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