Returning to full competitive training after her ankle injury required a patience Ivy hadn't fully anticipated needing — not just physical rehabilitation, but the slower, more deliberate process of trusting her own body again after months of careful limitation.
"Confidence takes longer to heal than tissue does," the team's athletic trainer told her, during one of her final clearance assessments. "You're physically ready to return to full training. But I want you to expect some hesitation in your footwork, some flinching during rapid direction changes, until your nervous system fully relearns that your ankle can actually handle the stress again."
She found the trainer's warning accurate almost immediately, her first full-intensity practice session back carrying a strange, unfamiliar tenta
