How to Test and Train Psychological Readiness to
Return to Sport (Recorded Webinar)

Presented by Clare Ardern

How to Test and Train Psychological Readiness to Return to Sport (Recorded Webinar)

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Video Runtime: 55 Minutes; Learning Assessment Time: 1 Minute

This course is a recording of a previously hosted live webinar event. Polling and question submission features are not available for this recording. Format and structure may differ from those of standard MedBridge courses.

Psychological responses matter when athletes are returning to sport after injury. Athletes say they value psychological support while completing rehabilitation and planning their return to sport and when making the transition from the rehabilitation room back to the sporting arena. Yet rehabilitation practitioners, including physical therapists and athletic trainers, typically feel ill-equipped to implement strategies to support athletes in maintaining, building, and extending their psychological (mental) readiness to return to sport after injury. In this session, sports rehabilitation practitioners (e.g., physical therapists and athletic trainers) who work with youth and adult athletes from recreational to elite level will learn how to test and monitor psychological readiness to return to sport after ACL injury and how to implement simple strategies during rehabilitation and beyond to support athletes so they feel psychologically ready to return to sport and reach their performance goals.

Learning Objectives
  • Link the relationship between psychological factors and returning to sport after injury
  • Develop evidence-based strategies to support the athlete’s psychological readiness to return to sport after injury
  • Practice shared decision-making when supporting the athlete to make an informed return-to-sport decision
  • Implement an appropriate tool for measuring the athlete’s psychological readiness to return to sport
  • Formulate a return-to-sport progress plan based on the results of return-to-sport tests

Meet your instructor

Clare Ardern

Dr. Ardern is an Australian-trained physiotherapist and assistant professor in the University of British Columbia’s Physical Therapy department. Her research work brings researchers, patients, clinicians, and health policymakers together to find and build new solutions to challenging problems in musculoskeletal health. Dr.…

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Chapters & learning objectives

Return-to-Sport Rates, Challenges, Concerns, and Opportunities

1. Return-to-Sport Rates, Challenges, Concerns, and Opportunities

This chapter presents an overview of the best evidence on return-to-sport rates and the strength of associations between different psychological factors and returning to sport. In addition, the major concerns that injured athletes have about returning to sport, based on systematic reviews, will be discussed.

Top Strategies for Helping Athletes to Feel Confident About Returning to Sport

2. Top Strategies for Helping Athletes to Feel Confident About Returning to Sport

Chapter 2 will give an overview of evidence-based interventions to support psychological readiness to return to sport, including when and how to implement them. It will also provide an introduction to shared decision-making, including what it is, the evidence to support using it, and the keys to making it work in practice.

How to Assess Psychological Readiness to Return to Sport and Apply the Results to Practice

3. How to Assess Psychological Readiness to Return to Sport and Apply the Results to Practice

This final chapter will review return-to-sport testing—why practitioners test and what the tests can tell (and not tell) the practitioner. An overview of generic and knee-specific tools for assessing psychological readiness to return to sport, including when and why the practitioner might choose each tool, will be provided.

Question and Answer Session

4. Question and Answer Session

In this chapter, questions that were submitted during the live webinar event are answered by Dr. Clare Ardern.