“Mental Health in Sport”

With the recent story of Simone Biles, this would be a great time to talk about Mental Health in Sports. The courageous  gymnast made a stand for so many suffering under the pressures of elite sport. I was a perfect example of this. In 1983 I suffered and was diagnosed with Depression, Anxiety, and a Nervous Breakdown. For years I thought I was a disappointment to my coaches, my family, Skate Canada and the entire country. What ends up happening is when we aren’t performing to our ability, we take on a huge amount of shame, and most of the time it’s “suck it up buttercup”, get out there.

For far too long we are trained to be strong, never show our feelings, and keep our emotions inside, so our competitors don’t use it against us. This is not the way we need to train our athletes. We need to give them the outlook that it’s okay to not feel good at times, and instead of looking down on it, we all need to be there as the support, encouragement, and a shoulder to lean on. The days of yelling and screaming at athletes, belittling them,  and telling them they are no good, needs to be over. Now…. There is a certain amount of intense coaching that needs to happen, but it can be done in a supportive and positive way. “You’re no good”, could be changed in words to…”we have much work to do but it will get better”. Positive, inspirational, and goal driven. Not defeating the athlete.

An athlete deals with so much in skating. Everything from pressure to perform well, to win, to look your best, to train the best. When you bring a positive attitude to coaching, the athlete will want to do well, and train hard. If the coach is screaming and using profanity, the athlete will not be motivated and start to run excuses and not train well.

I was the pioneer of opening the door to Mental Health issues in sports. I was the first athlete to come out and speak out about it. I remember that it was swept under the carpet, ignored and I was written off by many. Today, we are finally opening up about it. We are talking about it, and we are acting on it. Today I am a Certified Life/Executive Coach, and working with many athletes, it’s the same story. They are scared to open up to their coaches, as they don’t want to get into trouble, they are afraid to tell their parents because of all the time and money they have put into us in the sport, and we are most afraid of admitting to ourselves that we are suffering, because we have been told its a sign of weakness. I call ‘BULL’ on this, opening up shows strength and the desire to get better with as much support as possible. When we release our inner demons or fears, we release it and clear the path for balance, peace, success and true happiness.

So if you’re a coach, listen to your athlete. Be the shoulder and support they need. And, if your an athlete, never and I mean never be afraid to open up to your support group (family, coaches, peers, etc).

You never know, when you do this, great and amazing things happen in your life. Standing on the podium in Calgary, is the result of all this. You can all do it. Be open, honest, and reach out for help if you feel you need it. If anyone is interested in working with me for your athlete, I’m at [email protected].

“She was told to be invisible, She heard invincible”….. I live by these words.