Clean Sport is about Fairness and Integrity

Clean sport essentially means that athletes compete without the advantage of performance-enhancing drugs, but even more importantly, it’s about bringing integrity and fairness to sport. “We believe that athletes deserve the right to earn success by their own hard work, effort, and dedication to their sport,” says Royer.

USADA Exists to Protect Athletes

Anti-doping efforts, from education to testing, allow organizations like USADA to protect clean sport and athletes’ right to a fair playing field. “If we don’t police sport and hold participants accountable, it creates a culture where it’s very difficult to succeed by merit alone. Without anti-doping, sport could easily become a doping arms race where athletes of all ages feel like they need to use dangerous substances to stand a chance in competition.”

Anti-Doping is About Your Health, Too

Competing clean isn’t just about fairness, it’s about your own health and wellness. Royer notes that many banned substances can actually be dangerous for an athlete, especially when ingested during hard efforts. Certain painkillers, for example, can make you push beyond what your body can handle, which can result in career-ending injury.

Debunking the Old Excuses

You may have heard stories about people who were caught using banned substances in the past offering the excuse of “everyone else was doing it.” But in hindsight, many of those same athletes regret those decisions and wish they had made different choices. Here, Tyler Hamilton, a former professional cyclist, explores his decision to use PEDs, the physical and psychological effects, and why he would do things differently.

Understand the Cost of Doping

While it’s easy to see the impact of doping on the person who is eventually caught and sanctioned, it’s important to remember all the other athletes impacted by that person’s decision. Every time someone who dopes steals a moment on a podium, clean athletes lose the moment and the medal they earned and deserved.

“As recently as the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing, athletes were robbed of their moment. They were robbed of the recognition of the years of effort put in by themselves and their coaches, families, and communities,” says Royer. “They didn’t get a medal moment because doping robbed an entire world of a fair and just Olympic and Paralympic Games cycle.”

You Don’t Need Shortcuts

The clean sport mentality extends beyond doping: It’s about any shortcuts to success in sport. “Don’t take shortcuts, and that doesn’t just mean banned substances,” says Royer. “It means everything from not cheating in a game to lying about finishing your reps at practice. This is what ethical participation in sport means.”

Ultimately, Clean Sport is About Respect

At the end of the day, athletes deserve to believe that they are competing in a clean sport. The world also deserves to watch athletes succeed without wondering whether their story is too good to be true. We deserve to have champions we can trust.

“Clean sport is about respect for your competitors. It’s about respect for yourself. It’s about respect for sport,” says Royer. “We want athletes to respect their hard work and earn their success. We don’t want athletes who skirt the system to cheat and get a leg up in a way that damages the people involved in the sport as well as their own health.”

Don’t Be Afraid to Report Misconduct

If you suspect an athlete is doping, Royer says that it’s important to share that information with someone you can trust. It may be a coach, it may be your sport’s governing body, or you can even use USADA’s Play Clean Tip Center to send a completely anonymous tip. “When you report doping violations, you are standing up for a global sports system that is fair and just, and one that is worth participating in,” says Royer.

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Takeaway

Clean sport is about integrity and respect. It’s about authenticity and fairness. Even if you don’t know the ins and outs of anti-doping rules, you can start by standing up for integrity in sport and holding yourself and others accountable for competing fairly.

Here, Dr. Michele LaBotz, a TrueSport Expert and sports medicine physician, shares six simple goals to set around sleep, recovery, nutrition, and strength training that will improve your overall wellness and support your athletic goals.

1. Get Enough Sleep

Did you know that teenagers are actually supposed to get 8 to 10 hours of sleep every night for optimum health, not the 7 to 9 hours recommended for adults? And did you know that children 6-12 years old should get 9-12 hours of sleep each night? That’s right: You need more sleep. “More and more evidence is coming out on the importance of meeting these sleep recommendations for injury prevention, athletic performance, and overall mental wellness,” says LaBotz.

If you are currently getting less than these recommended amounts, LaBotz warns that you may be chronically sleep deprived. The trick with chronic sleep deprivation is that you do not actually feel tired. Although cutting back on sleep for a night or two may make you feel drowsy, going with less sleep over longer periods does not create that same feeling. You may feel well-rested, but your body is not. When you are chronically sleep deprived, your body sends false messages about how awake you feel.

The challenge for many young athletes is that between school, sport, family, and friends, it often seems there are not enough hours in the day to get everything done. However, for athletes looking to optimize performance and minimize injury, LaBotz emphasizes that making sleep a priority is key. If you are not consistently getting the recommended amount of sleep, pick a week (or two) where you are going to follow a sleep schedule based upon the clock, and not on how tired you feel. You may need to gradually build up your sleep time over a few days, but after experiencing the changes sufficient sleep can deliver, most athletes feel that it is time well spent!

2. Get Enough Recovery Time

If you’re on a travel team and a school team, you may accidentally fall into the “no recovery days ever” trap, says LaBotz. This isn’t good for your body, which means it’s also not good for your long-term development as an athlete. You should have at least one recovery day per week, even if it means skipping a practice to make that happen. This is important for maximizing your physical and mental performance and reducing your risk of injury.

Often, coaches aren’t aware of how much extra work you’re doing with the other teams you’re on, and if they did, they wouldn’t recommend training as much as you are. Talk to your coach or athletic trainer about what your current total training load looks like and find out if you should be skipping certain sessions in favor of time off or less intense active recovery.

3. Prioritize Strength Training

“For the vast majority of sports, strength training should be part of training,” says LaBotz. “It should be built into your training week rather than an addition to everything else you are already doing.”  If you are not currently involved in strength training, set a starting goal of doing strength work twice a week for 20 to 30 minutes.

If your coach hasn’t built it into your training plan already, talk to them about how you can best fit it in. You may also want to talk to an athletic trainer to help you build a routine that hits all the major muscle groups. Focus on technique and not just on how heavy the weights are! Remember, strength training should be part of your training for sport, and not just an “added on” activity.

4. Find a Recovery Protocol That Works

Some athletes love to foam roll their legs after a workout. Others prefer hopping in an ice-cold bath to soothe sore muscles. Some prefer doing an easy yoga flow. Find what works and feels good for you, and make time for it in your routine, says LaBotz. Set a goal of doing a few minutes of active recovery, particularly after a hard workout.

5. Improve Your Post-Workout Fueling

“For athletes who are training every day, it’s important to have a snack that’s rich in carbohydrates and includes a little bit of protein after practice,” says LaBotz. If you typically have dinner within 30 minutes of finishing practice, that’s usually plenty. But if it’s longer than that before you’re home and at the dinner table, you should have a snack on hand that you can eat when practice is over.

“Make sure you have something in your locker or something in your gym bag that you can eat or drink right after you’re done,” says LaBotz. This could be as simple as half of a sandwich, a carton of chocolate milk, a handful of trail mix, or some cheese and crackers. (Get more locker-friendly ideas here.)

6. Have a Life Outside of Sports

If you’re so busy playing sports that you never have time to see a movie with friends, or to participate in any other extracurriculars, it’s time to set a goal that actually takes you away from your sport. “You should have variety in your life,” says LaBotz. This variety protects your mental and physical wellness, as well as reduces the risk of burnout in sport.

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Takeaway

In addition to setting goals for your athletic performance this season, consider setting some that focus on overall wellness. Goals around sleep, recovery, strength, and nutrition will ultimately make it easier to achieve your athletic goals—and make you a stronger, healthier human in the process.

Here, board-certified family physician and TrueSport Expert Deborah Gilboa, MD, explains how to improve your own resilience and practice resilience as a team.

1. Resilience isn’t a static trait

There’s good news and bad news: Resilience—the ability to bounce back from something and adapt to change—isn’t something that you’re born with, or something that you naturally will or won’t have in every situation. It’s a moving target. “Resilience is something that goes up and down in different situations,” says Gilboa. “You may adapt to change really well overall, and then you get to practice one day and for some reason, every little thing is setting you off. This doesn’t mean you aren’t inherently a resilient person. It just means something is draining your resilience.”

2. Frame what’s happening around you

Resilience is built on how we perceive the world around us, which is our outlook. “Outlook directly impacts our resilience, because our outlook is the story we tell ourselves about what’s happening to us,” says Gilboa. “The first part of building resilience is understanding how we frame what we’re going through.” This doesn’t mean reframing absolutely everything in your life as opportunities or positive situations, but it does mean being able to understand your emotions, zoom in on what’s within your control, and look for opportunities whenever possible.

3. It’s OK to feel upset

Resilience and finding opportunities in tough times can often be associated with being an optimist or always being positive—sometimes to the point of toxic positivity. But Gilboa says that having resilience means first recognizing, acknowledging, and legitimizing your emotions, even the negative ones. “You don’t need to be relentlessly positive about everything in your life to be resilient,” she says. “First, acknowledge how you actually feel in a situation. There are benefits to saying to yourself, ‘I don’t like this. That was embarrassing, and I’m angry about that.’ It’s reasonable to feel that way and your emotions are legitimate.”

4. Manage your emotions

“When you ignore or repress your emotions, you cause your body and your brain harm,” says Gilboa. “Being able to acknowledge and then manage your emotions will make you stronger. If you try to repress that negative emotion rather than working through it, you’ll end up with a stream of negative self-talk, and it will be hard for you to consider a different narrative. Owning your emotion allows you to manage it and move through it.”

5. Understand what’s in your control

There are three things you can always control no matter what situation arises, says Gilboa. These three things are your attitude, behavior, and purpose. As students, it’s easy to feel like nothing is within your control. And that’s understandable because often, a lot of things really are outside of your control, so it’s easy to feel like nothing is within your control. “However, you are not what happens to you. You are judged by who you are in the face of what happens to you,” says Gilboa. “What you can control is your behavior in a situation, how your attitude appears to others, and what your purpose is in any given situation. Recognize the power of choosing behavior, attitude, and purpose at any moment.”

6. Your attitude is not your emotion

While it’s important to feel your emotions and acknowledge them, your attitude doesn’t necessarily have to reflect the emotions you may be feeling. “Your attitude is how you choose to show your emotions on the outside,” says Gilboa. “You use your face, your tone of voice, and your body language to define your attitude towards something. You can’t—and shouldn’t—control your emotions, but you can control how you express them. So there is a big difference between having a coach say something that frustrates you, and letting that frustration manifest in your attitude.”

7. Question everything

As you focus only on things that you can control, you can still fall into the mindset that any situation is entirely out of your control. “If the star player on your team is injured, the story that you might tell yourself is, ‘Nothing I do makes any difference because we’re not going to win this game,’” says Gilboa. “Instead, look for parts of the situation that you can control—your behavior, attitude, and purpose. Ask yourself, ‘How can I make sure we have the best game possible without that player, and what can I do to stand out?’”

8. Practice switching emotions

“One of the most useful exercises to build resilience is to challenge yourself to turn one frustration a day into an opportunity,” says Gilboa. This is flexing your resiliency muscle. “When you have a negative sentiment, first let yourself feel your emotions and name them, and then look for one opportunity.” It doesn’t have to be big: Channel your irritation over a friend not calling you back into an opportunity by using that time to have a long conversation with a sibling or parent.

9. Ask for what you need

Part of resilience is learning to understand not just your emotions, but also what you need from others in any given moment and how to ask for it. Maybe a parent, coach, or peer is great about asking if you need advice or a sounding board, or maybe they’re always quick to offer advice you definitely didn’t ask for. If the latter is true, Gilboa says that it’s okay to start a conversation by telling someone what you need from them, whether it’s just a shoulder to cry on, some words of wisdom, or some actual help with a problem.

10. Bring resilience to your team with questions

“If you want to step up and try to be a leader in a challenging situation with your team, lead with empathy and then ask good questions,” says Gilboa. “Asking questions improves people’s resilience because it helps them see that there’s more than one way to navigate a change.” Don’t start the conversation by telling the team what they need to do. Instead, ask for input and work together to create a new plan.

She suggests questions like:

1. What else can we do to reach our mission if your Plan A is no longer an option?
2. What’s the reputation we’re trying to build?
3. What can we control?

As you help lead your team through a tough time, the last thing to remember is that, as with your own practice of resilience, feelings and initial emotions matter. It’s unrealistic to force team members to instantly shift from a big challenge into seeing it as a positive. Because of that, Gilboa suggests setting a timer—seriously, set a timer for five minutes—and in that time, allow your teammates to share their current emotions about a tough situation. “Once the timer goes off, that’s it,” says Gilboa. “The team is done with the negative story, and now it’s time to figure out how to write a different story.”

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Takeaway

Resilience—the ability to bounce back from a challenge—is important for you and for your team to succeed on and off the field. Start by focusing on what you can control: Your behavior, attitude, and purpose. From there, learn to frame challenges in a more useful way while still giving yourself space to feel your emotions. Bring these practices to your team to help them through tough moments with more solution-oriented thinking.

Here, TrueSport Expert Kristen Ziesmer, a registered dietitian and board-certified specialist in sports dietetics, shares some tips on how to approach holidays and vacations mindfully so that athletes can feel comfortable getting the nutrients they need and the flavors they want.

1. Help Your Athlete Understand Intuitive Eating

Simply put, intuitive eating is learning to listen to your body’s hunger cues and respond to them appropriately. Ziesmer explains that leaning into intuitive eating makes it easier for an athlete to enjoy tasty treats at a holiday party and to stop when they’re full. “Eating intuitively helps you avoid those big spikes in hunger, where you go too long without eating and then you’re starving,” says Ziesmer. “When you’re eating, it’s also about asking, ‘Am I satisfied? Or am I still hungry?’ You don’t always need to clear your plate—but it’s also okay if you do.”

2. Don’t Restrict

For young athletes, developing restrictive tendencies is unfortunately all too common, and the hype around ‘not gaining weight over the holidays’ may actually cause those tendencies to show up. Ziesmer says it’s important to ensure that your athlete has a healthy relationship with all types of food so they can maintain a nutrient-dense diet while still enjoying the seasonal festivities during the holidays.

3. Start with a Nutrient-Dense Meal

Showing up to the holiday party after not eating all day is a recipe for going overboard on the tasty treats. Ziesmer says that the easiest way to avoid overindulgence and the stomachache that’s likely going to follow is to eat a nutrient-dense snack beforehand. This strategy shouldn’t cause stress: Balance is the priority, so keep in mind that a single indulgent meal won’t unbalance a generally healthy nutrition plan.

4. Aim for a Balanced Plate at Meals

Sitting down to a big family meal? Focus on the different elements on the plate, says Ziesmer. Is there a source of protein (like chicken, fish, turkey, or tofu), a whole grain (like brown rice or  whole wheat rolls) and some vegetables (like steamed broccoli or a side salad)? Don’t panic if instead of a whole grain, mashed potatoes are your carbohydrate options, and instead of a kale salad, canned green beans are the only vegetable. Do the best with what you have!

5. BYO Healthy Snacks

Heading to a hotel or a family member’s house for the holidays? Stock up on healthy snacks and meal options that you can easily travel with so your athletes don’t miss out on important nutrients during the trip. “If you are staying at a hotel, you can ask for a mini fridge in your room,” says Ziesmer.” Stock the fridge with fruit, chopped up vegetables and hummus, string cheese, hard boiled eggs, yogurt, and granola.” If you don’t have fridge access, mixed nuts, shelf-stable fruits like apples, dried fruit, and homemade granola bars are great options too.

6. Make New Traditions

Rather than throwing out current family traditions, try to add a few instead! Remember that with most foods, whether it’s ‘healthy’ or ‘unhealthy’ largely depends on context. A big mug of hot chocolate after a day of sitting and watching movies may not be the most nutritious choice, but that same mug of hot chocolate is actually a great blend of carbohydrates and proteins that can help an athlete recover from a 5K training run. If most of the holiday traditions and vacation activities in your family center around food, consider suggesting a few new traditions that include movement. A snowball fight or walk before Christmas dinner helps create balance.

7. Pay Attention to Portion Size and Unconscious Snacking

At parties, it’s easy to snack through the evening and be completely unaware of how much you’ve eaten. Because of this natural tendency, Ziesmer recommends taking a mindful approach to eating to truly enjoy every bite. “I try to help people really think about what they’re eating: What does the food smell like, how exactly does it taste, how does it feel in your mouth?” she says. “When possible, try to eat without distractions and pay attention to what you’re eating. Try to focus on eating the food instead of doing other things at the same time.”

8. Look for Healthy New Favorites

The best way to make sure that there will be something nutrient dense at the party you’re heading to is to bring a healthy dish! A slow-cooker stew that’s packed with vegetables, beans, and lean protein is a great addition to a buffet, while a dense salad with dark leafy greens and a wide variety of vegetables is an easy dish to bring for a sit-down dinner. Consider making a fruit-focused dessert or a big dish of chopped vegetables and a Greek yogurt-based dip for an appetizer.

9. On a Specific Diet? Let Family Know Ahead of Time

If your athlete is vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free or has a specific food intolerance, don’t wait until the table is set to bring it up. “Have a conversation before you get there,” says Ziesmer. “It’s a lot less stressful and a lot less tense when you discuss it with the host beforehand. This approach takes the emotions out of it and lets you figure out a solution. Is there a vegan option for your athlete, or should you bring a dish?”

10. Focus on Movement and Sleep—Not Just Food

It’s easy to get stressed about ‘eating right’ over the holidays and on vacation, but Ziesmer reminds athletes and caregivers that movement and sleep are just as important—and just as prone to getting off-kilter during this chunk of time. Urge your athlete to maintain a reasonable sleep schedule, aiming for seven to nine hours of sleep per night, and to get in some movement every day. This doesn’t have to mean running laps or hitting the gym—it could mean going on a walk or bike ride with a friend, tossing the basketball around in the driveway, or doing some gentle yoga.

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Takeaway

The holidays should be a time to enjoy yourself—not stress out about what you should or shouldn’t eat. It’s okay to enjoy food simply because it tastes good, and you can find balance by also working in nutrient-dense snacks and meals, exercise, and good sleep.

Here, TrueSport Expert Kristen Ziesmer, a registered dietitian and board-certified specialist in sports dietetics, shares her best tips for optimizing time, dollars, and nutrition.

No Time to Cook? No Problem.

There is nothing wrong with purchasing soup from the soup aisle in the grocery store rather than making it yourself, says Ziesmer. Not everyone has the time to make a soup from scratch. Canned and boxed soups are a simple option—and with a few simple additions, they can be made much more filling and satisfying for a hungry young athlete.

Start by choosing the healthiest option available by scanning nutrition labels before putting a can or box of soup in your cart. Look for:

• Under 500 milligrams of sodium per serving
• At least 2 grams of fiber per serving
• No more than 10% of daily value in saturated fat

Ziesmer notes that soups that are vegetable broth-based are generally going to be better options than cream-based soups, so opt for Manhattan clam chowder rather than New England clam chowder, for instance.

She also likes black bean, lentil, and split pea-based soups for their high fiber content. If you’re opting for a noodle soup, look for options with whole grain noodles to boost fiber and satiety.

Even if you don’t often rely on canned soup, Ziesmer suggests having a few cans on hand: This way, when a game runs into overtime, you know you can get home and prepare dinner in just a few minutes. “Soup is such a great backup meal to have on hand,” she says.

Improve Your Canned Soup

Most people don’t think about adding extras to canned soup, but Ziesmer says that there are a few simple additions that can make a big difference in flavor as well as nutrition. It’s easy to go from a can of soup to a gourmet meal and clean out your refrigerator in the process.

• For a vegetable-based soup, adding canned black beans, chickpeas, white beans, or kidney beans can add fiber and protein.
• To improve nutrient content, toss in some frozen vegetables like spinach—or chop up and add those herbs and vegetables that are wilting in the refrigerator.
• An overripe tomato that’s no longer salad-worthy gives a soup more body and flavor, as does limp basil or coriander.
• Leftover chicken or beef from the night before can be added to boost a soup’s protein content. Ziesmer’s personal favorite is to create a heartier soup by adding chunks from a grocery store rotisserie chicken.
• Cooked brown rice or whole wheat pasta can also be added to turn a light soup into a hearty stew.

Add a Hearty Side

Soup is a great option for a quick meal, but if there aren’t appropriate carbohydrates and protein added, it can leave an athlete feeling hungry. After a practice or competition, Ziesmer notes that a traditional ’soup and salad’ meal is not going to be satisfying enough for an athlete. Don’t be afraid of adding carbohydrates on the side: Athletes need quick-burning carbohydrates to boost recovery and refill glycogen stores.

“One of our standard dinners is tomato soup with grilled cheese,” she says. “It’s a classic for a reason. Soups are often low on calories and carbohydrates.”

She recommends using a whole grain bread for the grilled cheese to add more fiber and nutrients. A cornbread muffin is another favorite of Ziesmer’s, and if you make a batch, you can freeze the unused ones for the next time you’re running late on dinner prep.

Start from Scratch

Making your own soup doesn’t have to be complicated, thanks to a plethora of pre-made broths and bouillon cubes that you can use as your base. Made-from-scratch soups and stews are more cost-effective and tend to be healthier since they won’t contain as many artificial preservatives as canned options. If you have a large pot or a slow cooker, you can also make your own soup in bulk, then freeze leftovers so you’re ready for the next time you need a meal in a hurry.

In a slow cooker, simply combine your stock of choice—chicken, beef, vegetable—and add your preferred frozen vegetables or wilted vegetables from the fridge, a can of drained black, white, kidney or garbanzo beans, shredded or chunked chicken or beef if desired, a can of diced stewed tomatoes, and a teaspoon of your preferred seasoning mix (Italian, chili, et cetera) and let it stew for a few hours. An hour before serving, add rice or pasta if desired. (If adding pasta or rice, either pre-cook or add extra water since uncooked rice or pasta will absorb the broth.)

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Takeaway

Whether it’s from a can or made from scratch, soup can be a great meal for any athlete, especially if you add more carbohydrates, fiber, protein, and vegetables to the mix.

Here, TrueSport Expert Nadia Kyba, MSW, President of Now What Facilitation, explains what exactly communal care is, why we need it, and how to bring this idea to your team.

The Problem with Self-Care

In modern society, whether you’re reading magazines or scrolling TikTok, there’s a lot of discussion of self-care, ranging from seeking help from a licensed professional therapist to taking bubble baths to ease stress. But the issue with self-care, Kyba explains, is that it puts the burden of care on the people who are already struggling. To practice self-care pressures people to make themselves well—and it doesn’t always work. This is where the idea of communal care comes in.

What Is Communal Care?

Communal care is the shift from self-care to a community focus. Unlike self-care, where you’re expected to help yourself, and it’s your problem and responsibility to take care of yourself, communal care is based around asking for help and giving help when you can. “Communal care is a shift where people in your community—which can be your team—are committed to being there for one another, recognizing that sometimes people aren’t able to take care of themselves,” says Kyba. “It’s really about paying attention to how everyone on your team is doing, and figuring out what it is that they need to feel better.”

Communal Care Recognizes Privilege

To be in the position to practice self-care usually requires some level of privilege: It’s hard to make time for a bubble bath or to pay for a session with a therapist if your family is struggling financially and you’re working an after-school job in addition to playing a sport. Communal care is about each person recognizing their privilege, and acting accordingly. Communal care means asking how you can best serve your teammates. This may mean a more affluent teammate offering a ride to the teammate who’s usually left waiting for the bus after practice, or even accepting and acknowledging that teammates who are working after-school jobs may not be able to make every practice but shouldn’t be benched due to their circumstances.

Communal Care Starts with One Student

If your team seems disjointed and you don’t feel as though you’re practicing communal care right now, it only takes one teammate to start the process. There are two ways to begin creating a culture of communal care for your team: Offer help or ask for it.

Be Proactive and Be Curious

“Pay attention to what’s going on with your teammates,” says Kyba. “If there’s an issue going on in their family or in their community, pay attention to that. You don’t need to pry—just be open and listen. And if you think an athlete is going through a hard time, it’s okay to ask them, ‘What can I do to support you?’ The goal here is to offer help before they need to ask for it: The onus shouldn’t be on the person who’s struggling to ask for help. Ideally, their community is already offering it.”

Stand Up for Each Other

You may also consider how to use your privilege to help a teammate. For example, if you hear another team use a racial slur, rather than waiting for the target of the slur to complain, you can address it yourself knowing the negative impact it could have.

Ask For Help First

Often, a team isn’t practicing communal care because no one feels comfortable asking for help—even if everyone on the team would be happy to provide that help! And it is hard to ask for help, especially for someone who’s truly struggling. To make it easier for other teammates to ask for help, one of the best things that you can do is to find ways to ask for help yourself. “Once one person is okay asking for help, it becomes normal for the team,” says Kyba. “Even asking for help with little things can create a safe space where your teammates can now ask for what they need.”

Don’t Overcommit—Be Realistic

You shouldn’t be the only person on the team who’s helping everyone else. Reading this article, it’s easy to see how some athletes would fall into the trap of focusing so much on communal care that they end up overextended and drained. But how do you practice communal care while still preserving your own mental wellness? It’s important to remember that taking on the emotional burdens of others doesn’t help them, or you. The key is trying to find practical ways to offer help and support—without losing yourself in the process.

If you offer to drive someone home every day of the week for the whole season versus having everyone with a car on the team picking a day to drive your teammate home, you’re not only potentially overcommitting yourself, you’re denying the team the opportunity to join in the communal care.

Offer Options Rather Than Asking

It’s tempting to ask a teammate who’s struggling, ‘Do you need help?’ The problem with that well-intentioned question is that it’s too easy for your teammate to simply say no out of fear. Instead, ask, ‘How can I help?’ Whenever possible, Kyba recommends offering specific ways that you can help, whether it’s bringing extra food for a teammate for race day breakfast, offering a ride home from practice, or suggesting doing some extra practice together to work on their jump shot. Offering specifics takes the onus off the person who’s struggling and makes it easier for them to accept the help, says Kyba.

Helping Others Helps You

Communal care is actually a great form of self-care! Research has shown that when you help others, your mental state improves as a result. “If you’re thinking, ‘I don’t have time to help this person, it’s going to cut into my self-care time,’ that’s just not true,” says Kyba. Of course you need to make time for yourself and do what makes you feel good. But often, helping others is going to make you feel better than any traditional method of self-care.

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Takeaway

Communal care ensures that people who are struggling have the support they need without having to ask for help or feel like a burden. Research also shows that helping others is actually great for your own mental wellness!

Here, board-certified family physician and TrueSport Expert Deborah Gilboa, MD, explains how to ask for the respect that you need from anyone within your sports circle, from doctors to coaches to teammates.

Start with Self-Respect

It’s hard to ask for respect from others if you struggle to respect yourself, says Gilboa. In many cases, having self-respect can look like a series of practical actions, rather than just an attitude or feeling that you adopt. For example, self-respect can mean arriving at practice on time and properly fueled with an afternoon snack, showing that you respect your body and role as an athlete. You can also demonstrate self-respect by respecting your own boundaries out loud, with something like ‘I have to get some sleep tonight, but I’d love to hang out tomorrow.’

Set Your Own Boundaries

Maybe you’ve never thought about what your boundaries are before. Now is the time to start, since it’s hard to demand respect—which includes respecting your boundaries—if you can’t articulate them. Gilboa says this can start with simple things: “Is there a name you prefer to be called? Do you not want to talk about competition on weekends, or during lunch at school? Figuring out and communicating your boundaries makes it possible for people to respect them.”

Respect is a Two-Way Street

It’s important to note that there is a balance here. Developing a set of boundaries and sticking to them is important and helps you demand respect, but you still have to give respect while maintaining your own boundaries. For example, you can politely but firmly tell your coach that you can’t do an extra practice because you have another commitment, and you may suggest an alternative plan, like doing an extra strength workout at home.

Understand (and Work) the System

There are a few fast tracks to getting respect, especially from adults in your life, says Gilboa. One is simply being honest and accepting responsibility for mistakes that you may have made. “Accountability is huge,” says Gilboa. “If you’re able to accept responsibility for something you’ve done, make an apology, and offer a solution if the situation warrants it, you’ll quickly gain respect. You will make mistakes. But if you know how to look an adult in the eye and apologize clearly with accountability, you will be much more successful.”

How to Get Respect from Your Circle

Model the respect that you’d like to receive. If you treat your teammates with respect, from using the pronouns that they’ve asked you to use to generally being aware of how your actions make them feel, you’re helping them learn how to treat you.

Here are a few specific examples that show how to apply this guidance:

Coaches, parents, teachers: Ask for clear rules and expectations. Coaches and parents sometimes enforce certain rules for some people on the team (or siblings, in the case of parents) but not for others. You can advocate for yourself by asking them to lay out the rules and expectations in writing, as well as the consequences. That way, if they aren’t asking all the team members to live up to this ruleset, you can easily point it out.

Doctors and other experts: Your sports circle may contain certain experts, such as physical therapists and dietitians. It can be difficult to ask for respect from these people, especially if they position themselves as all-knowing. Unfortunately, that isn’t always the case, and you may have situations where you need to advocate for yourself if something doesn’t feel right. Don’t be afraid to politely but firmly ask for a second opinion, more tests, for further discussion. Often, these experts will respect you for speaking up. And you know better than anyone else if something is actually wrong.

Peers: Get clear on what you want, and then ask for it in a calm way. “A good example is expressing clarity around what you’d like to be called,” says Gilboa. “Maybe you don’t like to be called by just your last name or maybe there’s a nickname that you hate. Ask firmly and politely to be called by the name you prefer—and continue to ask anytime you’re called by the name that you don’t like.” And of course, extend those same courtesies to others.

People you lead: Start by being extremely clear about the respect you’re asking for. “Often, the biggest factor that helps you get respect from the team you lead is simply being able to articulate what respect means to you,” says Gilboa.

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Takeaway

It may feel uncomfortable, but asking for the respect you need and deserve is an important skill to develop and practice in sport and beyond. Be sure to establish, communicate, and enforce your boundaries, as well as show the same respect to others.

Here, Dr. Michele LaBotz, a TrueSport Expert and sports medicine physician, explains how you can be your own greatest advocate when it comes to early injury detection as well as injury prevention.

Your Injury Risk Increases After Injury

You read that right: LaBotz points out that your biggest risk for injury is having a prior injury. If you do have a prior injury, it’s important to ask yourself (or a coach or athletic trainer) if you’re doing everything you can to rehabilitate the injury and to prevent it from recurring. Often, we get so excited to return to play that we neglect the physical therapy exercises we were given, or we ignore recovery advice in hopes of getting back to our previous level of play faster. But a slow and thoughtful return to sport after injury will better set you up for success and help avoid another injury from occurring.

Your Injury Risk Increases During Growth Spurts

As an athlete who may still be growing, it’s important to understand that during and after a growth spurt, you may be more prone to injury. “Injury risk goes up around the time of peak growth. When an athlete is growing fast, their proportions change, and that can lead to a lack of coordination” LaBotz says. “Oftentimes, during these periods of growth, an athlete will temporarily lose their sports skills, so then they train even harder because they want to get the skills back. But really, what they need to do is step back and focus on the fundamentals, build strength, build endurance, and build power. The sport specific skill is going to come back, but if you push too hard, you will likely end up injured.”

Your Injury Risk Increases If You’re Trying to Lose Weight

Some sports have weight classes and you may be encouraged to drop to a lower weight category if you fall at the low end of the one you’re currently in. Many sports don’t have weight classes, but do have a stereotypical ‘ideal’ body type that a coach may be promoting. Whatever the case, we know that young athletes often feel pressure to drop weight or maintain a certain body type for their sport. Underfueling and overtraining in pursuit of weight loss can make you more prone to almost every injury, from stress fractures to overuse injuries.

Here are a few sport-specific injury prevention strategies for sports that tend to have high injury rates:

Running

Running can cause injuries, but there are ways to prevent many of them, from stress fractures to overuse injuries. In running, your goal should be to prevent stress fractures—or at least, catch them early. It can be tempting to not want to tell your coach or trainer about a pain you’re having in your shin whenever you run, but the earlier you can catch and diagnose a stress fracture, the faster you’ll be able to heal. (Tip: An early stress fracture usually hurts toward the end of a run, but not when you’re standing still. It will also typically feel like it’s coming from one specific place rather than a larger area.)

You can also protect yourself against overuse injuries and even help prevent some acute injuries by adding variety to your workouts, including things like strength training in addition to running during practice. Understand the importance of proper recovery as well as good nutrition basics—ask your coach to bring a registered dietitian or athletic trainer to speak to your team about these topics if they haven’t already!

Weightlifting

Weightlifting is a great way to prevent injury. However, when weightlifting is your primary sport, focusing on lifting heavier and heavier loads can cause injuries.

“First of all, it’s important to understand correct technique, and maintain that correct technique even when you are training hard,” says LaBotz. “We see this all the time: the technique breaks down when you’re on the last rep or the last set, and that’s where injuries can occur.”

You may also be focusing on training a specific muscle group, like your pecs or quads. This can prove to be problematic if you’re not strength training the opposing muscle groups as well. “I see young male athletes trying to build their chest muscles, and they ignore their shoulders and upper back,” says LaBotz. “The same is true for training the quads but neglecting the hamstrings.”

Make sure that your weight training program balances out your muscle groups, otherwise you’re opening yourself up to injuries now and more problems later. It’s also important to keep core work consistent—a strong core can prevent many of the common injuries those who weightlift tend to experience.

Contact Sports

Contact sports may be purposeful, like wrestling, or may simply be sports that often end up with bodily contact made, like soccer or hockey. To prevent injury in these sports, start by understanding what the rules and regulations are in your sport when it comes to contact, and ask your coach to create a set of guidelines for practice as well as in competition that keeps dangerous contact to a minimum.

If your sport includes protective gear, make sure yours fits correctly. If you recently hit a growth spurt, you may need new pads—poorly fitting pads won’t help you, says LaBotz. Always let a coach know if you don’t feel like your practice setup is safe, whether it’s rule- or equipment-based.

As with running, adding strength training and mobility work to your routine can also be helpful when it comes to injury prevention, says LaBotz. If you’re not sure what type of gym work to do, ask your athletic trainer to help you create a routine designed to reduce your injury risk.

Lastly, remember that if you’re an adaptive athlete (if you’re in a wheelchair or use another adaptive device), you may be prone to other types of injuries. For instance, wheelchair athletes tend to end up with upper extremity stress fractures, so pay attention to injury signs!

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Takeaway

As athletes, you’re at a risk of injury from your sport. However, there are steps that you can take–and that you can encourage your coach and your teammates to consider—that will make you less prone to injury. Ensure that you take the time you need for recovery, engage in a variety of different movement practices, and get help for small issues before they become big problems.

If this struggle sounds familiar, embracing body neutrality rather than positivity may be an easier, healthier target for you. TrueSport Expert and licensed clinical psychologist, Dr. Melissa Streno, has seen the rise of the more realistic body neutrality model in recent years and believes that this new approach to body image may be a great focus for athletes who struggle with body positivity.

What is body positivity?

Body positivity sounds like a great concept: In short, it’s the idea of accepting and celebrating one’s body regardless of any physical characteristics. But for athletes, this can be a difficult proposition, since improving one’s athletic skill requires an awareness of improvements and progress. Body positivity can also be difficult for any person, Streno says, simply because feeling positive at all times is an impossible task. The social comparisons young people face are also impossible to avoid.

“Body positivity can actually be negative for some athletes, because when they try to maintain body positivity but find fault with themselves, they feel like they’ve failed,” says Streno. “But no human feels 100 percent great all of the time.”

Because of this, body neutrality—where you don’t have any judgments about your physical body—may be an easier target.

What is body neutrality?

“Body neutrality lets you move away from how your body looks, and instead, lets you focus on what your body can do,” says Streno. “The goal is to move away from the physical appearance and connect with how your body aligns with your values, like the ability to move freely or do a certain activity. Focus on what your body allows you to do, rather than what it looks like.”

Developing a more body-neutral approach can be especially helpful in the context of social comparison, whether with teammates or on social media, says Streno. “For example, if you’re able to develop a feeling of body neutrality, you’re less likely to look around and compare how everyone on the team looks in their uniforms,” she adds.

Use social media to embrace body neutrality.

Social media consumption can lead to negative body image, but it can also help you embrace body neutrality. To start, search out people to follow who are speaking candidly about body image and sharing unedited, real images. “Ask yourself, ‘Who am I following and how do they make me feel?’” says Streno. “There are a lot of social media accounts that are shifting gears towards talking about how we can see a person beyond just physical appearance. Try to follow accounts that help you feel better, not worse.”

Take appearance out of the equation.

As athletes, body neutrality may be beneficial for performance, since it attempts to take appearance out of the equation and instead focus on what the body is capable of doing. If you’re not worrying about how you look in the pool or having the perfect ’swimmer’s build,’ you may be better able to hone your arm position for your backstroke. If you’re not stressed about being a certain weight to run cross-country, and instead, are focusing on how good you’re feeling during hill repeats, you’re probably going to perform better on race day.

Finally, body neutrality can remind athletes that sport is just one part of their body’s capabilities. Remember, you are so much more than the ability to run a certain pace for 400 meters or score a goal in the final seconds of a match. Focusing on body neutrality can help you see yourself as a whole human, with a wide variety of interests and talents.

How to practice body neutrality

You can start practicing body neutrality by paying attention to your thoughts. Negative thoughts about body image are natural, and Streno urges athletes to be honest about them. When those thoughts arise, try to be aware of them. Notice what may be causing them, and even consider journaling the negative thoughts around body image, and then shifting it to a more neutral statement about what your body is capable of. You can also start journaling regularly by keeping a ‘gratitude list’ of things that your body is capable of.

Lastly, if you are struggling with body image issues or negative self-talk, Streno does add that talking to an adult and seeking help is incredibly important. Journaling and practicing positive self-talk can be helpful and beneficial, but a professional may be better equipped to help you sort out complicated feelings around your body and performance.

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Takeaway

Focusing on body neutrality, or recognizing and appreciating your body’s capabilities, may be a better option than body positivity for athletes who struggle with body image. Get started by journaling a short list of things you’re grateful for about your body, which will help shift you towards a more accepting relationship with your body overall.