NEDA TOOLKIT for Coaches and Trainers
No one is blaming your sport!
Talking with Keith Jefferson, Head Rowing Coach, Seattle Pacific University
For Keith Jefferson, it was important to come to grips
with the criticism his sport has faced for its weight
restrictions. “The idea that gymnastics is just evil, or
that lightweight rowing should not be allowed, I didn’t
buy that,” says Jefferson, head rowing coach at Seattle
Pacific University. A coach for 22 years, he has seen
the evolution of awareness about eating disorders over
time. In the early days of eating disorders prevention
activity, it was not always made clear to coaches that
the risks found in the sport environment were the
problem, not the sport itself.
“When I learned that this is an actual disorder,” he says,
“it was a relief to know that my sport in and of itself
was not evil.” He learned that anorexia, bulimia, binge
eating and other types of eating disorders are actual
mental disorders not caused by his sport.
“It’s important for coaches to know that right off the
bat because you’re not going to be highly motivated
to solve a problem when somebody tells you your
sport is wrong and bad. When you start from the
proper posture, you can bore down to what the issues
really are,” Jefferson says. Through his university’s
eating disorders awareness events, he realized that
the problem was bigger than just sport. “There’s an
epidemic going on in our dorms,” he notes, and not
just among athletes concerned about meeting weight
restrictions. Jefferson has also learned from experience that
disordered eating and eating disorders don’t just
materialize when an athlete joins his team. In every
case he’s seen among athletes, he says, there were
other factors that predisposed an athlete to developing
an eating disorder that “eventually revealed itself ” in
the team setting.
you see it for the first time on a team, the coach’s first
reaction is often one of fear: You’re responsible for
these athletes, and when you spend enough time with
them, you love them.”
Jefferson likens the discovery that an athlete on
his team is struggling with an eating disorder to
experiences he has had dealing with a difficult athlete
whom he later learned suffered from ADHD (attention-
deficit/hyperactivity disorder). “When I found that out,
I was suddenly relieved, I could understand why he or
she was giving me these weird behaviors. Instead of
getting mad, I could put it into context.”
Keith Jefferson’s tips for dealing with a
weight-based sport
• •
• Be clear with athletes that in a sport like rowing
that is a performance sport, not a skill sport, you
might be able to hide an eating disorder for a short
while, but the performance degradation that will
result from poor nutrition and fueling habits will
eventually make disorders apparent. If the treating
doctor advises it, the eating-disordered athlete
should be relegated to the bench as the athlete,
coach and the treatment team work together to
meet treatment goals.
Make sure your team captains are well-informed
about the dangers of eating disorders, are in
agreement with you that there is no place on the
team for such disorders, and that they trust you
and are trusted by their teammates. Have them
monitor team members who you think may be at
risk. Focus on performance from a health and nutrition
perspective rather than from a weight perspective.
“Once you have the context” of eating disorders right,
Jefferson notes, “you can deal with the problem at
its basis rather than trying to fiddle around with the
symptoms. That was helpful for me. It allowed me to
get over the fear of eating disorders, because when
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