and come back way stronger. Stephen Curry’s recovery from his own ankle problems along with Peyton’s comeback are my favorites right now that help drive me.
Speaking of Peyton, though, here also are some quick highlights from the past months:
I got to go to the U.S. Ambassador’s house in Bern to watch the Super Bowl with Ali!! I was the only die-hard Bronco fan there it seemed but it did not lessen my joy in the slightest. We got to hang with another 100 or so Americans staying up until 5am to watch the game. Was such a cool house and we met some other hockey pros playing over here, too. I can’t even put into words how ecstatic I was about the win- and the experience.
I loved reading your post Cody! It’s truly inspiring how positive you remain through all this and how you still make sure you add value to the team etc. I’m also glad that you believe in yourself, you have a great career ahead of you and I’m sure your patience and hard work will soon pay off!
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