{"id":15150,"date":"2023-01-09T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-09T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/?post_type=article&p=15150"},"modified":"2025-12-15T05:11:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:11:22","slug":"how-can-you-harness-athletes-appetite-for-mental-health-support","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/how-can-you-harness-athletes-appetite-for-mental-health-support\/","title":{"rendered":"How Can you Harness Athletes\u2019 Appetite for Mental Health Support?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n 9 Jan 2023 <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>Articles<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

How Can you Harness Athletes\u2019 Appetite for Mental Health Support?<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n \n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Category<\/div>\n Human Performance<\/a> <\/div>\n
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https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/how-can-you-harness-athletes-appetite-for-mental-health-support\/<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n\n\n\n\n
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A Human Performance article brought to you by our Main Partners<\/p>\n

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By John Portch<\/h6>\n
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    It is your choice as staff, coaches, mentors and leaders to support the entire person.<\/h6>\n<\/li>\n
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    Being able to self-report is pivotal \u2013 make sure that players feel safe and that it\u2019s OK to not be OK.<\/h6>\n<\/li>\n
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    What brings an athlete joy? Encourage athletes to look outside of their discipline whenever possible.<\/h6>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    There is an appetite for self-reporting<\/strong><\/p>\n

    When Tish Guerin served as the Carolina Panthers\u2019 Director of Player Wellness between 2018 and 2020 she was one of the first in the NFL. Yet far from finding herself at a loose end, she was able to hit the ground running. \u201cOne of the things I found interesting was the immediate self-reporting,\u201d she told an audience at the 2020 Leaders Sport Performance Summit in Charlotte. \u201cThat was how I really started to measure the psychological wellbeing of our players.\u201d Guerin was also proactive in her approach. \u201cI had to make sure I was at the forefront, that they knew they could come to me and get that confidential interaction with me.\u201d It worked. \u201cPlayers came to me pretty much within my first week and they weren\u2019t necessarily talking about the weather or their favourite restaurants \u2013 they were talking about real life issues that they were dealing with and wanted to combat those.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Work out their<\/em> normal<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Right from the moment then-Head Coach Ron Rivera invited Guerin to address his players in the locker room, Guerin was visible around the practice facility come hail, rain or shine and joined the players at mealtimes. They knew they could check in at any stage and it enabled her to establish \u201cbehavioural baselines\u201d, as she puts it, for each player, which is no mean feat on a roster of 53 athletes. \u201cI know what their normal is,\u201d she said. \u201cI know what it looks like when a player has a good mindset and is emotionally balanced because I know what their levels are and I see them every day. That\u2019s the benefit of being able to interact with them day in and day out.<\/p>\n

    \u201cIt\u2019s about being able to recognise if, during a play, they struggled and I know it\u2019s not something they struggled with typically. That\u2019s where I\u2019m able to go in and say, \u2018hey, I noticed you hesitated before you made that block and in this play that\u2019s not normally something you would do. Why is that?\u2019 That\u2019s addressing that potential performance anxiety and working through it.\u201d<\/p>\n

    They may best respond to someone else<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \u201cOne of the things that\u2019s been important for me is acknowledging that players may not respond to me,\u201d she said. \u201cThat meant I couldn\u2019t come in and have an ego about that. When Coach Rivera brought me in, he let me get up in front of the team and give my spiel and I let them know right off: \u2018if you prefer a male, that\u2019s perfectly fine. I\u2019m happy to refer you to wherever you\u2019ll get the best treatment from\u2019. You have to be aware of who you are serving, who those athletes are, who they might best respond to.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Life beyond sport<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Guerin explained the importance of providing players with coping skills, which are, \u201cjust those things you do to help you keep calm; that give you balance. You want to encourage activities that give the person a sense of peace, balance and a way to relax.\u201d She also delved into tackling the ever-present threat of performance anxiety. \u201cYou want to change the thought process so that instead of a player thinking \u2018I\u2019m not going to make this block because this guy has two inches on me and about 30lbs\u2019 you think \u2018I\u2019m going to keep my feet planted on the ground, I\u2019m going to dig in all the way through and I\u2019m going to hold them off with everything I have in me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

    \u201cChanging how you look at things can be instrumental in helping to decrease performance anxiety,\u201d she continued. \u201cWe encourage our athletes to look outside of their discipline to something else that gives them joy. I don\u2019t care if it\u2019s a cooking class; we\u2019ve had a player who\u2019s learning to be a pilot; one guy was interested in being a glass blower. \u2018I don\u2019t know why but, hey, do your thing.\u2019<\/p>\n

    \u201cIt helps the creative process and it helps them to buy-in more to being on the football field because now they have some balance.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/div>\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n

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