Richmond AFLW captain Katie Brennan has opened up on the influence a collection of ankle accidents had on her bodily and psychological wellbeing, within the fledgling competitors’s first years.
Speaking to nib Health, the 29-year outdated mentioned how her early injury struggles have given her a larger understanding of what her physique wants to thrive in an elite sporting setting, and the significance of balancing footy and time away from the sphere.
Brennan was named because the Western Bulldogs’ inaugural AFLW captain at the beginning of 2017, however suffered a severe ankle injury only a week earlier than the membership’s first ever sport.
While she would battle by the opener and the early rounds with the injury, she would re-aggravate the knock and miss three weeks, earlier than her season ended prematurely after tearing a quad whereas making an attempt to show her health to return.
She would as soon as once more cope with ankle accidents by the second season, earlier than heartbreakingly being suspended for the Bulldogs’ grand closing berth – and premiership win – due to a sort out on Melbourne’s Harriet Cordner within the closing match of the home-and-away season.
Looking again on the collection of unlucky occasions, Brennan paid tribute to her family and friends for getting her by a troublesome interval.
“It was a pretty tough time; I didn’t know that I’d be missing the rest of the season,” she mentioned of the injury.
“In the second 12 months of AFL Women’s, I did my similar ankle once more, the identical spot. You have ups and downs, you may have difficult moments, you may have instances the place you suppose it’s by no means going to be the identical, however you simply get by.
“You rely on the individuals round you, whether or not that’s your assist community or these well being professionals to simply steer you in the correct course and assist with completely different components of your restoration.
“I used to be actually lucky to have so many superb individuals round me to actually assist me by that point.
“I also learned a lot from it, and feel really grateful for the experience and the growth, and just how it has changed me as a person and helped my game as well.”
Brennan additionally mentioned the brand new outlook her injury battles gave her in direction of preparation, saying ‘listening to my body’ is now her primary precedence.
If which means taking time away from the often rigorous preparation required to play AFLW soccer, then so be it.
“Along my journey, I have had a few injuries, and I think the thing that I have had to prioritise is just listening to my body and looking after my body,” she mentioned.
“Physically, whether or not it’s within the gymnasium or doing all your injury prevention, but additionally having that down time away from footy and ensuring that you just’re switching your thoughts off.
“Health to me means making positive and healthy choices, it means being connected to your friends and your family and your community, and it means going after things that you want in life and just living a healthy and positive life.”
For Brennan, she describes her supreme work-life stability as spending 80 per cent of her time devoted to her craft – whether or not that’s coaching, preparation or less complicated issues like maintaining a healthy diet meals – and the opposite 20 per cent devoted to her off-field pursuits and hobbies.
Having established herself as an AFLW star with the Tigers, which has included being named within the AFLW All-Australian group in every of the previous two seasons, it’s honest to say her approach has paid dividends.
“If you can make majority good choices, the 80 per cent, and still have fun in the 20 per cent, I think that that really helps to set you up to have a healthy and active life,” Brennan mentioned.
“We have carried out that from a younger age, and I’ve simply tried to proceed that on into maturity.
“As an athlete, you try and tick all the boxes, but having those people around you to support you and to help with the balance of doing everything you can to get your body right, but also having some down time off the field and being involved in other endeavours that aren’t your athlete life – those people were super important along the journey.”
You can take a look at Katie Brennan’s full story here.
