NEDA TOOLKIT for Coaches and Trainers
How to approach an athlete on your team
whose eating behaviors are disrupting the
team • Arrange a meeting with the athlete and let her or
him know your concern. Talk about behaviors and
performance rather than the athlete’s weight and
eating habits. Example: “I’ve noticed that you don’t
have as much energy and your performances aren’t
what they used to be. You are a valuable member
of this team and I’m concerned.” Refer her/him
to health services for an assessment. (For more
on this topic, see “Sample conversation with an
athlete you are concerned about” in this toolkit.)
• Communicate directly with their health providers.
Sometimes athletes will not be truthful about
following through on appointments, in hopes that
they can maintain both their eating disorder and a
spot on the team. Follow up to make sure they are
complying with your recommendations.
• Treat the eating disorder as you would an injury on
the team, for example a fractured rib or a torn ACL
(anterior cruciate ligament), instead of viewing it
as an emotional issue. Explain to the athlete that
you cannot let her or him practice unless she/he is
healthy. • Come up with clear boundaries about athletic
participation and make being in good standing
with team dietitians or doctors a prerequisite for
practicing and competing with the team. (For more
on broaching the subject of an eating disorder
with an athlete, see “Tips on how to positively
intervene” in this toolkit.)
Captains and communication
• If eating concerns are present on your team it can
be helpful to create a team policy or a plan around
it at the beginning of the year or season. Try to
involve captains, who are often the first people
with whom team members will report or discuss a
concern. A team policy might look like this:
Anyone concerned about a teammate should
let the captain know about it.
The captain will then either talk to the
athlete or see if anyone close to her/him has
done so.
If the athlete of concern is approached and
denies a problem or refuses to seek help, the
captain can then approach the coach with
her/his concern.
The coach addresses the problem from
there. There are many variations on this but if your plan is
created in collaboration with the team at the beginning
of the season and each team member agrees to it, it will
be much more powerful when you need to enforce it.
Notes on recovery
For many athletes, recovering from an eating disorder
is both difficult and scary, in part because the athlete’s
weight, shape and physicality are often closely tied to
his or her identity. The idea of having to give up control
of training and weight can be terrifying. Recovery
also involves addressing underlying feelings, fears and
insecurities that the eating disorder served to distance
them from. Eating-disordered athletes may find the
recovery experience overwhelming at first. For all
these reasons, it is important to be sympathetic, and
to connect at-risk athletes to services and support
systems that will help them recover. It is also important
to keep them connected to their teammates. Very often
their team is one of their primary support systems.
Even if an athlete is not competing, it is a good idea to
involve her or him in the day-to-day life of the team as
much as possible.
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