Ice ’n’ Go: Score in Sports and Life

1. On Ice

chapter 1 On Ice Ice ’n’ Go is my mantra. It serves me well in my work, and it serves the injured athletes I treat. As an athletic trainer at the University of Tennessee, I have the latest and greatest rehabilitation resources at my fingertips. It might be surprising, then, when I tell you that ice is the single most important item in my toolbox. Applying it is often the first step to healing. Athletes who come to me so sore from pushing toward perfection, hoping for a magic cure for their aches and pains, are sometimes taken aback when I hand them a bag of ice. What they soon appreciate is that ice provides pain relief, reduces inflammation, eases spasms, and saves the life of cells. Calling it a miracle product may be an overstatement, but it is amazingly effective, readily available, and inexpensive. Does my mantra work? You be the judge. During the first game of the 1997 NCAA women’s basketball tournament in Knoxville, Tennessee, starting point guard Kellie Jolly sprained her ankle. In obvious pain, she limped off the court, leaning on my arm. Our team physicians evaluated her and took X-rays. Diagnosis: lateral ankle sprain. Playing status: questionable for the rest of the tournament. We won the game that day; however, Coach Pat Summitt and the team were anxious about our chances of winning the championship without Kellie, our leader, captain, and playmaker. We set up a makeshift athletic training room in the locker room. For the next 36+ hours I administered nonstop treatment and rehabilitation on her ankle: electrical stimulation, compression, exercises, and massage, but ice was the main modality. Two days later Kellie was reevaluated by the doctors, and they were amazed at her recovery. Cleared to play that night, Kellie ran onto the court to a standing ovation during team introductions. We went on to win the game and subsequently the national championship. Ice is nice and often will suffice! My mantra’s last word is Go. Here’s a good example of how that part works. One of our players fell off a loft bed in her dorm room, scraping her On Ice 2 hamstring on the corner of a desk. By the time she came into the training room her leg was badly swollen and black and blue from below the back of her knee up to her buttock. She had the worst bruising I had ever seen. Our doctors and I all thought she would be out of commission for a long time. We got right to work. Ice again was the main modality; however, I also incorporated motion—stretching, riding a bike, kicking in the pool—to keep the muscles moving. Go, go, go! She ended up practicing the next day and played in our basketball game two days later. Although the leg was not pretty, she was fully functional and never missed a beat. Motion is the lotion! Although ice and motion are critical when treating an injury, balance is the key to healing and a healthy life thereafter. Our body is acutely interrelated with our mind and spirit. Early in my professional career, I was training for a marathon when my body stopped running. I became so sick that even a short walk left me winded and weak. I needed to listen to what my body was telling me. It was a defining moment both personally and professionally . From that point on I became an even more determined competitor with a passion to achieve my goals, while having learned the lessons of a reality check. This eye-opening experience brought new insight to my educational and clinical skills and generated a professional model of nurturing and growing the athlete who is in each one of us. Balance is the talent! Ice ’n’ Go: Score in Sport and Life began to germinate somewhere along my 27-day coast-to-coast cycling trek across America in the spring of 2006. Starting out, the original goal of my journey was simply to reach the eastern shore. To my surprise, though, by the time I dipped my front bicycle wheel into the Atlantic Ocean, I had found my true self. The expedition ignited revolutionary insights that led me to the true meaning of balance, joy, and satisfaction. My experiences have shown me the way to set meaningful goals—goals that each of us can achieve in our own fashion to make our lives better, even if we are never...