Lily’s Injury Comeback

Liliana Holmberg is a senior at Hudson High School in Wisconsin and has been training in Tenicity’s program since the beginning of this year. Prior to her High School tennis season, she injured her ankle which put her out of the game for several weeks. However, she recovered and made it to the State Tournament in both the singles and team event. Lily shares about her experience and key learnings below. 

Lily’s Key Learnings

Create a support team

For me, the heart of my team was my mom, Coach Harsh, and my PTs, Dan and Nate at Ethos Performance. Coach Harsh’s recommendation to  see a Physical Therapist (PT) focused on high-performance athletes made the biggest impact on my recovery. I  saw my PT starting the day after my injury – soaked in ice baths after they assessed my ankle and gave me an icing regimen for the first few days (ice bath every 2 hours in the day.) For the first week, I saw my PT daily, wore a boot all day, and slept with my leg elevated.

Develop a positive attitude 

I decided to focus on the recovery process and not on the sorrow of getting injured. Whilst doing my rehab, I also attended team practices and tournaments to cheer on my teammates. My uncle’s motto really hit home “I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it” [Charles Swindoll].  

Although it seemed difficult at the time, I found three things to be positive about: my ankle wasn’t broken, it was better to miss the beginning of my season vs the end, and I had a team of people that supported me every day.

Create a fitness plan during the recovery 

My PTs assessed me every few days to update my regimen. While I couldn’t move my ankle, my focus was on the upper body and overall strength training. After about 1.5 weeks, I used equipment with my PT that kept my ankle stationary but allowed me to do cardio in addition to strength training. After around 3 weeks, I was able to hit balls while staying stationary and was grateful for Coach Harsh’s guidance to gradually build my practice plans. Around week 5, I was able to begin moving more on the court. In hindsight, I would have included a strict diet to match my limited mobility in the fitness plan.

Don’t Rush your return

It’s important to listen to your body and to progress gradually to make sure that you are not risking re-injury. This process helped me to get back to playing at the #1 spot and to earn a spot at the State Tournament at the end of the season. At State, I was happy that I played better than I did the year before. Through the whole experience, I learned to work hard, reset my expectations, and to continue to focus. I’m now looking forward to training and preparing myself for college tennis. 

Thanks for reading!

Liliana Holmberg