A Year to Trust It Again: Matt’s Ankle Fracture Comeback
Video masterclass
Brick By Brick: The Story Behind the Book
Why Brick By Brick exists: the patterns behind chronic pain, the three pillars of recovery, and why rebuilding takes seven weeks instead of one sitting. Watch the full session below — then open the video page for notes, timestamps, and related guides.
The comeback that didn’t follow the timeline
Most recovery stories get told after they’re tidy. This one gets told in the middle, which makes it more useful. In the Brick By Brick episode, Matt talks through fracturing his ankle and the year that followed — watch on YouTube.
Context matters here. Matt teaches martial arts and tricking. He teaches people how to flip. Demonstrating isn’t optional in that job — it’s the job.
The doubt came first
“This ankle is never going to be the same.” That’s the thought, and it showed up early and kept coming back. It’s the same sentence we hear from ACL patients, from people with long-standing back pain, from anyone whose body stopped doing something it used to do without thinking.
His own read on it: there are always going to be doubts, and you’d be a little bit foolish to believe you won’t have them. That’s completely normal. What matters is learning to live with them, and not letting them take over your life.
Why it took a year
Partly the injury. Partly the rushing. He kept demonstrating for students because he was trying to help them, which meant a lot of stress went through an ankle that wasn’t ready for it. Recovery stretched out as a result — the specific trap we cover in rushing rehab when other people depend on you.
What the back half looked like
- Back to flipping, but still taking precautions.
- Returning to the harder moves slowly and deliberately.
- Explicitly refusing to push everything at once and end up back at square one.
That’s not a dramatic protocol. It’s just patience applied for longer than feels reasonable.
The test
A snow trip, a year on. He went in nervous and named it as the test for the ankle. He spent the trip doing jumps, and it held up the whole time — to the point he couldn’t tell it had ever been injured.
That moment matters more than any strength number, because it’s the one where the doubt finally loses. The capacity had been there for a while. The trust arrived on the mountain.
If you’re in the long middle
- Stop comparing your timeline to the textbook one. Yours includes how much you’ve been loading it.
- Pick your test in advance — a specific thing, on a specific day, that will prove it.
- Work the confidence layer alongside the physical one. Start free with Brick By Brick.
Related reading
When other people depend on you · When recovery stalls at 80% · Ankle return-to-sport protocol
Book a physio assessment at Evolve Physio & Mastery — Cabramatta & South West Sydney.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does an ankle fracture take to recover from?
Bone union is usually measured in weeks, but full confidence in high-demand movement is a different timeline. In Matt’s case, from fracture to trusting the ankle on jumps and flips took about a year — partly because of how much load he kept putting through it early on.
Is it normal to doubt you’ll recover?
Yes. As Matt puts it, you’d be a bit foolish to believe you won’t have doubts. The work isn’t eliminating them — it’s learning to live with them and not letting them take over.
What made the difference?
Slowing down, taking precautions, and progressing back to the harder moves gradually rather than pushing hard and ending up back at square one.
Where is this in the video?
Matt tells the story from about 12:23 to 13:42 of the Brick By Brick episode (https://youtu.be/wfOG6tsP_uo).
