I tore my acl in 2020, got it repaired and recovered well. I got back to sport and tore my other acl a couple months in. I was going to play in college on a scholarship and had a solid structure of how everything would play out.
Now that I can’t play, I’m still in university for the program I want to pursue but I still feel lost in a sense. I’m no longer able to pursue my passion/hobby and I don’t know what to do.
I’ve tried new things, but nothing hits the same for me. I’m on the right path with school and all but I need more in life. I like working on something else while I’m in school but now I just find myself hanging out and not branching out in another spaces of my life.
If anyones got some suggestions on how to deal with change and somewhat of a redirection in their life I’d love to hear some tips.
26 comments
It’s normal to feel this way after quitting a sport. It can be helpful to find a new hobby or activity to fill the void. Alternatively, you may want to consider taking up a new sport.
with my life It can be difficult to adjust to life after quitting a sport, especially if it was something you were very passionate about. It is important to find other activities that you enjoy and make you feel good. You might want to consider joining a new club or team, taking up a new hobby, or volunteering for a cause you care about. Spending time with family and friends can also help you feel connected and supported. Ultimately, it is up to you to find what works best for you and makes you happy.
it’ll take time to find a new passion/hobby, but you’ll get there. it’s natural to have a bout of depression after an potentially life changing injury like this, which could be why you haven’t found anything yet.
I think you need to find something that has the quick reward that sport does. Maybe try multiplayer games. Or maybe something a bit more personal like puzzles. Just to get the win-factor going again.
Try out disc golf. There are tons of tournaments and stuff so you can still compete and do something outside that’s a lot of fun and easy to get into
From someone who was In your shoes 10 years ago. Two torn ACLs torn and had to hang up shoes and lose dream scholership. Life has a funny way of lining things up, one day you’ll look back at it and be thankful, it’s hard to see now but someone somewhere has a plan for you and everything will line up
I’m sorry that happened to you. I don’t have any advice, but I wish you all the best.
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personally: I did curling
Well, how can you take your love for your sport and still turn it into a career? Trainers, healthcare, dietitian, PT, coaching etc. there are so many other avenues you can venture into while still being apart of the team.
I had to quit my sport two years ago. I used to play on the top academy team until I broke my back. I then stepped down a team, and eventually ended up playing d2 in college. I fractured my spine again and had to stop playing. This was 2 years ago, I still feel lost in a sense. I’m definitely doing better than I was, but I’m still looking for something that makes me feel the way I did. You’re not alone, brother. We both need to keep pushing forward and pursing things that give us a sense of purpose and happiness.
Gotta learn some shit, always helped me.
I was fortunate enough to get a scholarship and play for 3 years in college, but I got hurt and was unable to compete in my final year. It sucks man and it’s hard to replace that Adrenalin rush that you get, but you have to find other things to fill the void. I’m my case, I found a weird job that I threw myself into and everything worked out. I had a couple of friends who went into coaching and they love it. You just have to try different things and see what works for you. It might not be the same, but you might find something you have a similar passion for.
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Let me seperate this into physical and mental advice.
Physical: Look up Knees over toes guy. He had several surgeries, acl tears and was told he would never play basketbal again. He got deep into knee exercise science and created a program for people to build very strong knees from literally zero, like post surgery knee stability. I had a minor tear recently and started his program after that, my knees are now more stable than ever.
Mental:
Sometimes the thing we do often like a job or sports can become a big part of our identity.
When that falls away it can feel like you lose yourself, your self worth and purpose.
I went through something similar, couldnt work on my business for a long time due to serieus ilness, I felt so useless.
What helped me was finding things that I could get better at through effort, in my case writing lyrics/poetry.
My advice would be to find a skill you enjoy practicing and aim to become at least decently capable. The feeling of achievement through deliberate practice feels that void. Examples: music (instrument), stand up comedy, pull ups, push ups, calisthenics, chess, writing, any form of art. The goal now is to find that new thing, e.g. set the goal to try one new thing every week until it clicks.
Best of luck my man.
Tore my shoulder twice in college. Went on a baseball scholarship and never got to play an inning. Went through a deep depression and bounced around with different hobbies never finding one to fill the void. Ended up getting married and now have two kids. They have filed that hole in my life. My point is, you will find something eventually. I do, however, highly recommend finding someone to help you through this mentally. That could have helped me out tremendously.
Replacing a passion is how I see this. Is there something related to your sport that you could take on? Coaching, training, mentoring? I saw you said something about medicine. I know that is completely different but maybe there is a way to combine the two.
I know it’s tough, it’s like losing a limb. I hope you can find something that will fulfill you in a very similar way.
If you can lift, bodybuilding is a fun sport that has numerous ways to work around injuries and will help in the long run of healing your legs.
Bro play competitive paintball (speedball) NXL (national xball league).
It’s hella fun shooting people and everyone goes home alive at the end of the day. You hang with your boys and go to battle. Literally anyone can play. Doesn’t matter how fucked up you are, guns are the great equalizer. Just shoot accurately and be able to gun battle.
On my team we have fast, super athletic guys who do the sprinting to far positions and dive/crawl through lanes of paint to make their bunkers and push up the field… and then the big guys/fat guys who do more of the speed shuffle-walk while laying down suppressing fire/ targeted lanes off the break out and only move into the nearest back bunkers from the start box.
I see dudes with leg braces all the time. Back in the day there was a dude who lost both legs above the knees who played. We called him stumps and he played back center. Dude could shoot, that’s all that mattered.
I’m playing again after an 11 year hiatus to get myself off the couch and running. It’s been a blast.
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So you quit your sport because you rushed back into playing/full on training before fully rehabbing your knee and was surprised it tore again??
You were going to have to quit sooner or later. Sports aren’t something that you can do for the entirety of your life. I’d read autobiographies from professional athletes and see how they coped with losing what was essentially their lives after retirement.
> I’ve tried new things, but nothing hits the same for me.
I ran into something that seems similar to me. To skip a ton of detail, I learned to stop trying to re-create my past awesome experiences and start creating completely new awesome experiences instead. To do that, I needed to accept and mourn the loss of ‘what was’ before I could pursue ‘what could be’ or enjoy ‘what is’.
How that relates to you? Accept and mourn that you will NEVER find anything that hits the exact same way your sport did. I’m talking about going through some approximation of [the five stages of grief](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_stages_of_grief). You need to go through that kind of mourning.
In doing that you open yourself up to *enjoying* things that hit differently.
When we cannot let go of our past, we get stuck in it. At the extreme, that’s what psychological trauma is; an experience someone’s brain holds onto so incredibly tightly that they cannot let it go … and it ruins their life.
Find a new calling. It can be as easy as identifying a need in the world or in the community that you have a strong urge to fulfill, then pursue it.
Start doing something with your hands.
Keep looking for something new, but most importantly don’t try to force anything. If you keep searching for something that gives you the exact same feeling then you’ll never find anything good enough. It doesn’t mean you won’t find something equally or even more fulfilling, it will just be different than what you had before.
Another hobby might be nice idd.
Some honorable mentions
– Painting
– Reading
– Drawing
– Learning to play an instrument (or even singing)
– Watching series/movies
– Actively doing group activities (with friends)
– Playing games
– Walks in nature
– Fishing
– Photography
– Learning a language
– Actively seeking for cool new music you like
– Darts
– Collecting
Or thinking of habits that you think are good for you and trying to implement them into your life.