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The questions most often asked by athletes, coaches, trainers, and of course fans are, “What can be done to speed healing?” “What can reduce the re-injury rate—and are there permanent solutions?”

The eyes receive and give away information. They communicate in a language we have yet to define. We know they are windows to the soul, portals into the mind, and transmitters of emotions, intentions, and desires. Because we don’t always control their transmissions, we fear their exposure. Shouldn’t we start to train our visual communication skills?

Perseverate, verb: to repeat or prolong an action, thought, or utterance, long after the stimulus that prompted it has ceased. Perseveration is a repetitive focus on the same issue, a recycling through the mind of thoughts that won’t go away—memories that trap you in the pain or anger of some past event. How to break free? Here are some of the techniques we use after sports injuries get you down.

“Push through the pain.” “No pain, no gain,” we were told in our youth. These are outside voices – but listening to your body and knowing when to stop is the key to diminishing self-inflicted injuries and lengthening your sports career.

Almost all orthopaedic injuries are best repaired immediately. The old “wait and see” for most joint injuries has been proven to lead to scar tissue, loss of motion, and arthritis. With today’s accurate imaging, using repair and reconstructing techniques to restore normal anatomy beats living with deformities.

Spinning classes have grown to millions of sessions in the U.S. each year. The bikes, too, have progressed—from first recording our pedaling rates, then our heart rates, and finally our soul cycles. The group dynamic pushed us to perform harder than we would do alone in the gym. The hot instructors drew us in. The fad became a craze.

What percentage of your day do you actively think about what could be? For most of us, it is a low percentage. But, what if we all spent serious time thinking about it and sharing our ideas?

Data everywhere, and nowhere to hide. In the bad old days, you got injured, and you didn’t tell anyone. You usually recovered. Lived to play another day. Until you couldn’t. Today, you get injured; you could be monitored, measured, uploaded and reported to everyone. You might not be allowed to play. You are “protected”, maybe even blacklisted. Which scenario is better?

If you want to be treated with a better than 75% chance of success—and if you value excellence as much as kindness—I suggest you demand that creativity be part of the doctor’s repertoire.

Downwind stand-up paddling is my new favorite sport. Here is why.

Sitting on cramped airplanes can debilitating. Here are my top ten remedies for surviving your flight:

“There are only so many moguls in any given knee,” said Warren Miller, the famous ski videographer. I use his observation for many patients who love skiing but have arthritic knees. Skiing is actually pretty kind to the knee joints as long as you don’t fall and if you don’t ski hard bumps all day long.

In high school and even earlier, serious athletes are continuing to train year-round in their single sport. The result? A loss in general fitness and an increased injuries. CrossFit’s training platform may be the antidote.

Stand Up Paddling (SUP) has rocketed to the top of the water sports world, with sales of new boards growing at more than 20% per year. SUP develops balance, coordination and power through the trunk, core and shoulder muscles as no other sport does, and with almost no injuries.

The incidence of such tears is about 61 per 100,000 people each year. Yet the repair/replacement ratio is well under 10% for repair and 0.01% for replacement. Why?

To cut, or not to cut? To repair, or to let heal? To rehab without fixing? To live with imperfect parts? Each of these questions is faced every day by surgeons and their patients. Here are a few decisions about incisions.

The orthobiologics field, which merges biological therapies with traditional orthopaedic healing and surgical techniques, is exploding. Why? Because in many circumstances, tissues can be induced to heal—or even re-grow—if the right environment is provided. Here is the latest.

Superstars crash. It seems like they crash regularly, but we just hear about the ones who do so spectacularly. Without any inside knowledge of Tiger Woods’ particular issues, here are a few lessons I believe we can all take away.

The International Society of Arthroscopy, Knee Surgery and Orthopaedic Sports Medicine (ISAKOS) met in Shanghai this June, highlighting the best of ACL surgery in China. Here are a few take-away lessons for us all.

Two true clichés: Great teams are made, not born. Championships are earned, not given. What we saw during the Warriors NBA championship run was poetry in motion. Here are the lessons I would share about how the games were played, and why they were won: