Bodycheck Kathi Kuypers: "Crash, black in the eyes, a bit wobbly - back on the bike"
Kathi grew up in Bruckmühl in the foothills of the Alps in Upper Bavaria and now lives in Bad Aibling. She is a permanent fixture at major freestyle mountain bike events such as 26 Trix, Swatch Rocket Air, Audi Nines and Crankworx Slopestyle. As one of the pioneers of slopestyle, she has had a significant influence on the scene, also internationally. When she's not working on new tricks, she's exploring the mountains, always on the lookout for the next adventure. Here she tells us what she has learnt about herself, her body and all the injuries.
1. Head: "An Indian knows no pain"
I can't remember exactly how many concussions I've had in the meantime. At some point you stop counting - or you're just not that good at it any more. In the past, it didn't matter: crash, briefly black, a bit wobbly - knock off the helmet, back on the bike. "An Indian knows no pain", they said. And I believed it.
It wasn't until I studied osteopathy that I learnt that this is not the wisest way to deal with my own body. Today, I can feel much more precisely what my head is telling me, what my muscles are signalling and which old injuries are resurfacing. In the past, my body was just a tool to ride faster, harder and further.
I studied osteopathy to make the sport safer and make the next generation more aware of their bodies. I feel like I need to do a bit of educational work - which I would have liked myself.
A fall on the head is more than just a brief black eye: The brain and skull take a beating. Rotational and shearing forces in particular can disorganise the nerve cells, and the entire cranial system - skull, meninges and cerebrospinal fluid flow - feels tense. In short: your head is under stress.
This is where craniosacral therapy comes into play. Using gentle techniques, it attempts to feel and balance these tensions. Fascia, blood flow and cerebrospinal fluid are harmonised again, the nervous system is calmed - and the body can repair itself better.
Important: This does not replace a visit to the doctor! Acute concussions require diagnosis and observation. Afterwards, however, therapy can help to alleviate persistent headaches, dizziness or sleep problems.
2nd neck: "...sometimes even the tongue feels funny"
An over-twisted backflip - and suddenly everything is different: first on my bum, then on my back, then the back of my head. My neck took a real battering. Result: two ligaments between the atlas and dens were overstretched and torn (1st and 2nd cervical vertebrae) and are now completely scarred. In short: I was initially unable to hold my head up at all, so a neck brace was necessary.
Only an upright MRI (700 euros out of my own pocket - thank you, health insurance) showed what was really going on. Since then, my neck has been playing its own game, sometimes even my tongue feels funny - probably because an important nerve (vagus) runs past there. In keeping with this, I got a tattoo on the back of my neck: "No Drama". You can't control everything, you have to let go, trust your body - and sometimes just get on with it.
3. knee right and left: "Zack, boom, broken"
2013: I tore my first cruciate ligament (right) while trying to learn barspins. Should I have gone about it the right way? No - bang, boom, broken. New operation.
A few years later, my left knee: I overshot a jump and landed on the ground with my leg outstretched. The same thing happened to my second knee in 2017: cruciate ligament and meniscus torn - another operation. And another operation because the first one had gone wrong.
Four knee operations in total. It took two years for my left knee to regain confidence and feeling. In the meantime, riding an e-bike was my saviour - my receptors weren't playing ball, my head wanted to, my knee didn't.
4. right shoulder: "Autologous blood infusions - "doping from your own body", so to speak
Leogang, bike park - bam: full nose ahead. Result: torn right supraspinatus muscle. Normally surgery, but my doctor, Dr Bachmann, just said: "Forget it, we'll do it differently."
Autologous blood infusions - doping from your own body, so to speak: where muscle is missing, the body builds up replacement tissue. No surgery, no scalpel, just body power.
A few years later, the same game: the same muscle almost completely torn off again. Autohaemotherapy again - lucky me, no operation. So my shoulder is living on borrowed time, but it still works and I can get back on my bike.
5th rib on the left: "One wrong move and it could have been really dangerous"
The first run at Crankworx in Cairns went great - I wanted to go one better on the second. Then came the penultimate jump, headwind and bang: too short, landing down the nose manual, handlebars hit my ribcage. Result: two broken ribs, directly above the spleen. Lungs and spleen were lucky, but the ribs were dislocated. One wrong move and it could have been really dangerous.
6. wrist right: "The journey home? 26 hours mimimimi"
As if that wasn't enough, the scaphoid bone in his right hand was also affected. It only really became clear after six weeks. Luckily, no surgery was necessary, the blood supply was still there and the wrist healed without any problems. The journey home? 26 hours of mimimimi.
7. ankle joint left
While trying to learn to do a 360 on the airbag, I broke my left ankle: a trabecular fracture. The periosteum was still intact, but the inside of the bone was shattered. You can't see anything on the X-ray at first, but the outside of the ankle was so blue and swollen that there was no doubt.
8. nose
When I backflipped into the foampit, I turned too hard, wheel gone, knee straight into the nose. At the hospital, they straightened my nose with two sticks.
