“But don’t we want athletes to disconnect?”
The idea of disconnection is widely used as a practice in endurance sports. Words like “mind over body” have come out of my mouth in many capacities over the years. As I taught a spin class or coached a sprint triathlon group I asked people to push pass their physical limits. Not until private practice with eating disorders did I realize how dangerous this messaging was to everyone… especially athletes.
Disconnection, or more formerly dissociation, is a way that the mind and body disconnect to protect us from extreme pain. This pain could be physical pain or emotional pain, but disconnection is a signal that the body is overwhelmed. Here in the explanation, you can start to see why this practice is harmful and should never be a part of endurance coaching; it teaches us to not listen to our edges. To be clear, I did not say potential capacity or potential possibility but edges.
Edges are places where we should stop, pause, evaluate and discern. Edges can be growth edges that are meant to be nudged with support. Many athletes disconnect so often to please, perform, and prove that they are routinely disconnecting with a felt sense they need as an athlete: the sense of hunger. Once the disconnection stops they are left with overwhelming thoughts and feelings about how to feed this primal hunger. This primal hunger also leaves them ravishing for food, possibly feeding to a point of over full, and then, they experience the shame/blame/must control cycle.
The spiral above then shows up as the athlete listens less to their bodies and more to those that “know better.” The athlete finds they cannot find the words when those experts ask them questions about their body. The PT asks, “how does this feel?” And when the RD asks “how does this pre race fuel feel in your body?” And the trainer asks “where do you hurt?” Their overwhelming response is “I don’t know.”
We have to stop teaching athletes to disconnect or we will continue to have athletes who have disordered eating, are lost, injured, and lacking awareness about their bodies’ edges. We also will further complicate the process of transition that athletes face when they go from competitive levels to recreational levels.
Ways we can help athletes come back into their hunger cues when they are in disconnected states:
Display foods with pictures or videos in training rooms, locker rooms, and strength training areas with examples of foods that might be great for recovery. Personally, I have made the mistake of posting numbers and grams of foods needed… This only reinforces disconnection and impairs clarity about what the food sources look like. It also can strengthen the part of “must control” myself in those athletes that are overly bound and anxious.
Try your best to have the foods available for athletes. Whether this is in the car on the way to soccer practice, at a refrigerator in the hall between locker rooms and their next class, poolside, and all the places an athlete has a spot where they pause.
This goes without saying… but also, mental health support. We need individuals that are trained to sit with athletes as they process how they disconnect with their body and help give them coping tools to support a different path.
