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NEDA TOOLKIT for Coaches and Trainers Coaches’ stories Replace negative weight talk with fueling education, two-way communication Talking with Joshua D. Adam, Assistant Coach, Women’s Rowing, Washington State University Like long-distance running, rowing emphasizes athletes who are very tall, very lean and yet extremely powerful. Not surprisingly given these demands, eating disorders can become a serious problem among lightweight and open-weight rowers. “Lightweight women have to be very, very careful about how much food they take in, and whether they are taking in enough food,” says Joshua D. Adam, assistant women’s rowing coach at Indiana University. “They get extremely careful about food intake, almost always to a fault.” (Although women’s lightweight rowing is not an NCAA sport, many schools field varsity lightweight women’s rowing teams.) The nature of the sport puts enormous pressure on coaches to be vigilant to signs of eating issues on their teams and to promote healthy eating. Adam explains that while the calorie needs of rowers are enormous, many athletes don’t know how to fill those needs or how much food is enough. “Talking openly and candidly about fueling gives the athlete an opening to say, ‘Hey coach, I don’t think I’m getting enough food,’ or to feel comfortable saying ‘I eat three bowls of cereal a day, is that enough?’” says Adam. “Sometimes it just comes down to ignorance.” A rigorous week of training, for example, might include a 20-minute morning warm-up followed by 12 kilometers of high-intensity rowing, 10 minutes cool-down, then a 50-minute afternoon weightlifting session of mid-weight, high-repetition sets. “The caloric expenditure for a workout like this could go as high as 1,800 calories,” explains Adam. “Add that number to a person’s basal metabolic needs and you have a large demand for calories that some athletes just do not fulfill.” Emphasizing proper fueling to create a healthy, high- performing athlete can take the place of negative talk about weight. Comments such as, “Well, we might be moving faster if you weren’t so big,” can cause the athlete “to get stuck inside their own head,” and body image issues can take over the athlete’s thoughts, Adam warns. One athlete Adam worked with felt safe enough to bring up her eating problems in the context of the pressure of her first year at college. Adam arranged for her to see the athletic trainer, who brought in a nurse. “Most of the time, it’s the athletic trainer who is going to be having that conversation with the athlete” and then they will inform the coach, he notes. Blood values revealed that the athlete was experiencing kidney and liver failure due to her eating disorder. She was immediately benched and told that until her blood work improved, she would not be rowing. Adam, the athletic trainer, the nurse and the athlete’s therapist all kept in close contact and put together a treatment plan. “It was humbling from the point of view of the coach. I can’t fix this so I have to be open to learning,” recalls Adam. “So many times we as coaches are so controlling. We want to fix and take care of events. As coaches, we know we have to learn to stay competitive. And it helps to take on the aspect of learner: if I approach this to learn, I may keep one or two athletes I might have otherwise lost.” Another point Adam makes is that “if an athlete walks away from a very successful program and you’re painted as humane, that’s going to help you in recruiting. Kids are going to go back and tell their club and their old classmates, ‘Hey, this is a nurturing environment.’” Joshua Adam’s tips for preventing eating disorders among athletes • Strive to create a culture of trust on the team; open the lines of communication. • Educate athletes on the fueling demands of your sport; emphasize good nutrition. • Make clear a zero-tolerance policy for eating disorders. • Set up a system where athletes come in just to chat with you at the beginning of the season. • Approach the conversation from a caring standpoint. Page  | 38