Your Body Is Still Yours

I want to go a little deeper on one of the studies I read this week because I think this is something a lot of us have lived without ever really putting a name to it.

The study looked at former college athletes and found that 68.6% did not have a specific healthcare management plan when they transitioned out of sport.

That number immediately made me think about overseas basketball because our situation can get weird even before retirement.

You finish a season in Europe and come home. Maybe you’re under contract for next year, maybe you’re not. Maybe your agent says three teams are interested. Either way, you have to stay ready.

So you train.

You lift. You run. You play pickup. You work out with guys. Maybe you’re doing two-a-days because you know if the call comes you might have a physical three days later.

But who is covering you while you’re doing all of that?

When you’re with a club, there is usually some kind of medical infrastructure around you. The quality varies wildly…and anybody who played overseas probably has at least one hilarious medical story…but there is somebody responsible for getting you back on the floor.

During that period between teams, you can still be putting professional level stress on your body without professional level healthcare around it.

Then retirement comes and the whole thing disappears permanently.

That is the part I think athlete transition programs miss. We spend a lot of time talking about employment, money, and identity, which we should. But you also spent most of your adult life beating the shit out of your body for a living.

Somebody needs to teach athletes how to take ownership of that history.

Get copies of your medical records. Know what surgeries and procedures you had. Know what was injected into you. Keep your imaging. Understand your insurance situation when you’re between contracts. Figure out who you’re going to see when there isn’t a team doctor anymore.

And maybe most importantly, understand that being between teams does not mean you stopped being an athlete. If you are training every day waiting for another contract, there is still risk there.

The study didn’t study overseas basketball specifically. That part is my interpretation from living this life. What the researchers did find was a real healthcare management gap when athletes transitioned away from organized sport.

I think we need to start closing that gap while guys are still playing.

Because eventually the trainer stops being downstairs.

Your body is still yours.

With OverseasX, you’ll never have to walk this journey alone.