How Christian Coaches Can Prioritize Athletes' Mental Health
If you had to write out as many things that you could think causing your athletes stress right now, how many could you name?
I think I could name twenty—maybe thirty.
Did you come up with 640? That’s how many unique stressors athletes face today.
In a study conducted back in 2012 of just under 2,000 elite athletes, they identified “640 distinct stressors that could induce mental health symptoms and disorders.” This research took place before the term “mental health” became popularized in the sports world. Can you imagine how many stressors athletes could name today?
The Momentum of Mental Health and Coaches Responsibility
One of the big reasons why the area of mental health has gained so much momentum among athletes is that it gives them language for this hidden opponent they are up against. It gives them a category to identify that something is wrong, even if they can’t quite put their finger on it.
As the category of mental health continues to gain more momentum within the culture of sport, coaches need some semblance of competency with how to think about and speak this new language—because athletes seem to be more fluent in it with each passing day. Regarding an athlete’s mental health, coaches should aim to be proactive instead of reactive.
But you can’t create a game plan or training program for something you cannot see with your own eyes. It’s hard to get your head around the struggle when mental health challenges show up in so many different ways, unique to each person’ story. Mental health cannot be analyzed like game film. If we’re being honest, this makes things extremely challenging for a vocation built around training, gameplanning, and fixing what you can see with your two eyes.
I have a resource that may prove beneficial in the process of scouting this hidden opponent that our athletes are up against every day. I call it the “Total Athlete Check In.” You can take it, adapt it, rename it. Whatever you want. It’s not groundbreaking. And maybe you are already doing some version of it.
As a high school cross country coach, I use this (minus the spiritual question) every Monday with my runners. They each fill out an index card and stick it in the box. The whole process for them takes less than a minute. And even though it takes my wife and I significant time to go through each card, each one provides valuable insight to where they are really at in sport—and in life.
Here is how I would recommend using a feedback loop like this, the role of a coach regarding an athlete’s mental health and three reasons why I think the “check in” system is worth your time:
How to use the Total Athlete Check In
The check in is designed to help you and your staff track how each of your athletes is doing across four areas: physically, socially, mentally, and spiritually. If you coach at a school where faith is not a core value, you could just use the first three categories (Again, that’s what we do as coaches in a public school).
I would recommend having athletes fill this out once a week. Though some ADs have suggested a monthly rhythm is more realistic, I think weekly feedback is essential to knowing where your athletes are really at. Here are some thoughts with how this works practically:
I think you want this information after the weekend. I would try to collect it on Sunday night or Monday morning.
You could print the sheet out each week and have them turn in the sheet of paper. I think a text or email is also sufficient for collecting the information. A text from your athletes would look something like this:
Or this:
That will take the athlete less than a minute, but it will give you helpful feedback on how they are really doing.
Then, you or one of your coaches puts those answers into the same spreadsheet each week.
You, or someone on your staff, would see how their latest entry stacks up against past entries.
If there is a deviation or a negative trend you notice, they may be in a mental health crisis or trending towards one.
The Role of a Coach: What do I do with this information?
What do you do with all of this? No, you shouldn’t just ignore it. But you are probably not a trained counselor either. Ignoring or overstepping are two traps a coach can easily fall into regarding an athlete’s mental health.
Coaches must find middle ground between these two extremes.
It’s best to see your role as being a bridge that helps connect an athlete in need to someone who can serve them best in that space.
Your job is to provide a feedback rich culture (which this system allows you to do), potentially adjust some of your coaching methods based on the feedback you are receiving and, if necessary, help connect your athletes to trained professionals who can walk alongside them.
Why this is worth your time
It establishes a baseline
Before you can discern how serious a potential mental health crisis is, you need to first establish a baseline for each athlete. By using this over the course of a season (or off season), you should see some consistency with how each athlete rates themselves across these four categories. This becomes your baseline for each athlete.
So, when Linsey comes to you and says she is have some struggles with mental health, you can do one of two things:
If Linsey, who usually rates high in one of the areas, rates something lower that week, you are alerted that something is going on. When she comes to you, without pointing that out to her, you at least have some evidence that something shifted in her life that has caused a significant amount of mental stress.
If Linsey’s ratings show no deviation from the norm, you can ask for more clarity by saying something like this: “Thanks for sharing that with me and I’m sorry that you're struggling with this. Can you tell me a little more about this? Looking at your check in sheet, you seem to be doing the same physically, mentally, socially, and spiritually as you have been all semester. Did something recently change that I need to know about? This is not an “I gotcha!” moment, rather, the check in sheet becomes your ticket to digging in a little further to create space for her to share.
It allows you better serve them
Knowing how they are doing across more categories than just the physical allows you to coach them better. As former Lions coach Jim Caldwell once said, “The more you know about them, the better you can serve them. I've always believed coaching is a service business."
Athletes are not robots. Things that happen in life affect them and their ability to compete.
Parents divorce. Sexual abuse. Failing grades (or grades not up to their or their parents standards). Recent break up. Many cannot flip the switch and compartmentalize the rest of their life when they step onto the playing/practice field. They bring that weight with them.
I would encourage you, coach, to not view this reality as a threat to you or your team, but see it as an opportunity.
For example, imagine Linsey ranks her physical fitness really low for a few weeks. She may benefit from some encouragement from your coaching staff that she is more fit than she thinks. Equipped with this information about her, you can use it as an opportunity. Perhaps you could pull her aside after a good practice and simply say: “Hey, I know from your check in that you may not be feeling the best physically, but I just want you to know that from what I am seeing in practice, you are right where you need to be. Even if it’s a grind, I want you to know that I am seeing progress and resiliency as you push through this.”
It builds trust
The check in, utilized in the right way, can help you build trust with your athletes. What does “the right way” mean? Information is power. The more you know about someone, the more you can weaponize that information against them. Your athletes need to know that you are using this (or something like this) because you care about them holistically, not just for what they bring to the field. It allows you to be proactive in your care for them. Again, we can use Linsey as an example.
If you notice that Linsey rates an area significantly lower one week than her “norm,” you may consider following up with her to give her space to let you in on what she is struggling with. If you know she isn’t comfortable sharing with you, you can say something like: “I can tell from your check in this week that you have something going on. Do you have someone in your life that you can talk about this with? It doesn’t need to be me but it’s important that you have the support you need. I can help you find that support if you don’t have it.” (Again, you are the bridge).
When something is wrong, the win is when the athlete verbalizes what’s wrong and brings it into the light.
Coach, what systems or norms do you have in place to help your athletes feel comfortable coming to you when something feels…off? If your athletes can trust that you care for them holistically, you can trust they will share with you honestly.
