Look After Your Coach

ATHLETES ARE THE FOCAL POINT OF OUR SPORT, WRITES JOHN SHEPHERD, BUT PLEASE SPARE A THOUGHT FOR THE HEALTH AND WELLBEING OF YOUR COACH

- John Shepherd

WE regularly talk in the pages of AW about the dangers of overtraining, of RED-S, of athlete anxiety and depression created through injury or poor performance.

The causal factors, the treatments, the recoveries and on-going problems are relatively well documented. However, when was the last time you thought or read something about the mental health or indeed general health of coaches?

As a fully paid-up member of the coaching fraternity (for many that should be unpaid member of the coaching fraternity) I hear numerous stories of coaches giving up so much to support “their” athletes – of lost income, lost family time and, well, lost life. Okay, coaches make that choice, but the lack of financial reward and the time required to do the job can take its toll.

An article in the Sydney Morning Herald recently was one of the first I read on coaches’ mental health in the mainstream. It tells the story of an Australian swim coach, Nick Pedrazzini, as the article leads: “For about 15 of Mick Pedrazzini’s 27 years as a swimming coach he would take a total of one week in holidays. There was great reward but a heavy price. A marriage was lost, and there was a spiral into depression.”

Pedrazzini adds: “You do it because you love it but it takes a toll on you. Maybe you don’t admit it, or may not recognise that.

“You’re trying to be committed like the athlete, or they don’t feel like you’re putting in the same work as them.”

Thank your coach