If you have been reading my blogs or you have read my profile, you know I love sports. Last week I wrote about the Celtics (what a great series winning game on Tuesday night), and today I want to talk about Tiger Woods.
Wow. What he did was incredibly impressive. Turns out he walked 25 miles of links and won his sudden death U.S. Open Championship with a double stress fracture, torn cartilage and a blown ACL in his left leg. Impressive. But smart?
Have you noticed the pop at the end of Woods' swing? It's powerful. And it's probably what sets him apart. And based on what I know about biomechanics and anatomy, it is also what probably started the problems in his knee. At the very end of the swing, he pops that left knee HARD. It looks like it would cause a healthy knee significant problems, not to mention a knee that had been surgically treated for torn cartilage a short time ago.
News reports say that he tore his ACL running last year. ACL injuries are usually a result of a twisting or an impact when the leg is at an angle. You generally don't tear your ACL running in a straight line. Soccer and football players get this injury most often because they are in motion, the leg suffers an impact while weight is unevenly distributed and the joint is at an angle under the body.
My guess is that pop at the end of his swing began to injure or microtear that ACL. Then it became vulnerable and maybe he stepped wrong when running and it ruptured. But he didn't get it fixed. Then the entire knee was unstable and at risk for additional and more serious injury. The torn cartilage, while a byproduct, wasn't the only potential risk. An unstable knee is an accident waiting to happen.
And then he played on it.
After arthroscopic surgery to repair that cartilage which was probably torn due to that untreated ACL, he played the Open. I would be willing to bet that doing that made his stress fracture worse.
OUCH. Do you know how painful this must have been for him to play through this? Walking the golf course and swinging with that pop in that left knee at the end of the swing? He must have really wanted this win, because he may have just sacrificed an awful lot to get it.
Doctors say Tiger could return at 100 percent in 2009. But he is going to be very susceptible to more issues with the knee in the next 5 to 10 years, and the cartilage damage could result in long-term issues like arthritis.
He took a risk at this year's Open and it's possible this risk will have long reaching ramifications.
And that brings me to our own athletics. I have, time and time again, seen athletes push beyond the limits of what the body is telling them, to run a particular race, participate in one important event or meet a specific goal.
Overtraining, lack of recovery, training through injury, ignoring the body's signs to pull back and/or stop completely are things we really should not do for any reason.
I want to be doing what I am doing when I am 90+, if I live to that wonderful age. I want my body to be there for me. And if that is the goal, we have to heed the advice the body offers us.
When we experience fatigue, noticeable discomfort and/or pain, we need to stop and listen and do what is needed to get whole again. Because if we choose not to, we could wind up putting ourselves out to pasture much earlier than is necessary.
What is a few weeks or months of downtime, compared to the rest of our season or in some cases our lives?? Not worth it in my book.
I hope like heck Tiger heals well and quickly. I hope his decision to play through this injury and not fix the ACL does not result in arthritis or complications to that knee. I hope that decision, made in the here and now, doesn't bring an end to his incredible and storied career, in the near future.
Cross your clubs for him.
Tags: Golf Knee ACL Arthritis
