Free Paralyzed by Jeff Rud Page A

you’re going through, back in my freshman year at ucla. For a couple of weeks, I thought I might even quit football. But I didn’t.”
    â€œWhat happened?” I asked. “When you were a freshman, I mean?”
    â€œNothing happened to me,” Dr. MacIntyre said. “It happened to another freshman on our team. He got hit hard in practice by somebody else and tore up his knee. I was right there to see it happen. He never played again. It kind of freaked me out for a while.”
    Dr. MacIntyre went on to explain that he’d had problems similar to what I’d experienced after that incident. He was shy of contact. He couldn’t bring himself to hit hard, even though he’d hit players thousandsof times before, and he was afraid of being tackled himself.
    â€œSo what did you do to get over that?” I asked.
    â€œI used a technique that one of my coaches suggested,” he said. “It’s called centering.”
    â€œWhat’s that?”
    â€œIt involves concentrating on something simple, typically something like deep breathing,” Dr. MacIntyre said. “You concentrate on that, and it helps keeps your mind from wandering and dwelling on negative outcomes. Takes a bit of practice, but it works.”
    It sounded pretty simple. Too simple, in fact. How could breathing deeply help me tackle better and forget Nate Brown’s injury?
    â€œReggie, I’m going to give you some exercises to try,” Dr. MacIntyre said. “These are mental exercises tied to a simple physical component. I want you to breathe in deeply, hold the breath for a count of fiveand then exhale slowly. Try to focus solely on that task and nothing else.”
    I did what he said. It was easy. This guy might be a psychologist, but this wasn’t exactly rocket science.
    â€œNow, do me a favor,” Dr. MacIntyre said. “Today at practice, whenever you’re lining up for a snap, do this same deep-breathing exercise. Just wipe everything else out of your mind. And practice it at home too. The more you do it, the more effective it becomes.”
    â€œOkay, I’ll try it,” I said. “Is that what you did to get over your problem?”
    Dr. MacIntyre nodded. “That’s right,” he said. “It worked so well for me, I decided to do it for a living.”
    We both laughed. I felt a lot better about this second visit than I had my first. I was still skeptical about whether this “centering” thing was actually going to work, but I was willing to trust Dr. MacIntyre. After all, he had been an ncaa football star. Wait until I told the guys on the team about this.
    As I left the clinic, I had already decided to go visit Nate again. I knew I ran the risk of seeing his mother, but it was worth it. The last visit had done both him and me a lot of good.
    This time, I went directly to the fifth floor head nurse’s station. The nurse there gave me a warm smile. “He’s in rehab today,” she said. “His progress over the last forty-eight hours has really been amazing.”
    The nurse led me down to a room at the far end of the hall. The inside resembled a dance studio, with rows of bars and mirrors on the walls. Inside, patients were being led slowly through walking exercises, using the bars for support.
    I spotted Nate at the far end. He was standing up, resting one arm on the bar and shuffling ahead. It was so good to see him on his feet.
    â€œHey, dude,” I said. “Nice to see you up and around.”
    Nate grinned. I could tell by the sweaton his brow that he was working hard. “It’s a bit weird, having to do this so slowly. But if feels great to be doing anything.”
    Nate told me that the swelling on his spine had decreased dramatically. He said he had bugged the doctors to let him try to walk. Finally, this morning, they had agreed.
    â€œI told them I wanted to be at football practice by Thursday,” he