SOLUTION FRAMEWORK FOR COACH-LED INTEGRATION OF WHOLE HEALTH PRACTICES
Consider your “why”: Why do you coach youth and adolescent athletes? To rack up wins? To prepare them for their next level of competition? Because you care about the physical, tactical, and technical development? Or because you care about the lifelong, physical, mental, and social development of the whole person? Fortunately, regardless of your reasons, the same whole health behaviors and recommendations apply for all of those reasons, but whenever embarking on a novel approach for yourself, your athletes, or your environment, times of stress will direct you back to your own “why.” Remember what is important to you about coaching youth and adolescent athletes.
Start somewhere: Ideally, start with a proven framework that integrates social and emotional (or psychological skills) into youth sport practices. Aspen Institute’s Social and Emotional Learning framework may be the simplest place to start. A Coach’s Toolkit is available online, its simple checklist offers an easy way to begin to adopt and to introduce a new approach, and this framework has demonstrated an increase in player retention, creating coaches more time to keep kids in sport and to integrate new elements of their approach over time. Aspen Institute’s social and emotional learning framework promotes family engagement, which makes your step easier.
Assess your players’ needs and interests: Are they competitive and performance driven? Or are they recreational participants who are unlikely to be meeting daily physical activity recommendations? It might make sense to introduce sleep hygiene into your curriculum: after each session or game, you can mention the recommended amount of sleep for your team’s age group. Share relevant information and studies that demonstrate performance, accuracy, speed, or reaction time improvements. Share information with parents: remember, parents probably appreciate your support to encourage players to get to bed at appropriate hours. Be consistent and patient: remember, behavior change is often slow and rarely perfectly linear. Eventually, you may be able to introduce screen behavior tips if players engage with conversations about sleep: for example, suggesting to players that they keep screens out of the bedroom will not only improve sleep; it may also improve overall screen and social media use patterns.
Alternatively, if you know that your players are inactive when they are not with you, and you may be able to propose opportunities for increased physical activity. Depending on your environment, you may be able to recommend unstructured play activities, or help coordinate times for players to connect at a park or playground. Opportunities like this will build team cohesion and promote social wellness. If you are in a fitness field (or have access to someone who is), perhaps you can recommend specific training games or activities or recommend fitness apps aimed at their age group. Whatever you recommend, give players the reasons that you make these suggestions. Reasons may vary by age and level of competition, but remember to articulate your care and concern for their health and happiness. Team cohesion and social wellness will ultimately improve both physical and mental outcomes.
Consider your own skills and knowledge and network: Do you have experience or qualifications related to physical activity? Nutrition? Do you have friends, colleagues, or connections with a dietician, physical educator, or wellness professional? Consider introducing a whole health practice that is familiar to you or a practice for which you have support. As you layer in whole health education and practices, start with what your team needs and what you are comfortable coaching. Be patient and consistent; integrate these practices into your environment whenever possible. An easy way to both build family support and increase whole food intake is to ask parents to sign up to bring fruit to games: as players make positive associations with fruits (new or familiar to them), they will become more likely to consider fruit for themselves. Additionally, if you are not qualified or comfortable making nutrition recommendations, you can direct players and families to authoritative sources online. Here is one video about sports nutrition for youth soccer athletes: https://tinyurl.com/YvetteSoccerNutrition
Introduce each health behavior as it becomes relevant and appropriate in your environment. Some teams have team apps; if you do, use that to share research and recommendations with players and families. Using a team app might provide an opportunity to explain to players which screen use is beneficial and contrast that with screen use that can be harmful. When you discuss physical activity, perhaps you recommend that players use that time to disconnect. Alternatively, the players you coach might be more likely to engage in physical activity together if they create a video of themselves playing or learning new skills. Evidence suggests that not all screen time is bad for youth and adolescents; for example, some infrequent users of social media may actually use that screen time in ways that actually increase physical activity. The best thing you can do for your players is to promote whole health behaviors that promote holistic health.
Model and discuss the health behaviors that you want players to develop. Let players see you bring a healthy snack to the court or field. Avoid being on your phone when socializing and interacting with parents. Mention your recent run or workout or game. If you feel more energetic after a good night’s sleep, share that experience with your team.
Remember that behavior change is often gradual and infrequently linear; patience is important. Express empathy, and be honest about your own challenges, barriers, and setbacks. Being authentic and vulnerable about your own journey and progress toward optimal health allows players and their families to do the same. For example, you might inform players on multiple occasions that research shows that athletes had better reaction times and sprint speeds when consistently dedicated 10 hours a night to being in bed. You might also make a point of sharing an anecdote about your own experience your own family that expresses empathy for the demands on your players’ time; for example, you might share, “I totally understand that you all have incredible demands on your time, and maybe the night before a game might feel like a time to stay up and watch Spiderman until midnight. If you get to bed early, instead, though, you’ll probably have a much better game, feel better the next day, and maybe you can watch the movie with your friends in the afternoon.” Or, “I have been in your shoes; I have been trying to eat more fruits and vegetables for the past 10 years! I know it’s not easy, and I know that the snack shack sells chips and candy bars, but if you toss an apple and an orange in your bag before you come to the field, you’ll set yourself up for more success and better energy throughout the day.”