In the past two decades, interest in the connections between psychology and sports injuries has increased. Consequently, there is a newfound need for sports intervention programs directed toward improving the injured athlete’s emotional state, develop emotional responses to the injury, strengthen motivation and self-confidence, and optimize the effectiveness of rehabilitation tasks.

According (Wiese- Bjornstal, Morrey, Smith and Shaffer, 1998) the models centered on the athlete’s emotional reactions to an injury are: denial, anger, negotiation, depression caused by the feeling of loss (functional, athletic, status-related), acceptance, and reorganization. These responses are not generalizable to all athletes, since not everyone necessarily passes through such phases.

 Injuries are part of athletes’ lives. Sometimes, facing an injury exercises a direct effect on how to overcome it. From this perspective, resilience is an element that may play an essential role in dealing with injuries more optimistically. Although the term is an emergent one in this field, it can offer new ways of confronting the controversies and prejudices that an injury unleashes for athletes.

 To more fully understand resilience, we can approach it through different fields of study – yielding a range of meanings that sometimes cause confusions with other terms, as is the case in the athletic context. Authors like (Creswell, 2007; Serrato, 2010; Ureña, 2005) use the concept of “mental strength,” while (Godoy- Izquierdo and Godoy, 2002; Kobasa, 1977, 1979; Maddi, Kahn and Maddi, 1998) use the phrase “tough personality.” Both terms present characteristics that resemble resilience, but they also contain significant differences. Resilience may be understood as:

- Deriving from physics, “going back, returning from a jump, standing out, bouncing back” (Kotliarenco, Cáceres and Fontecilla, 1997)

- “A dynamic process of positive adaptation within a context of significant adversity” (Luthar, Cicchetti and Becker, 2000)

- “A person or a group’s capacity to continue projecting himself or itself into the future despite the experience of destabilizing events, difficult life conditions, and sometimes severe trauma” (Manciaux, 2003)

- “A process of overcoming the negative effects of exposure to risk, the successful confrontation of traumatic experiences, and the evaluation of negative trajectories associated with risk” (Fergus and Zimmerman, 2005)

- A dynamic, cyclical construct that helps us respond and recover, with balance and success, from adverse or risky situations. To grow positively amid turmoil, managing weaknesses that are supported by strengths during moments that are or make us vulnerable” (Olmo and Cepero, 2013)

Studies of resilience in the sports context are scant. Despite this scarcity, we can see how the concept has been gaining in importance over the past five years, highlighting some studies conducted in areas like football, cricket, track, and rhythmic gymnastics (Cevada, Silva, Sales de Mares, Meireles, Monteiro, Camaz, 2012; Fletcher, Sarkar, 2012; Gucciardi, Jackson, Coulter, Mallet 2011; Hosseini,,  Besharat 2010; Ruíz, Poveda, Rosado, Serpa, 2012; Serrano, Proenza, 2011; Yi, Smith, 2005)

Resilience can improve one’s means of dealing with sports injuries, as well as any other element characteristic of sports. We must stress that, given situations in which athletes endure adverse situations (injury), resilience can provide: optimism, support, humor, and other means of viewing risks and adversities.

 We intend to conduct a quantitative study in order to determine levels of resistance and the benefits it may yield in responding to a sports injury. In this text, we will present the design of the research we will undertake and explain the challenges we are facing. 

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