Setbacks and Comebacks: Setbacks create love and appreciation for sports

Four years later, I can still vividly recall the memory of tearing my patella tendon. 

I limped off the Lee’s Summit North gym floor after finishing my dance performance and sank to the ground, cradling my right leg while tears streamed down my face. 

Then came the doctor’s visits. The MRI confirmed I would need surgery to replace the tendon with cadaver tissue. 

I sat backstage for six months, watching dances I was supposed to perform in. 

Tearing the tendon that kept my kneecap in place wasn’t the projected outcome for my freshman year on the JV dance team. I spent many dull months watching dances get reblocked, seeing my teammates learn new choreography to account for my absence and going to physical therapy three times a week. However, during that time I saw dance in a different light, making me long to get back to the sport. 

And setbacks in sports — in my case, sitting backstage — give athletes a new perspective and help them appreciate their sport more.

Watching my team perform the routines I once learned, in the same costumes I once tried on, made me crave to be on that stage. I realized how much I wanted to be next to them, doing high kicks and second turns, solely because I couldn’t be doing it with them at that moment. 

I felt more passion for my sport in the few months I spent on the side rather than I did in the decade I’d been doing it before. In that moment, it felt like I would’ve given everything to go back to the LSN gym and prevent my injury.

I’m not saying I want all athletes to get an injury requiring months of recovery time, but this setback gave me the ability to see dance in a more longingful way. 

A setback can be as little as not making the varsity team or not getting chosen for the starting lineup. But as long as you’re able to see the sport you love from the sidelines, it makes you want to do anything to get back to playing.

I know it hurts in the moment. An athlete never goes into tryouts wanting to make the JV team, much less tear an ACL on the field. However, setbacks inspire athletes to do everything in their power to make the varsity team by the time the next tryouts roll around. 

In the months before my injury, I wanted to quit, and I know I’m not the only one who has felt this way. No matter how much drive I had for dance, I was losing it after over 15 weekly hours at the studio and not getting better.

I could hold a passé on my tiptoes for minutes at a time, but I didn't see my turns improving. I stretched before and after class, but I didn't seem to be getting any more flexible.

It wasn't until I was placed right back at the beginning, thanks to a ligament reconstruction surgery, that I saw improvement in myself.

I couldn’t leap, jump or turn for months, let alone bend my right knee. But with every physical therapy appointment I went to, I was able to see slight progress — something I hadn’t seen in months. Maybe it was bending my knee just a few more degrees, or perhaps it was full-on jumping, but it was a real improvement.

When I finally returned to the marley dance floors and ballet barres at my dance studio, my intensity and drive skyrocketed as I attempted to get back to where I was before the injury and beyond.

So I encourage all athletes to take advantage of the setbacks they're given, whether it’s a torn patellar tendon or not getting the team captain spot. Be thankful for the motivation and do something with it.