Mental health advice for competitive swimmers
While we can all agree swimmers are the fittest and most fun athletes, even superhumans can have low moments.
Chasing personal bests and representing your club and your own ambitions takes a lot of drive and commitment. And it’s not always easy to balance training and competing alongside study and life!
Approximately one in four people will experience a mental health problem in any given year – that could be two or three in every race at your next competition.
Mental health problems can effect anyone, and have a wide range of causes that can be complex and interrelated.
Mental health advice
The Swim England England Talent and Health and Wellbeing teams have put together a useful flow chart for how to get help for mental health problems. Find more information
Got your back! A useful video has been produced, take a look here.
Mental Health Awareness Training
MIND, the mental health charity, has developed an online course to give you the knowledge, skills and confidence to better understand and support people living with mental health problems, and create a positive environment that ensures they enjoy the benefits of being active and keep coming back for more.
The course has been developed based on learning from the Get Set to Go programme and our independent evaluation led by Loughborough University, to build upon the successful face to face training course.
About the course
The four modules – developed in partnership with 1st4sport and UK Coaching, and funded by Sport England and the National Lottery – will increase your knowledge and understanding of mental health, providing you with the practical skills and strategies to be able to:
- Build people’s resilience, self-esteem and confidence
- Adapt your sessions to make them more inclusive
- Enable and support mental health recovery, and
- Tackle stigma and discrimination.
The course has been awarded 3 Developmental CPD points by the Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity (CIMSPA).
You can access the course on the UK Coaching website. Here you will also find out more about the course.
Other training opportunities
Several other organisations offer training in mental health first aid which helps attendees understand the signs and symptoms of individuals experiencing mental health difficulties and provides guidance on where signpost those who are struggling.
Each is offered in either a 3 hour, 1 day or 2 day course. We recommend that you research the content before deciding on which course meets your individual needs.
Organisations offering training include:
