Top Tips for having meaningful conversations, from those who’ve been there…

“How are you?” “Good, you?”…

In my work and research over the last few years I’ve been asking elite athletes and backroom staff, what kinds of questions actually do work in those environments?

In a World Cup, a training camp, in a hotel, a physio bed face down in the hole, drinking endless flat white’s and playing cards… well here’s just a few of the questions which have worked, and maybe they might help you too:

• Is there anything stressing you out, outside of (insert sport)?

• It’s a bit of an intense environment isn’t it mate, what are you doing to help you deal with it?

• Where are you getting your support from outside of this (insert sport) bubble?

• How are you sleeping?

• What are you doing to help yourself switch off, relax and get away from (insert sport)?

  
  

Listening effectively and with genuine care can have such a positive impact on mental health. Just like on a pitch when there’s an injury…. you check on your teammate, listen, reassure them and you call over the medical professional to help, with their expertise…. you can do that with supporting your teammates with their mental health too. Checking in, listening and helping them to access the right support from your team, or player association, GP or other medical professional is so important and can make such a huge difference. Each of us can play our part in supporting good mental health.

There’s plenty more gold dust from those with lived experience in elite sport to share about how to how to create a good environment and how to have conversations which I’ll go onto share in a future blog. For now, I hope this has either encouraged you in what you’re already doing or added a few tools to your locker, for helping to support good mental health in elite sport.