A few weeks ago I was listening to an episode on one of my favorite podcasts, “Let’s Talk Cheer.” I tend to listen to these podcasts during a workout, and at the moment, I wasn’t sure if it was the topic or the adrenaline, but my brain went on a roll when I heard the “Question of the Week.” A coach submitted the following question (paraphrased): I have an athlete who has been cleared by a doctor to participate, but continues to complain of pain from a former injury. Her mom is pressuring us to let her participate, but doesn’t stay for practices when the child is saying she’s in pain. Do I let her participate?
It was interesting to listen to the various perspectives from the show’s hosts, Jason Larkins, director at American Cheer, and co-host, “B-Moore,” a parent at American Cheer. Of course, “B” mentioned that the parent likely didn’t realize her child hadn’t been participating and noted the challenges of trying to figure out if your child is essentially babying an injury a little too long or if they need a follow up doctor’s visit. Jason talked about how, as a coach, this is a challenge because the athlete is complaining of pain while participating, but has been cleared by a doctor.
Both of these perspectives came to my mind while I was listening, but I found myself internally shouting to all the owners out there that there’s a third, very important, perspective …
As an owner, I’ve dealt with this exact scenario many times. We’re in a military town with military healthcare. Often the answer to everything is 800 mg of ibuprofen. For children, the doctor will add “two weeks of rest.” At times, it feels like something as minor as a hangnail will be treated with a bit of Motrin and some rest. I also find that injuries that could actually be more serious are treated similarly. Instead of MRIs, insurance companies have started treating joint pain, ligament strains and rotator cuffs with physical therapy for four to six weeks before considering further investigation. I’ve only seen this actually help athletes a few times; more often, the athlete continues to be in pain through the physical therapy and often loses their whole season to waiting on referrals and appointments. Even when cleared by a doctor, I often have athletes who still complain of pain.
It’s always a tricky situation, and though I was simply a listener on this podcast, I found myself participating in the conversation internally. Lucky for me, I have a platform where I can share my thoughts!
So here goes …
Should We Let Cleared Athletes Participate When in Pain?
Owners, you have to be incredibly careful with your athletes. Even when an athlete has been cleared, listen to them. I have an athlete who is 100% cleared to tumble right now who has had rotator cuff pain and has been in physical therapy since June. That said, I’m not confident the resistance loops she’s been using to strengthen her shoulder have any resemblance to the pressure she’ll feel when she does her first roundoff handspring tuck again.
A choreographer once told me that my gym is a little “rainbows and puppies.” Yeah, maybe. There are certainly parts of me that are more like a drill sergeant at times. (This summer Dan’s staff saw me coaching my mini team at Dream Camp, and I hear there’s a funny video mimicking my military-like instruction 🤣.) But injuries are one thing I do not like to mess with. If an athlete says she’s injured, but is cleared by the doctor to participate, we have two options: 1) Go back to the doctor and find out why she’s in pain; 2) Minor participation and slow re-entry until she’s back to 100% of her strength.
Maybe there are gym owners out there thinking I’m insane for even talking about this. It’s common sense to take an athlete back to full speed at a modified pace, right? Wrong. I hear stories every day of athletes who have been re-injured at their gyms because they moved too quickly back into full participation.
Sometimes that means you’ll miss a competition. It stinks for the team, and the parents won’t be happy, but you’re not only preventing further injury from the athlete, you’re also protecting the remainder of the athletes—because pyramids don’t put themselves up.
A few years ago, my teams traveled to Dallas to compete. A couple weeks before the event, one of my long-time athletes was cleared from a broken finger. A parent came to me concerned and said the athlete was complaining that it was hard to hold her flyer in the stunt. Her finger was still really hurting, and it had been swelling after practices. The bases were afraid something would happen and this athlete would drop the flyer.
When I approached the athlete, she said, “Yes, it really hurts.” When I talked to mom, she said, “She was cleared by a doctor though, so she’s fine.” This wasn’t an 8-year-old; this was a middle-school athlete.
I ended up pulling the athlete about 10 days before competition. Mom was not happy with me. I tried to explain it the best I could, but she had already paid for the hotel and taken time off work. She was understandably upset.
Because she was a long-time athlete, she attended the competition that day. The girl I had in warm ups to fill in for her arrived, looking like death. The flu had hit a few people around that time. She’d thrown up on the way there, and when we took her temperature, it was 103. As her temperature continued to creep up, we agreed with her mom that she probably needed to go to Urgent Care.
We were back to square one. The athlete with the injured finger would be the obvious choice … but the more I thought about it, the more I felt it was not right to put her back in just because we needed her. I pulled her because I wasn’t comfortable with her competing while still in so much pain.
That was one of the hardest cheer-decisions I’ve had to make: put in an athlete who I know shouldn’t be competing and shouldn’t have been cleared (I mean, the routine would have hit and hit well), or pull another athlete and teach the routine in two hours.
I did the second option. It was incredibly stressful. We went out and competed that day. Though the athlete who learned the routine in two hours did pretty amazing, the rest of the team had just been too stressed and lost confidence. It wasn’t our best routine.
Eventually the finger healed, and the mom calmed down. She understood where I was coming from, and today, the athlete still cheers at my gym. I need my gym families to know I care more about their kids than about winning. I need to know that if something happened, no one could sue me because a child told me she was in pain and I ignored it. The doctor isn’t at my gym every time someone rolls their ankle or bails in a pass. I have to be able to make decisions daily on what I’m comfortable with, and just because a doctor gives the go-ahead doesn’t mean Coach Danielle will too.
Gym owners, protect yourselves, your staff and your other athletes when you make these decisions. The win isn’t as important as being confident in the decisions you’re making. Unfortunately protecting others sometimes means sacrificing one. We don’t want any kid to have to sit out, but two years later, I can tell you, I’m glad I made that decision that day.
