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