Dialogue for Success
Eddie Coleman’s Strategy in Helping Athletes Cope with Mental Health
Written by Lucas Yang | Edited by Marc Louie
“How can you do better?”
A simple yet harsh question summed up much of Eddie Coleman’s childhood.
​
Coleman grew up like any normal kid, playing sports such as basketball, volleyball, and tennis. He was raised in the 1980s and doesn’t recall much about mental health being discussed, especially in sports. If anything, it was considered taboo.
​
Coleman, a former professional beach volleyball player, is now a prominent figure in Ontario's Beach Volleyball scene and works as an Assistant Coach for the Toronto Metropolitan University Bold Varsity Volleyball team.
​
In his upbringing, Coleman’s father instilled a “no gas left in the tank” mentality in him. This mindset pushed him to persevere and always strive for the best possible outcome.
“If I got a 96 percent in math, it was like, ‘What happened to the other four percent?’” he said.
Nothing was ever left in the tank when Coleman brought his relentless drive to the international beach volleyball circuit, where he competed in the early 2000s.
Beach volleyball presents unique challenges for mental performance. For one, only two players are on the court at any given time, creating a dynamic unlike many other sports. Coleman cited this as one of the key struggles he faced during his career.
Photo by Michael Chisholm
“My partner’s and my objectives collided,” he said.
Coleman had a clear and ambitious goal of making it to the Olympics. His partner, on the other hand, was more interested in the lifestyle the sport offered. This created tension on the court, particularly in high-pressure moments.
“I didn’t feel like I had a partner I could rely on,” Coleman said.
Having a network of people to rely on as an athlete is essential in Coleman’s eyes. Being able to not internalize your problems and express your feelings to someone, whether a friend or family member, is key in Coleman’s mission to build resilience in his athletes.
​
One of Coleman’s strategies that he himself relies on is subtle but a game-changer in how it defines him as a coach. Coleman focuses less on the physical red flags in an athlete and more on the mental red flags that his athletes show.
“I’m always watching to see if an athlete’s disengaged, and in my mind, that’s a red flag for a check-in,” he said.
Coleman’s coaching strategy also includes a strong emphasis on process over outcome. In some situations, he found that the expectations he was putting on his athletes were impacting them mentally. This is where Coleman found the benefits of preaching process over outcome as a coach.
​
Whether during his playing days or as a coach, Coleman has always viewed competition as a pathway to achieving the ultimate goal: a gold medal.
​
However, he started to see that his win-or-die attitude was putting added pressure on his athletes. Not to say that the athletes he was coaching didn’t want to win, but Coleman’s constant attitude toward winning would focus more on outcome rather than the process.
​
A moment comes to mind where Coleman saw this come to fruition. One of Coleman’s athletes came to him after a quarter-final loss and told him that he was sorry for blowing their chances at a gold medal.
​
This is the moment where Coleman realized that his words have an impact on the mental health of his athletes, their performance, and the love they have for the game. Coleman admits that this instance was a point at which he had to reconsider the way he was approaching things when it came to his coaching.
A unique strength of Coleman’s coaching lies in his ability to connect with athletes by asking insightful and thought-provoking questions. This may sound a little odd, given that most would assume that coaches are there to provide answers and not questions. But Coleman sees this as a useful way to, one, get on the same page with them in terms of what they’re feeling in that moment and what it is they’re trying to do, and two, allow athletes to reflect on what they are doing.
For Coleman, when a coach doesn’t know what’s going on in the heads of their athletes, they limit themselves in what they can offer them. This approach, according to Coleman, helps athletes develop better mentally because it allows them to find the answers themselves.
Coleman credits all these strategies across his coaching in an effort to stay most present for his athletes. With staying present comes the importance of listening.
​
He doesn’t see coaching as an opportunity to shove information down the throats of his athletes. Coleman strives to create a space where athletes can come to conclusions themselves, and from his perspective, it is where athletes flourish the most mentally.
“I want to kind of create that space where they can inquire and discover things on their own,” he says.
Coleman doesn’t hold back when it comes to talking about putting the athlete first. Coaching is a very selfless endeavour, and every time Coleman steps on the court, his question symbolizes his approach to coaching, which shows strong parallels to what his dad preached to him as a young boy:
“How can I be better for my athletes?”