Right after the CL semifinal, I jumped in on The Highbury Squad Youtube show to chat about what we had just witnessed. The show is hosted by my friend Sophie Nicolaou and usually features ex-Arsenal legend Super Kevin Campbell. However, for women’s matches and such, I can be often found there talking my face off.
Monday though we had Rachel Newborough come by as a special guest. She’s professional player who currently plays for Charlton in the Championship and is a massive Arsenal fan. She illuminated us with her wisdom, her kindness and empathy. To be fair she said many, many things that were interesting and even though it’s hard to pick ONE thing that stood out. BTW you can listen to the episode here .
She spoke about ACL injuries and said how that fear of “when” and not “if” is creeping in and how players talk about it often. That really stood out in my mind and as much as I have thought about that in the past, hearing it directly from a professional player is pretty overwhelming in itself, so imagine how they feel!
I can’t even begin to imagine what it would be like to have this constant fear of an injury and how it affects your livelihood, your sense of belonging and your identity. And if I try to related to anything similar in my life as a drummer I don’t exactly know where to start. I guess maaaaaaaybe potentially dealing with tendinitis? I think that might be closest thing and that is laughable in comparison.
Now, I’m not downplaying that injury/condition but to me the only thing comparable would be if ACL injuries were commonplace among drummers and percussionists but they aren’t so its very difficult to relate, other than via empathy.
There is absolutely NO WAY FOR ME TO ACTUALLY COMPARE IT, but one of the ways I can attempt to compare the ACL situation in music world, would be in the intention/commitment dimension. A pillar of drumming is having good sound and hitting the drums in a precise, consistent and confident way. The more commitment and confidence you hit the drum with, the better it usually sounds. Whenever we are lacking commitment and confidence, when self doubt and insecurities creep in, we don’t hit the drums well and we sound weak and unsure. However, you can focus on the sound itself, hit the drums hard and you’ll SOUND like you’re confident and that you know what you’re doing, even if your mind isn’t in harmony with your body. This is one of the best parts of being a drummer. You can sort of bypass your doubts and fears.
I’m not quite sure how players do this. To be clear, what I’m trying to express is quite literally that I am not sure how they do it, I’m NOT saying that I don’t think they are capable. I just don’t know and I’m very interested in how it compares or if it even compares at all. My guess is that because the stakes are so much higher in sport, the potential fear of injury is magnified exponentially and that is something that is very scary.
d ❤
Listen to THAT ARSENAL WOMEN PODCAST on:
A very subjective look into AWFC 
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