Sports Medicine Master System-Chapter 48: Psychological Problems

Chen Yu’s gaze swept over each and every player.

Take De Brown, for example. Just like Tracy McGrady, he had previously injured his subscapularis muscle.

Of course, his case was much milder than Tracy McGrady’s, and he had now fully recovered.

However, he had torn the medial collateral ligament in his right knee and undergone surgery to repair it.

And now, he was doing agility ladder drills at an extremely high speed.

Under the Eye of All-Seeing, Chen Yu could clearly see that with every high-frequency leg lift and foot plant, the ligaments in his knee were like rubber bands, repeatedly stretching and retracting. At times, they were already being overstretched.

After repair surgery, a torn ligament grows back as collagen fibers, which are very different in nature from the original elastic fibers.

Under this kind of high-load training, problems could easily arise when fatigue factors like lactic acid and ammonia accumulated excessively.

In Sports Training, there is a practice of using high-load training to break limits and improve performance.

But that is always done progressively, with training plans tailored to the individual’s condition.

Suddenly ramping up the training intensity would only harm the body.

Not to mention Brown was a 33-year-old veteran.

And besides Brown, as Chen Yu looked around, he found that several other players were also exceeding their physical limits under this high-intensity training.

The NBA has the world’s top Trainers, who have a wealth of experience.

But no amount of experience could compare to Chen Yu’s ability to perform an X-ray and MRI scan anytime, anywhere, and precisely determine if a body had reached its limit after a set of exercises.

Chen Yu turned his head and looked toward Pleasance on the sidelines.

He watched everything with a blank expression, probably thinking there was nothing wrong with this kind of training.

That was understandable. He played in the early eighties, a time when training methods were less scientific and medical standards were not as high as they are now.

Back then, they probably lived by the principle of ’if it doesn’t kill you, just train till you drop’.

Perhaps when Perry was vomiting earlier, he might have been thinking, ’What a softie. We’ve barely gotten started and he’s already training until he pukes?’

Therefore, in this era that revered on-court tough guys, Chen Yu didn’t know if it was just the Magic or the entire NBA Alliance that seemed to place so little importance on player health management.

After leaving the Waterhouse Center, Chen Yu didn’t rush back. He turned the steering wheel and drove to his own clinic.

Same as always, there were no patients.

That made sense. If the door was never open, where would the patients come from?

But given Chen Yu’s current situation, he couldn’t just stay at the clinic all the time.

He dealt with some bills and was just about to close up and head home when the doorbell rang. He looked up to see Brown pushing the door open and walking in.

Right behind him, a whole group of six people bustled in.

When the 6-foot-10-inch John Amichie came in, he almost hit his head on the doorframe.

"What brings you all here?" Chen Yu asked, standing up.

The clinic wasn’t large to begin with, and with seven big guys suddenly crowding in, it felt even more cramped.

Brown sat down and pointed to his right knee. "Practice was too rough today, and my knee feels a bit uncomfortable. Chen, can you give it another massage for me?"

Chen Yu nodded and looked at the others.

"Same here. Daniel was like a madman today. My back is killing me," Monty said, rubbing his lower back.

Outlaw, who was beside him, said, "It’s not Daniel’s fault. It’s Paul. He’s afraid of losing, so he can only train us like crazy."

Pleasance was appointed on an emergency basis. For him, it was both a challenge and an opportunity.

If he did well, he might turn his interim role into a permanent one and take off from there.

So, if they lost, it must be because the training wasn’t hard enough.

The dark and skinny Darrell Armstrong said, "We’re getting older. We really can’t handle this kind of training. Chen, even though your medical techniques are a bit scary, the results are genuinely good."

From diagnosing Monty’s pes anserine bursitis at a glance to treating Tracy McGrady today, they had all witnessed Chen Yu’s superb medical skills firsthand.

He ushered the group into the treatment room.

Faced with Acupuncture, a few of them were still a bit resistant.

Now that they were all here, how could Chen Yu not take the opportunity to farm some experience? He shot a subtle glance at Brown.

Old Brown immediately understood and was the first to sit down. "It’s just getting poked with a few needles. Think about Hill. He gets poked at home every day."

The others looked at each other.

Amichie silently made the sign of the cross, praying for Hill, and obediently sat down.

Each person contributed 4 experience points, for a total of 28. His Sports Rehabilitation experience bar was full again.

The number reset to zero, but he got absolutely nothing.

Chen Yu glanced at Monty and deliberately used the last point that filled the bar on him, but this time, his luck wasn’t as good.

Monty stood up, twisted his waist, and gave Chen Yu a thumbs-up.

Needless to say, the effect was astounding. The soreness and fatigue from training had completely vanished.

"Chen, Billings is gone now, so why don’t you become our team doctor?" Monty asked.

The others all turned to look at Chen Yu.

As professional athletes, they knew all too well how important a good team doctor was.

You could say it directly affected how secure their livelihoods were.

Chen Yu casually applied a heated medicinal plaster to Armstrong’s lower back. Just as he was about to speak, his eyes suddenly lit up.

His [Sports Medicine] experience bar had also just filled up, and he had actually rolled a treatment effect.

A Silver Level one, at that!

’Lady Luck must be visiting.’

Chen Yu glanced at Armstrong. This guy had gone from a 10-day contract to a starter on the team. Hard work was part of it, but Chen Yu refused to believe he didn’t have a bit of good luck on his side.

His mood instantly improved, and seeing Monty still looking at him, Chen Yu smiled and said, "My clinic is right near the arena. What’s the difference whether I’m the team doctor or not?"

Monty thought to himself, ’The difference is huge! Coming to the clinic means we pay out of pocket. If you become the team doctor, the team pays for it.’

After seeing the players off, Chen Yu first went to Hill’s house to use the freshly acquired treatment effect on him.

At this stage, all treatment effects had to be prioritized for Hill.

Then, he returned to Hardaway’s house.

Boston was busy and had left the day before, but he had already made all the arrangements for Hardaway’s daily life. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

Not only were there bodyguards, but also a housekeeper who would be responsible for Hardaway’s three meals a day, following the diet plan provided by Chen Yu.

When Chen Yu returned, the housekeeper was clearing Hardaway’s plate. Chen Yu glanced over and saw that he had barely eaten anything.

’Was it that bad? It couldn’t be. Right now, Hardaway’s diet was focused on nutritional supplementation, so Chen Yu’s only requirements were for the food to be nutritious and relatively light. The housekeeper they hired was a good cook. Hardaway was a grown man; he couldn’t be this picky, could he?’

That evening, as usual, he gave Hardaway a couple of needles.

The main purpose was to improve blood circulation and stimulate his body’s natural healing abilities.

While he was administering the needles, Hardaway suddenly asked, "Chen, why do I feel like the Acupuncture isn’t having any effect? My knee still hurts a lot. Do I really still need surgery?"

He had an instinctive fear of surgery.

"The treatment has just begun. You need to be a little more patient." ’This isn’t a common cold, and even that takes a week to get over.’

Hardaway’s brows furrowed. "But it’s been several days already. Didn’t you cure Hill in twenty-four hours?"

Chen Yu thought to himself, ’That was just reducing the swelling.’

Looking up at Hardaway, Chen Yu could clearly sense his anxiety.

’Is his mental state becoming a problem?’

’It’s only natural. Even ordinary people get anxious while recovering from an injury, let alone a superstar like Hardaway who is constantly in the spotlight.’

The media was discussing him nonstop, and there was pressure from the team, his performance, and his own career prospects.

After getting the system, while researching materials on Sports Psychology, Chen Yu had read some papers on the psychology of professional athletes.

He remembered a survey done by a Harvard psychology professor, which stated that in the National Football League, over 32 percent of players suffered from psychological issues like anxiety and depression, but less than 5 percent chose to seek psychological treatment.

Chen Yu didn’t know where the professor got his data, and the survey was on the NFL, but he figured the situation was probably similar in any professional league.

Take Hardaway, for example.

He peaked the moment he debuted and was even personally named by Jordan as his successor—truly the center of attention. But that was immediately followed by injuries, one after another.

He was deceived by management, his treatment was delayed by incompetent doctors, and then he was traded away. Last season, he finally started showing signs of a comeback, only to get injured again.

If it wasn’t a fall from the summit to the abyss, it wasn’t far off. The psychological blow must have been immense.

The earlier incident where he threatened his girlfriend with a gun was probably also influenced by his emotional state.

And Chen Yu knew very well that one’s mental state could affect recovery.

The problem was, with his [Sports Psychology] knowledge at only 38 percent mastery, Chen Yu only knew the basics and had no idea where to start in solving Hardaway’s problem.

After thinking it over for a night, when he saw that Hardaway was still despondent the next day, Chen Yu resorted to the most common solution: "Penny, the weather’s nice today. Do you want to go out for a walk?"