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NEDA TOOLKIT for Coaches and Trainers Tips on how to provide a healthy sport environment conducive to recovery Provide athletes and their families with accurate information on eating disorders, healthy weight, good nutrition (and the impact of bad nutrition) and sports performance. Information should include common myths about eating disorders and challenges to unhealthy practices but should not emphasize specific eating disorder symptoms. Such an emphasis can actually make athletes aware of pathogenic weight control methods that they might then try. Stay with the positives of good nutrition and health. • If you have access to a dietitian who specializes in treating eating disorders, ask her or him to speak to your athletes about healthy eating to maximize performance. For the eating-disordered athlete, a dietitian can provide a meal plan and nutritional counseling. • Make use of your school’s mental health services, if available. They can help by connecting your athlete with a therapist; assigning a specialist to talk to the team; informing you of the school’s policy on eating disorders, and aiding in handling athletes who refuse to seek treatment. • Make use of local health professionals with expertise in eating disorders and athletics who can help educate athletes. Consider posting a referral sourcebook listing centers where they can seek help; they may be more comfortable first addressing the issue on their own, outside of school. Keep this list available for you to use when discussing the need for evaluation and treatment with an athlete. A referral to a specific person you have recommended is more apt to be accepted. • Be aware of and banish negative messages your sport environment communicates about weight/ size/appearance and dieting to your athletes. This will create a healthier environment for your disordered eating athlete and aid in preventing relapse and future cases of disordered eating. • Emphasize the health risks of low weight, especially for female athletes with menstrual irregularities or those who have stopped having periods completely. Refer athletes for medical assistance in these cases. • Be especially vigilant if your sport is high-risk for the development of disordered eating (e.g., sports with weight classifications, aesthetic judging or endurance variables). Work especially hard to counter triggering messages. • Be aware of possible discomfort on the part of your female athletes regarding their uniforms. Some sport attire is revealing, either in terms of their form fitting nature or in amount of skin exposed. Such uniforms may increase body consciousness and body dissatisfaction, as well as facilitate unhealthy body comparisons. • Pay attention to your own comments and behaviors about size/shape, as well as those of team members, especially body comparisons between/ among athletes. Eliminate derogatory comments or behaviors about weight — no matter how subtle, light or “in good fun” they seem. Understand your role in promoting a positive self-image and self- esteem in your athletes. • Coaches should strive not to emphasize weight for the purpose of enhancing performance (e.g., by weighing, measuring body fat composition and encouraging dieting or extra workouts). Even the slightest comment, direct or indirect, made by an influential coach to an athlete suggesting that their weight is too high can motivate an athlete to engage in unhealthy dieting behaviors. Performance should not come at the expense of the athlete’s health. • In sports where weigh-ins are required, such as wrestling or crew, they should be done in an open and transparent manner, in a supportive environment where athletes are provided nutrition and eating disorders prevention education. Athletes should understand that engaging in eating disordered behavior will not be tolerated. • Discourage dieting, which is the primary precursor to disordered eating. Being stuck in a pattern of disordered eating can create mental and emotional turmoil. This can easily offset any potential performance enhancement that might be achieved through a reduction in body weight or fat. Page  | 32