#107 – Injury Persona Weekly Wrap: What Nathan Cleary’s Concussion Reveals About Perfectionism (+ More Injury Insights)
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Episode Summary:
In this week's Injury Persona, Ian Hawkins unpacks key injuries in rugby league, including Nathan Cleary’s latest concussion, Kinney’s neck injury, and Ryan Papenhausen’s recurring ankle issues. Diving deeper into head injuries, Ian shares insights on how repeated concussions may be linked to subconscious patterns of self-criticism and stress. Through real-life examples—including a case study of a woman who overcame post-concussion anxiety—he explores how shifting your mindset can help break the cycle of repeated injuries. Penny shares her review, offering valuable insights that add depth to this powerful discussion.
About the Host:
Ian Hawkins is dedicated to showing how sports can transform lives. With extensive experience as an athlete, a coach, PE teacher, community volunteer, and manager at Fox Sports, Ian brings a wealth of knowledge to the podcast. His journey began in his backyard, mentored by his older brother, and has since evolved into coaching elite athletes and business leaders. Ian's commitment to sports and personal development is evident in his roles as a performance coach and active community member. Through "Sport Is Life," Ian shares inspiring stories and valuable lessons to help listeners apply sports principles to all areas of life.
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Transcript
In this week's Injury Persona, Rat going
Speaker:to be looking at Nathan Cleary's
Speaker:concussion counter, Kinney's neck
Speaker:injury and poor old Ryan
Speaker:Papenhausen's recurrence of his ankle
Speaker:injury.
Speaker:I'm Ian Hawkins and this is Sporty's
Speaker:life. The purpose of sport, as I
Speaker:see it, is to see your vision become a
Speaker:reality, find your voice, create
Speaker:strong connections and learn to trust
Speaker:your body.
Speaker:Welcome to this week's injury persona
Speaker:wrap. Always needs to be
Speaker:injuries, uh, in any sport.
Speaker:Rugby league in particular seems to cop
Speaker:it, uh, some big name
Speaker:ones this week and the top of that
Speaker:list Nathan Cleary.
Speaker:Only 6 minutes into the big grand final
Speaker:rematch, getting a concussion, so we're
Speaker:going to start there.
Speaker:Concussion, head injuries, they all
Speaker:fall under a similar sort of.
Speaker:Conversation. I remember my dad
Speaker:used to bang his head under the house
Speaker:regularly. Be a source of.
Speaker:Laughter for us kids because you'd you'd
Speaker:hear the FUD and then you'd hear him
Speaker:scream out in frustration. And I laugh
Speaker:because it's just how I'm wide
Speaker:around injury. My kids laugh at me when I
Speaker:get injury, when I get injuries,
Speaker:not very serious ones, but things like
Speaker:just bump in their head. And
Speaker:also I've been known to do the same thing
Speaker:around hitting my head and being ever
Speaker:curious about that. I started to wonder
Speaker:why that might have been and
Speaker:I realised that quiteoften when I was.
Speaker:Having these head knocks, I was in a
Speaker:place of.
Speaker:Self loathing, like kicking
Speaker:myself while I was down,
Speaker:overthinking around some area that I
Speaker:hadn't got right, particularly around
Speaker:perfectionism. What I've come to
Speaker:realise is that it's usually the
Speaker:pattern. A few
Speaker:years ago she just had a
Speaker:quite a bad car accident where she'd had
Speaker:a concussion and. She'd
Speaker:also had a number of concussions. She'd
Speaker:come off her motorbike a number of times.
Speaker:She'd had another time where it was a
Speaker:car accident. She had a fall
Speaker:another time. Each time she'd felt
Speaker:like capabilities had
Speaker:reduced. And this was when she was
Speaker:in her early 70s, so she was quite
Speaker:worried about her future because her
Speaker:concentration was going. She was unable
Speaker:to finish her sentences because she just
Speaker:couldn't get the word. So there's a lot
Speaker:of anxiety around that. It really
Speaker:hit her confidence and and she
Speaker:was. Like it was, it was
Speaker:having quite a profound impact. And
Speaker:what we unpacked was the same thing as
Speaker:like where where was she being ultra hard
Speaker:on herself? Like the car accident, it
Speaker:wasn't her fault, but she'd gone into a
Speaker:spiral of things of like why it
Speaker:might have been. And I was also able to
Speaker:time in her life where she was being
Speaker:quite hard on herself for a number of
Speaker:different situations. And so the
Speaker:pattern is, is like the. Head injury
Speaker:often brings about
Speaker:compassion, obviously
Speaker:not from the example I used at the start
Speaker:when your children laugh at you, but at
Speaker:A at a bigger level, when the head
Speaker:injuries are bigger. Like people describe
Speaker:how it's such a uplifting experience
Speaker:from a spiritual perspective because they
Speaker:got so much of an outpouring of love.
Speaker:People genuinely concerned and and
Speaker:this is something that there's research
Speaker:on this, there's like I've got my own
Speaker:anecdotal evidence mate of mine.
Speaker:Awful soccer injury.
Speaker:The press fracture of his forehead pretty
Speaker:close to dying or talking to the the
Speaker:surgeon afterwards and she came in and
Speaker:and was just talking about just how close
Speaker:it had been. But my mate
Speaker:was talking about this outpouring of
Speaker:of love that he got from people and and
Speaker:this from surprising people and visitors
Speaker:he got and messages he got and the
Speaker:goodwill that he got from that. So
Speaker:positive. So
Speaker:again, reminding people that this is not
Speaker:a conscious choice. People are not doing
Speaker:these things for attention or to have
Speaker:these sort of experiences. But it's a
Speaker:hard wired pattern. It's
Speaker:it's. It's happening
Speaker:at a deeper level, but when you can
Speaker:change that reaction and you can
Speaker:change the outcome that that woman that I
Speaker:talked about, I've got a great case study
Speaker:from her of how she was able to
Speaker:fix up her thinking so that she had
Speaker:absolutely no anxiety about finishing
Speaker:sentences. She she wasn't worried about
Speaker:her head injury and the impact that it
Speaker:had no brain and just removing the
Speaker:worry and anxiety meant that she was
Speaker:able. So that go back to a fully
Speaker:functioning state, She was able
Speaker:to move on from the job that she
Speaker:was in that was causing a lot of the
Speaker:stress and, and move into a job that she
Speaker:absolutely loved and might be thinking,
Speaker:well, she's 70, what she's still doing
Speaker:working, but she was in her work that was
Speaker:really fulfilling.
Speaker:Different setup in the US and
Speaker:she was fit and and wanted to be working
Speaker:and and. Yeah,
Speaker:just different style. I don't I don't
Speaker:have plans to retire in a hurry. Like I
Speaker:love what I do when I want to keep doing
Speaker:it as well. So I can relate to that. But
Speaker:she was able to get herself out the other
Speaker:side and and have no, none of those
Speaker:repercussions. So again, I want to remind
Speaker:you this is not a replacement for medical
Speaker:treatment. This is not I'm not saying
Speaker:that there there aren't necessarily going
Speaker:to be other repercussions, but what it is
Speaker:is it's to break that cycle so that the
Speaker:person doesn't have repeat injuries. So
Speaker:if you look. Nice and clear, for example.
Speaker:A lot of examples of people getting one
Speaker:head knock and then they seem to get
Speaker:repeated head knocks. There's the
Speaker:cricketer. Umm.
Speaker:Bukowski is, it probably got that name
Speaker:wrong, that's basically had to give it
Speaker:away because he just kept kept getting
Speaker:hit. There's been a lot of footballers
Speaker:where they've they've, they've
Speaker:had to be. Reduce
Speaker:their load and some of them have retired
Speaker:because of, of fear of the, the ongoing
Speaker:impact. And, and so we don't
Speaker:want those patterns to repeat. We want to
Speaker:make sure if it's happened, we, we learn
Speaker:the lesson and we don't have any of those
Speaker:I'll effects. Where there's
Speaker:more challenges down
Speaker:the track, Well, that's, that's a whole
Speaker:other conversation or I do know there's a
Speaker:heap of study around how trauma sits in
Speaker:the body and, and maybe like, I don't
Speaker:know, but maybe that does contribute to
Speaker:something like CT and CTE and, and other
Speaker:things like Alzheimer's, which may be may
Speaker:be more predisposed towards after
Speaker:concussion, although. Interestingly,
Speaker:I think it was Roy Simmons talking about
Speaker:it and saying that once he got
Speaker:diagnosed. Alzheimer's and then
Speaker:started doing more research.
Speaker:You realise that there'sactually a
Speaker:pretty big percentage of the population
Speaker:that has it and it and you
Speaker:can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think
Speaker:you were saying it's like it's actually
Speaker:not necessarily a bigger percentage.
Speaker:Necessarily football, but maybe more of a
Speaker:lifestyle thing and.
Speaker:Yeah. So there's all these other things
Speaker:that could be playing out and certainly
Speaker:not to say go out and get head injuries
Speaker:because you'll be fine. That's not what
Speaker:I'm saying. But we want to make sure we
Speaker:remove the pattern. We want to make sure
Speaker:we remove any of the
Speaker:mental, emotional.
Speaker:And spiritual trauma from a head injury
Speaker:so that. The body can come to that
Speaker:place, have been able to heal itself,
Speaker:which it does so well in the right
Speaker:conditions. There's still a heap of
Speaker:things that you need to around nutrition
Speaker:and exercise and all of those things, of
Speaker:course. There's so many different levels
Speaker:to it, but focusing on this area,
Speaker:particularly if you're if you're a sports
Speaker:person or you're someone who's prone to
Speaker:having these repeat injuries is that you
Speaker:can change that you can actually.
Speaker:Remove that pattern that's been running
Speaker:from a young age. You might have been
Speaker:like me that saw my dad do it,
Speaker:repeating the patterns and and the
Speaker:perfectionism side of things. I
Speaker:can't answer for Nathan. I'm only
Speaker:speculating. He's got a lot of pressure
Speaker:on him as the best player in his team and
Speaker:and the best player in the league. And he
Speaker:would set himself extremely high
Speaker:standards. And from all I've heard he
Speaker:does, he's also got a like high profile
Speaker:relationship now with someone living on
Speaker:the other side of the world. A lot of the
Speaker:areas where he could be searching
Speaker:perfection and and just unable to get
Speaker:that not not because of anything more
Speaker:than I'll tell you how the pattern
Speaker:started for me. So I
Speaker:had this conversation with my sister as
Speaker:well doing math tests. My dad was a
Speaker:math teacher. We were all pretty good at
Speaker:arithmetic and I can remember in year
Speaker:7 topping the year 160
Speaker:somethingkids in the year 7 maths test
Speaker:because it would have been mainly
Speaker:arithmetic at that time and I. 91 I
Speaker:think it was. And
Speaker:they were the 9 marks that I missed were
Speaker:like, I felt like they were easy things
Speaker:to answer. And then my dad made
Speaker:some comment about that, oh, what
Speaker:happened on these questions? And he was
Speaker:right because it was like, yeah, what,
Speaker:what did I miss those? But the young brain
Speaker:'s impressionable and can sometimes take
Speaker:that as well. I gotta be perfect
Speaker:for my dad, you know what I mean? Now, my
Speaker:dad was saying it very much tongue in
Speaker:cheek and ingest. But when you're young,
Speaker:you don't always take it that way. My
Speaker:sister had a very similar story around.
Speaker:Mass test as well.
Speaker:I've said similar things to my children,
Speaker:mainly because I know they're capable of
Speaker:of better and because also even though
Speaker:I've learned a lot of this stuff, I still
Speaker:make mistakes. So this pattern can be
Speaker:going from a young age. Just not saying
Speaker:that the parenting is bad. Like you only
Speaker:got to look at the relationship that
Speaker:Nathan has with his dad and the results
Speaker:he's getting that they've got a great
Speaker:relationship, but that doesn't mean
Speaker:they're still patterns there that are
Speaker:having an impact. So that's the
Speaker:concussion. Keanu
Speaker:Keaney, the neck injury,
Speaker:I'm not sure it's been confirmed one way
Speaker:or the other, but I've heard reports from
Speaker:might not be too bad to potentially 5
Speaker:months potentially neck surgery. Or
Speaker:neck is all about flexibility, and I
Speaker:don't mean physical flexibility or that's
Speaker:how it shows up. It shows up as a neck
Speaker:injury, but it's it's an inability to be
Speaker:flexible in different.
Speaker:Situations in terms of
Speaker:your behaviour, how you'reshowing up. So
Speaker:there might be a different situation in
Speaker:your life where you are so
Speaker:steadfastly sticking to.
Speaker:A way and you think this is how it has to
Speaker:be and you're not having that
Speaker:flexibility of
Speaker:thinking of behaviour.
Speaker:That isn't necessarily in his football.
Speaker:I mean, it could be, but more often than
Speaker:not it's in personal life and and things
Speaker:going on in personal life definitely
Speaker:impact your career
Speaker:and your profession and and of course
Speaker:sports going to be no different. So
Speaker:if you've got a neck injury,
Speaker:interestingly, which I've had a bit of a
Speaker:tight neck this week, so I've been
Speaker:sitting with that and wondering where I'm
Speaker:being inflexible at the moment and.
Speaker:Yeah, if if you're prone to neck injuries
Speaker:and that's the question asked, where,
Speaker:where am I being flexible at the moment?
Speaker:And of course, if you need to get
Speaker:medical attention, you get medical
Speaker:attention. And not saying to ignore that,
Speaker:but my go to is always what's the mental
Speaker:and emotional side at first. Will that?
Speaker:Allow the body to get into that state
Speaker:where it's feeling more relaxed and it
Speaker:starts to feel better by itself.
Speaker:Capable of getting to.
Speaker:Yeah, if if you approach it that way.
Speaker:Yeah, so my again, my sister, who's
Speaker:certainly not as far down the rabbit hole
Speaker:as I am with this stuff, still looks at
Speaker:things that way as well. She cheques it
Speaker:out. She gets a medical medical attention
Speaker:she needs, but she also understands
Speaker:there's an underlying reason for that
Speaker:and addresses it. Probably
Speaker:mentioned before the book The Body keeps
Speaker:the score. Fascinating read from a guy
Speaker:who worked with Vietnam vets. And
Speaker:noticed the same patterns and the impact
Speaker:of trauma on the body and how it sat in
Speaker:there physically. It sat in there
Speaker:mentally and emotionally. And the last
Speaker:one I talked about is poor old pappy Ryan
Speaker:Papenhauser. Another injury.
Speaker:Now ankles are all about making other
Speaker:move forward. So when you
Speaker:keep having reoccurative ankle injuries,
Speaker:it's a fear of moving forward.
Speaker:Might I shattered my ankle?
Speaker:In at uni when I had a fear of
Speaker:going to do pract teaching because I was
Speaker:shitting myself. I was not a confident
Speaker:young man. I had all these assignments I
Speaker:needed to get done. And the injury was
Speaker:like, I actually talked about it the day
Speaker:before with my friends. I said I'll just
Speaker:break my leg and soccer tomorrow. I won't
Speaker:have to worry about any of it. Well, did
Speaker:I didn't know what spiral fracture
Speaker:shattered my ankle? Yeah. And
Speaker:absolutely had that fear of moving
Speaker:forward. So, So what is
Speaker:what is the fear for Ryan Papenhauser?
Speaker:Like.
Speaker:It could be that he doesn't feel he has
Speaker:the stability ankles about stability to,
Speaker:to move forward to to navigate life's
Speaker:challenges. There might be a fear of
Speaker:really stepping into that next level.
Speaker:Like when he's planned at his best.
Speaker:People talk about inmate, you know, those
Speaker:Rep teams and he always seems to be
Speaker:injured right before those things happen.
Speaker:Interestingly, Nathan Cleary's been
Speaker:injured. A few times
Speaker:as well right before Rep season.
Speaker:So yeah, who knows what's going on
Speaker:there, but there could be a similar thing
Speaker:if. He
Speaker:got a bit of bad press there when he when
Speaker:he didn't sort of ice the game when he
Speaker:was only a young man. But again, the
Speaker:perfectionism, maybe there's a bit of
Speaker:fear around that as well. Who knows? But
Speaker:yeah, the right, the ankle.
Speaker:What was right ankle? But the ankle is
Speaker:very much around. That
Speaker:fear of moving forward, fear of
Speaker:challenges, that maybe feeling unstable
Speaker:in all of that. And again, without
Speaker:knowing what's going on in his
Speaker:world, I can't be definitive about
Speaker:any of of what could be going on his
Speaker:head. But I know this is what this part
Speaker:of the body is telling is, is
Speaker:showing there's something that needs
Speaker:addressing there. And you address it and
Speaker:you can remove that pattern. I worked
Speaker:with a woman.
Speaker:Three years ago we had a hip injury.
Speaker:Similar thing moving forward she had.
Speaker:Tried for 6 to 12 months.
Speaker:She tried physio,
Speaker:acupuncture, all
Speaker:sorts of different modalities. Hadn't
Speaker:been out yet.
Speaker:Any relief from the pain? We did. One
Speaker:session we got to the bottom of what was
Speaker:stopping her from moving forward.
Speaker:And lo and behold, within a few
Speaker:days, the pain in her hip was gone. And
Speaker:she sent me. I'll try and find the
Speaker:testimony. I might even add it to this,
Speaker:might even add it to this episode. And
Speaker:she sent me a testimony. We were talking
Speaker:about how like she hadn't had pain there.
Speaker:Again, it came back once she used the
Speaker:meditation I'd given her. And she
Speaker:never had pain there again, something
Speaker:that she just couldn't shift with all the
Speaker:different modalities she was working on.
Speaker:And we addressed the root cause and the
Speaker:body got it in the right state to be able
Speaker:to heal itself. It's amazing thing. Think
Speaker:about when you cut your hand open, how
Speaker:the body will regenerate like
Speaker:that. It seems obvious because we've seen
Speaker:so many times, but it's mind blowing how
Speaker:amazing the human body is and it has so
Speaker:many more capabilities than. Than
Speaker:what we realise and the more.
Speaker:You go down this rabbit hole, the more
Speaker:you learn, the more you discover about
Speaker:what's possible. It's yeah, it's pretty
Speaker:exciting. Of. Of what?
Speaker:Yeah, what the capability of the
Speaker:human body is.
Speaker:So that's the weekly persona wrap.
Speaker:I'll leave it there. Have an awesome
Speaker:week if you are.
Speaker:Someone who's prone to injuries then.
Speaker:Have a think about what what could be
Speaker:happening, what sit with it,
Speaker:reach out and ask any questions if you
Speaker:have any. And I'm still I've, I've come
Speaker:across one at a elite athlete, an
Speaker:Olympian who's probably going to well,
Speaker:no, he didn't. He went to Tokyo, but he
Speaker:missed the next Olympics. But he's keen
Speaker:to get back into it. But he's running a
Speaker:bit of a injury pattern at the moment. So
Speaker:I might have found my first athlete, but
Speaker:I'm just looking for two more elite
Speaker:athletes. To be my Guinea pig.
Speaker:So again, if you know anyone. Or if
Speaker:you're that person, reach out and let's
Speaker:see if we can get you pointing in the
Speaker:right direction and remove that pattern.
Speaker:So I had been experiencing some
Speaker:hip pain for a good six months on a
Speaker:significant level. I had been to
Speaker:numerous Cairo's physio
Speaker:massage with.
Speaker:Very minimal relief and I realised
Speaker:that it was more than just childbirth
Speaker:or running or some physical ailment.
Speaker:And I thought I'd been reading some stuff
Speaker:on trauma trapped in the body and I
Speaker:thought I know someone who offers.
Speaker:A service and I'm
Speaker:going to I'm going to entrust him
Speaker:to see if he can release my
Speaker:issues. And I hadn't told him what was
Speaker:about got on the phone call straight
Speaker:away. He identified the issue within my
Speaker:hip and some
Speaker:trauma relating to myself at nine years
Speaker:old when I lost a grandfather and then
Speaker:the following year my parents separating
Speaker:and losing my father. So.
Speaker:All of a sudden there was this
Speaker:magnificent emotional release in my hip,
Speaker:like tears coming out of the floodgates,
Speaker:and I had never felt anything like that
Speaker:in my life before. And I realised, wow,
Speaker:thiswas not a physical
Speaker:pain at all. And I've been carrying this
Speaker:since I was 9 and I'm now 36. And
Speaker:in one session with Ian I was able to
Speaker:overcome that.
Speaker:I'm now being pain free for at least four
Speaker:months and it's one tiny time it
Speaker:came back up I was able to just hop on.
Speaker:Grab one of Ian's meditations and release
Speaker:that grief and trauma
Speaker:and I have been running and doing all
Speaker:the physical things that I thought I was
Speaker:never going to be able to do. Also
Speaker:have secured in myself that I won't have
Speaker:to go and have a hip replacement like my
Speaker:mum did, which is a
Speaker:magnificent thing.
Speaker:You've taken the time to listen to this
Speaker:whole episode. Now it's time to take
Speaker:action. Commit to one thing you've
Speaker:learned today and make it happen. And to
Speaker:avoid any obstructions, join the Sporty's
Speaker:Life movement by clicking on the link in
Speaker:the show notes.
