Reducing the number of injuries in any given season is one of the many ways that us as performance coaches leave our stamp on an organization. Injury reduction is likely one of the top priorities entering into every season and constant analysis and re-evaluation on how to best go about doing this should be a central part of how we spend our time. Some seasons, this preparation, attention to detail, and careful implementation will pay off dramatically and injury rates will drop dramatically from previous seasons.
Now if you’re like me, there is a grand sense of pride in doing this and when it comes time to talk about promotion or I’m talking to a colleague about successes from the season, it seems like a no-brainer that the reduced rates should be brought up. After all, in a world of complex variables where we spend much of our day performing tasks that seem to have an unmeasurable effect, it’s nice to be able to say that the squad was “13% healthier this year” because of what we did.
I would caution such a simplified statement though. Simple logic dictates that if I make the argument that my pay should increase by 10% because I (single handedly no doubt) reduced injuries by “x amount,” then what should occur during the following season when injuries increase by 13%? Any half-wit GM or colleague is going to either throw that right back in your face or simply lose some amount of respect for you and your process.
Simply put, it’s easy to take a lot of the credit when things are going well. And it’s also really easy to push any blame that arises to the “complex nature of sport and the many other variables that are out of our control” when things go poorly. The practitioners I respect the most though take the least amount of credit when things are going well and the most amount of blame when things go poorly.
It’s okay to be proud of the low injury rates and the success that your team of practitioners has had because of the hard work they have put in. Just make sure that you have substantial evidence of SEVERAL factors to justify that raise, promotion, or talk of success. Talk unmeasurables (quality relationships with players and/or coaches, improved development of young talent, increasing buy-in in healthy practices, etc.) as well as measurables (attendance during optional recovery sessions, re-injury rates, resolving chronic pains of specific players, compliance on wellness surveys).
Last thought: give praise to the players themselves for putting in the work and the rest of the staff that works so hard to maintain the health of athletes through grueling seasons. None of what you accomplish is possible without the athletes trusting you and the support that you receive from other practitioners. Pump up those around you and management will likely hear similar sentiments about your own contributions.
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