This day was one of the worst of my career.

An athlete at the final stage post shoulder reconstruction.

Cleared all criteria to return to play
✅ Functional shoulder testing assessments (max strength, RFD etc.)
✅ On-field contact progressions
✅ Multiple weeks of full unrestricted training with the team

During an upper body strength session in the week leading up to his return to play.

𝗣𝗼𝗽 💥 𝗣𝗲𝗰 𝗿𝘂𝗽𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲

I'd made a big mistake.

I'd allowed him to attempt a load equaling a previous personal best.

• Previous week's progressions were sound
• It was only a 2kg increase on the load he lifted the previous week

Didn't matter.

𝗜𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗯𝗿𝗼𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗹'𝘀 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 🐪

I was so angry with myself.

His bench press didn't mean a thing. And I'd let his ego persuade me away from the ultimate goal of returning to play.

The lessons in all of this

• More is not always better
• Don't lose sight of what's truly important
• Sometimes we need to protect the athlete from themselves
• Don't underestimate the fatigue inducing nature of the unquantifiable training load a player experiences when they return to unrestricted training

𝗙𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝘄𝗶𝗳𝘁 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗿. 𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝘆 𝗶𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗻.

I did.

p.s. I'm a big believer in not letting things fester. Before I left the facility that day, I marched myself into the head coach's office and owned my mistake. Apologised, vowed to learn from it and not make the same mistake again.