Yesterday I experienced what may be the worst injury of my freestyle career. Only about a minute into playing Wintershred with Greg Riley, I leapt for a brush and came down wrong. Very wrong. My knee moved in a direction it was not designed to move. I have had plenty of injuries – sprains, tendinitis, even broken bones – but nothing felt as wrong as that landing.
It wasn’t the pain. It hurt but I was not in agony. I didn’t feel any real pain until later, when I put weight on the leg in certain directions. The most disturbing thing was knowing instantly how bad it might be. As my joint stretched – I think it was sideways but it might have been backwards – I knew it was bad. I was entering an unknown realm of serious longterm damage, MRI’s, maybe surgery, maybe a lost season. Before my body even landed, it was clear that my freestyle career may have changed permanently.
I am concerned about how this injury will affect me in the coming months and years, but I am really disappointed that I was not able to finish that Wintershred round. I was looking forward to jamming with Greg, and if the first minute was any indication, it was going to be one of the best five competition minutes I had ever been a part of.
I am not sure how serious the injury is. Dr. Bob Morrissey was kind enough to examine my knee at the beach. He thinks it might be just some minor damage, a sprain from hyperextending the joint. He knows the fancy words for it. I just translate into my own simpler language. My fingers are crossed that he is right. Since I do not have health insurance, I may not have the benefit of high tech diagnosis and aggressive physical therapy. I am hoping that rest and rehab will bring me back to full strength, but I have no idea how long it will take.
I just finished to read the wintershred review, where I found out you had that injury…it’s terrible, I feel really sorry for you…incredible, just yesterday I was talking with Eleonora about injuries in freestyle: every sport have their kind of injuries, but from the time I approach freestyle I heard many and many cases of knee and shoulder incidents, sometimes it’s hard to play knowing, or worse, not knowing, what would happen if there’s a bad torsion or a bad fall. But we still goes on, and we push our body hard and harder.
But is there a way to prevent this?
Heating and stretching our muscles before every playing session? Beginning with simple movements and getting hot slowly? Bending a little the most sensitive or important articulations of the body?
Are these important points to prevent injuries in freestyle? And are there others?
This is what I think every time I hear about injuried freestylers, and I think I’m not the only one.
Arthur, I don’t know how much time you’ll have to wait until your next jam, or the seriousness of his injury, but what I know for sure is that all of us will be with you until the time you’ll be fine!
And I feel you will be as good as never before!
Fly higher…
Fabio
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” FLY HIGH AS A DISC IN THE SKY ! ”
Hello Arthur, my name is Rawiri Walker. I am a new member of Shrednow and have just read about your knee injury. I really felt for you as I underwent knee surgery last year. I guess by now you would have had it looked at by a professional. Hope things are not too serious.
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Rawiri Walker
An update. My knee is recovering well. It turned out to be a sprain rather
than something that will require surgery. It still hurts, but I am freestyling
again and will be traveling to Worlds in Rimini this summer.
Another update. Last night I got back from the FPA Worlds, and there was a
letter from my doctor in my mailbox. I had an MRI on my knee before I left
for Rimini. The letter said the MRI showed a tear in my ACL. Later this
month I’ll meet with a surgeon to talk about it. I’m glad I didn’t get this
news before Worlds.
I met with a doctor today about the tear in my ACL. He does not feel like I
need surgery. The knee felt solid to him. The guy he saw immediately
before me also tore his ACL, and he could not walk down the hallway without
falling over. I guess I lucked out.
Hope everything will be ok with your knee. I like freestyle in dirrerent forms (like in this video freestyle-in-dusseldorf ), but at the same time I am afraid of it – too many injuries are possible. Fortune favours the bold – that’s for sure! And I admire you and what you are doing! Good luck, Man!