USA Cheer has partnered with TrueSport, to provide new educational tools to equip coaches, parents and young athletes with the resources to build life skills and core values for success in sports and in life. TrueSport, a movement by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, inspires athletes, coaches, parents, and administrators to change the culture of youth sport through active engagement and thoughtful curriculum based on cornerstone lessons of sportsmanship, character-building, and clean and healthy performance, while also creating leaders across communities through sport.

When a competitive athlete leaves sport, permanently or briefly to recover from an injury or pursue another activity, it’s normal to feel a mixture of emotions. Even if the athlete is choosing to take a break from sport, issues surrounding body image, nutrition, and exercise outside of regimented practice can still come up.

Here, TrueSport Expert and licensed clinical psychologist Dr. Melissa Streno explains how parents can help guide athletes through this transition period while maintaining a positive body image.

Start before they finish

Parents should be helping athletes create an identity outside of sport and within other support systems even before an athlete is considering a break. Our interests contribute to how we define ourselves, so parents can help make their child’s identity diverse by letting them choose many activities to try, and by role modeling and encouraging them with realistic, healthy expectations.

“This way, when sport does inevitably come to an end, they can feel there are other realms in their life where they’re connected, comfortable, and accepted. Then it doesn’t feel like their whole world is caving in after sport,” says Streno. “And as a side note, diverse interests actually help us be more successful in sport anyway!”

Help them create new routines

“Many young athletes have followed a certain path that’s centered around attaining or maintaining an appearance, often in a really detrimental way,” Streno says. “They have very specific routines and behaviors, and they’ve been on autopilot. It’s hard to change when that’s all they’ve known. When redefining a relationship with food and exercise after sport, help them get the appropriate professional help to learn what their body really needs.”

Finding a new way to move is important

Even if your child is leaving sport because he or she isn’t enjoying it, movement is still important and healthy for any young person. Find exercise or movement that feels fun and not like training. This could be hiking, biking, strength training, yoga, or—depending on the situation—joining a recreational sport league. “Try to make sure that the urge to exercise is coming from a healthy place, not just being done to control what their body looks like,” says Streno.

Understand what your child could be dealing with

“Any sort of shift in sport is significant because of the role this plays in our identity: not just the physical part, but also who we are,” says Streno. “Struggling with the question of ‘who we are’ can lead somebody down a path of using food and exercise to maintain some sense of control when they feel everything else is shifting.”

Encourage your child to dig into their identity

On a practical level, Streno recommends some journaling prompts for students struggling with identity beyond sport. Encourage your child to sit down and spend some time answering questions like:

• Who am I?
• Who am I without sport?
• What is important to me outside of sport?
• What have I gained from sport?
• Who I am because of sport?
• How do I use that in this next realm, this next endeavor, and this next challenge?

Prepare your athlete for changes

“After sport, there is going to be a transition period where your athlete likely experiences some body transformation,” says Streno. “It’s important to talk about the reality of what’s going to happen. We’re going to encounter physical changes throughout our entire life, so normalize that identity is not just how you look or how strong you are as an athlete.”

“We also see a huge uptick in disordered eating and eating disorders post athletic career because it’s the one thing that athletes feel they can control.” Learn more about disordered eating here.

Let your child grieve

Leaving sport for any reason can lead a child to feel a huge range of emotions. “I would encourage your child to wade through the really uncomfortable emotions. If they’re not, that’s actually riskier when it comes to eating disorders since coping with those feelings in private can become an avenue for disordered behavior,” Streno says.

Takeaway

An athlete’s body image can be dramatically impacted when it’s time to move away from sport. Use this expert guidance to help your athlete navigate the transition and come out on the other side with a positive body image.

The TrueSport Champion Network is a community of coaches, parents, program directors, and athletes who believe in the power of youth sport to build life skills and core values for success both on and off the field. Join TrueSport Champion Network to help promote the positive values of cheer, dance, and STUNT!

The TrueSport Coaching Education Program empowers coaches—the most significant influencers in young athletes’ lives—with a transformative learning opportunity to obtain the knowledge and resources to cultivate, champion, and uphold the rich promise and highest potential of sport.

USA Cheer is proud to partner with USADA’s TrueSport® to bring relevant educational content to the Cheer and STUNT community in order to promote a positive youth sport experience. We are excited to provide access to TrueSport’s experts that take coaching beyond skills and help truly develop the overall athlete by building life skills and core values for success on and off the mat, sideline, field, and court.

Feel free to share these resources with your coaching staff, parents, or athletes!

About TrueSport

TrueSport^®, a movement powered by the experience and values of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, champions the positive values and life lessons learned through youth sport. TrueSport inspires athletes, coaches, parents, and administrators to change the culture of youth sport through active engagement and thoughtful curriculum based on cornerstone lessons of sportsmanship, character-building, and clean and healthy performance, while also creating leaders across communities through sport.

For more expert-driven articles and materials, visit TrueSport’s comprehensive LEARN resource.

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