{"id":89396,"date":"2025-08-17T11:28:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T11:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/89396\/"},"modified":"2025-08-17T11:28:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T11:28:08","slug":"sparks-star-cameron-brink-says-vision-boards-boosted-her-recovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/89396\/","title":{"rendered":"Sparks star Cameron Brink says vision boards boosted her recovery"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Each morning before Cameron Brink<\/a> pulls on her Sparks<\/a> jersey, she scans a taped-up collage in her closet. Olympic rings, a WNBA All-Star crest, snapshots with her fianc\u00e9 and a scatter of Etsy trinkets crowd the board.<\/p>\n

The canvas is a handmade constellation of who Brink is and who she longs to be. Between magazine clippings and scribbled affirmations, Brink sees both the grand arc and the small vows that tether her: to show up as a teammate, a daughter and a partner.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have a choice every day to have a good outlook or a bad outlook,\u201d said Brink, the Sparks\u2019 starting forward. \u201cI try to choose every day to be positive.\u201d<\/p>\n

That choice seemed to matter most when the future felt furthest away. The practice emerged in the thick of a 13-month recovery from a torn anterior cruciate ligament<\/a>. Brink \u2014 the Stanford star and Sparks No. 2 draft pick \u2014 was forced to measure life in the tiniest ticks of progress after injuring her left knee a month into the 2024 season.<\/p>\n

\"Sparks <\/p>\n

Sparks teammates Cameron Brink and Dearica Hamby clap hands as they pass each other on the court during a game against the Storm in Seattle on Aug. 1.<\/p>\n

(Soobum Im \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Sparks veteran Dearica Hamby recognized how rehab was grinding down the rookie. One afternoon, she invited Brink to her home, where the dining table was set with scissors, glue sticks, stacks of magazines and knickknacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been taught growing up that your mind is your biggest power,\u201d Brink said. \u201cSo I\u2019ve always been open to stuff like that. I heavily believe in manifesting what you want and powering a positive mindset.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamby had been building vision boards for years and believed Brink could use the same practice \u2014 both as a pastime and as a mechanism to combat the doubts that surfaced during her lengthy and often lonely rehab.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf she can visualize it, she can train her mind the opposite of her negative thoughts and feelings,\u201d Hamby said. \u201cWhen you see it, you can believe it. Your brain is constantly feeding itself. And if you have something in the back \u2014 those doubts \u2014 you need something to counter that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The board dearest to Brink wasn\u2019t crowded with stats or accolades. She crafted what she calls her \u201cwonderful life,\u201d layering in snapshots of her fianc\u00e9, Ben Felter, and framed by symbols of family and team.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re a product of your mind,\u201d Brink said. \u201cEverything in my life, I feel like I\u2019ve fought and been intentional about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fighting was what the year demanded. However inspiring the boards looked taped inside her closet, the reality was gradual and often merciless. <\/p>\n

From the night she was carried off the court last June to the ovation that greeted her return in July, Brink\u2019s progress unfolded in inches \u2014 from the day she could stand, to the day she could walk to the day she touched the hardwood again.<\/p>\n

\"Sparks <\/p>\n

Sparks forward Cameron Brink, left, and guard Rae Burrell, who are injured, shout and celebrate from the bench after their team scored against the Chicago Sky on June 29.<\/p>\n

(Jessie Alcheh \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been such a journey,\u201d Sparks coach Lynne Roberts<\/a> said. \u201cCam\u2019s mentality was just trying not to freak out. She was really focused on not being anxious about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brink came to practice with her game on a leash, her activity hemmed in by doctors\u2019 timelines. While teammates scrimmaged, she studied sets from the sidelines.<\/p>\n

Roberts praised her patient attitude as \u201cgreat,\u201d a skill Brink sharpened by the ritual of opening her closet and trusting the journey.<\/p>\n

Kim Hollingdale, the Sparks\u2019 psychotherapist, worked closely with Brink during her recovery. While bound by confidentiality, she spoke to how manifestation tools can anchor an athlete through the mental strain of long recovery.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing able to stay in touch with where we\u2019re ultimately trying to get to can help on those days when it\u2019s feeling crappy,\u201d Hollingdale said. \u201cVisualization helps us be like, \u2018OK, look, we\u2019re still heading to that vision. This is part of the journey.\u2019 It gives purpose, direction and a little hope when you\u2019re in the mud of recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n

That sense of purpose, she added, is about giving the brain something familiar to return to when progress stalls \u2014 a way for the mind to rehearse what the legs can\u2019t.<\/p>\n

For Brink, that meant keeping her game alive in pictures she ran through her head. Putbacks in the paint became reruns in her mind, and Hollingdale said the brain scarcely knows the difference: If it sees it vividly enough, the muscles prime themselves as if the movement truly happened.<\/p>\n

What mattered wasn\u2019t just mechanics. Tuning out noise became essential as Brink was cleared to return as a WNBA sophomore by calendar yet a rookie by experience. What could have been crushing pressure was dimmed by the vision boards \u2014 the \u201cmental rehearsal,\u201d as Hollingdale labeled it.<\/p>\n

\"Sparks <\/p>\n

Sparks forward Cameron Brink shoots a three-pointer against the Connecticut Sun on Aug. 7.<\/p>\n

(Luke Hales \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t want to focus on stat lines or accolades coming back from injury,\u201d Brink said. \u201cI learned the importance of enjoying being out there, controlling what I can control, always having a good attitude \u2014 that\u2019s what I reframed my mindset to be about.\u201d<\/p>\n

During Brink\u2019s return against the Las Vegas Aces on July 29, she snared an offensive rebound and splashed a three-pointer within the first minute. And since, she has posted 5.9 points and four rebounds an outing, headlined by a 14-point performance through 11 minutes against Seattle.<\/p>\n

Hollingdale tabbed Brink\u2019s return a rarity. She often prepares athletes to weather the gauntlet of \u201cfirsts\u201d \u2014 the first shot that clangs, the first whistle, the first crowd cheer \u2014 without expecting much beyond survival.<\/p>\n

But upon Brink\u2019s return, those firsts weren\u2019t looming unknowns. They were rehearsed memories.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is a testament to her being able to manage herself, her emotions and her anxiety and all the stress and pressure,\u201d Hollingdale said. \u201cTo come out and make a meaningful difference to your team straight away speaks to the ability to stay locked in and cut out the noise.\u201d<\/p>\n

By refusing to sprint through recovery, Hamby said Brink insulated herself from the pressure that shadows young stars. The vision boards, Hamby added, became a tangible expression of Brink\u2019s decision to trust herself.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s done it differently,\u201d Hamby said. \u201cFor her, it\u2019s more of a mental thing than a physical thing. She took her time, not listening to people tell her she should have been back sooner.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Brink shuts the closet door and heads to Crypto.com Arena for game day, she\u2019s already spent the morning tracing the steps of the night.<\/p>\n

On the next blank corner of her canvas?<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing an All-Star and going to the Olympics,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Each morning before Cameron Brink pulls on her Sparks jersey, she scans a taped-up collage in her closet.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89397,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[5041,61275,275,61276,24868,40923,61274,61279,54919,61277,12515,683,12078,61278,99,61273,434],"class_list":["post-89396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-cameron-brink","tag-closet","tag-day","tag-first-minute","tag-hamby","tag-journey","tag-kim-hollingdale","tag-magazine-clipping","tag-mind","tag-pressure","tag-progress","tag-recovery","tag-return","tag-sparks-jersey","tag-sports","tag-vision-board","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}