Girls Sports Injuries: Overcoming Volleyball Knee, My Story
Girls Volleyball Training
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When I got back from Italy in 1998 I dedicated all my time to giving and helping family and friends. This was because I felt I owed them since I spent so much time away from home pursuing every professional volleyball opportunity that was offered to me.
It was at this time that I decided to take some time to figure out what was going on with
my knees, since I hadn't stopped to check up on them in years.
At the beginning of the summer of 2006 I went to get an MRI on BOTH of my knees.
What an experience. Pretty interesting.
You are laid on a cold slab and slowly rolled into this huge round incubator tube like apparatus. You are given ear plugs because it makes a lot of noise while you are inside.
Before I even got the results of my MRI...my doctor sent me a referral to an Orthopedic Surgeon. At this point I KNEW I had my work cut out for me. The results on my Left knee were as follows:
1. a tear of the posterior horn of the lateral meniscus,
2. patellar chondromalacia (how can I have this if I can't pronounce it!),
3. a small Baker's cyst
4. a Focal subchondral sclerosis in the anterior aspect of the lateral femoral condyle (what! english please) and
5. Joint effusion
The report also included some additional details as follows:
Large joint effusion is noted, there is a tear of the posterior horn of the lateral meniscus while my medial meniscus is intact. Geez, something is intact! Apparently the anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments are intact but patella chondromalacia is seen.
Otherwise, patella and patellar extensor mechanism are intact but additionally, there is a focal subchondral degenerative change noted in the anterior aspect of the lateral femoral condyle. No seriously that sounds so impressive!
The results for my right knee were even more fun.
Let's start with
1. Severe degenerative changes,
2. Anterior Cruciate ligament tear (really, I never knew!),
3. Body of the lateral meniscus tear,
4. Loose body posterior to the lateral femoral condyle ( I think there is something floating around in there somewhere.),
5. Joint effusion
Of course this wasn't all, there were additional details.
Sagittal, coronal and axial images demonstrate severe degenerative changes involving both medial and lateral compartments of the knee with extensive osteophyte formation and chondrmalacia as well as subchondral sclerosis. (Okay what the...?)
The sagittal images demonstrate a COMPLETE anterior cruciate ligament TEAR. (Wow, seriously I never knew..).
There is also a focal tear in the body of the lateral meniscus. The medial meniscus is intact. (Oh thank God!) Patellofemoral degenerative changes and patellar chondromalacia are seen. A loose body (again) is noted immediately posterior to the lateral femoral condyle. (In other words there's a piece of bone or something floating around in my other knee!) This report ended with the following. "Thank you for referring this patient to us!" (funny. very funny.)
So when I first opened the envelope and read the results I just started laughing.
I couldnt stop laughing. Because two days before I did my leg workout in the gym which consisted of 140 lunges. That's 10 in one direction 10 in the opposite direction 7 times...no breaks. Followed by Squats. I did my usual 2 hour leg workout which also included Clean Pulls, Good Mornings, two different Leg Curl Exercises, Toe Raises and Cardio on the elliptical Machine.
I'm not exactly sure what I was laughing at. I didnt even know what to think or where to begin... I've always practiced and pushed myself very hard. I've never really babied myself. Basically I thought that if I could walk then I could run. And if I couldn't run then I could ride a bike. I ALWAYS found a way to overcome the obstacle. So I think I may have been laughing at everything I had done in these past 17 years.
Nothing ever stopped me...and that was funny.
I knew that I had my only volleyball knee injury incident a long time ago.
Major League Volleyball was the first Women's Professional Indoor Volleyball League in the United States. I was the first round draft pick chosen by one of the greatest volleyball player's ever... Mary Jo Peppler to play for the New York Liberties.
While playing in Dallas I went up to spike and when I came down and my toes barely touched the floor I felt something wasn't right so I just let my body fall instead of just trying to land on my two feet. As a result I tore one third of my ACL. If I tried to land on my feet I would've completely torn my ACL then.
I was given two possibilities. Either I could have reconstructive surgery OR I could basically live in the gym for the rest of my life. I chose to live in the gym after a period of rehabilitation and the dreaded KNEE brace. So I knew that I was going to have to weight train for the rest of my life to keep strong the muscles surrounding the ACL -the back of the knee, my calf, my thighs and my butt muscles all would need to stay strong in order to compensate for the weak two-thirds of the ACL I still had. That was 17 years ago!
Somewhere between THEN and now I completely TORE my Anterior Cruciate Ligament...and didn't even know it! Life is hilarious!
I forgot to mention that due to my ACL injury I missed the last three Major League Volleyball games of the season. But because of the work ethic I adopted and applied BEFORE my injury I was still named to the First Team All Pro Team as well as named Best Left Side Outside Hitter for the first Major League Volleyball season.
If there was a lesson that I could pass on I'd say "When you get a chance to practice and work hard...Do it as if you will never have another chance to do it again.
Give 110% to each rep, to each set...make each one count because you never know what the outcome will be and you never know if you will be given a chance to do it again.
You want to stay off the bench right? Well to keep improving your volleyball game click here to read Breaking Up the Setting Volleyball Skill: Setting Is Simple Part 1
April Chapple created Volleyball Voices.com where high school and club female volleyball players learn about the indoor volleyball game and its heroes, with news and stories of college and women's pro volleyball players, self-coaching information, volleyball pictures and videos. The former USA Volleyball national team member and pro indoor/beach volleyball professional is a regular columnist for the AVCA Coaching Volleyball magazine, the USA Volleyball magazine and the Active.com volleyball newsletter in addition to writing numerous articles on playing and coaching elite volleyball.
Author of the upcoming ebook "How to Stop Serving Like a Wimp" April can be reached at april@volleyballvoices.com.
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Volleyball Voices is a volleyball news hub where girls high school volleyball, club
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