MENTAL HEALTH WELLBEING
Parkour is one of the most powerful tools available for developing mental resilience, self-efficacy, and psychological wellbeing. People who train seriously in the discipline describe transformations in their confidence, their relationship with fear, their capacity to face difficulty — in movement and in life.
This means parkour coaches occupy a position of unusual significance in the lives of the people they work with. It also means the responsibility of that position extends further than the physical. This page is a guide to that responsibility — and to looking after yourself in the process of carrying it.
The coach's role
A parkour coach is not a therapist, counsellor, or mental health professional. The most important thing to understand about your role is its scope: you are not qualified to diagnose, assess, or treat mental health conditions, and attempting to do so is not coaching — it is overreaching in a way that can cause harm.
What you are is a trusted adult who spends time with people in a context of genuine physical challenge and growth. That is significant. Coaches are often the people participants feel able to talk to precisely because the coaching relationship is structured around honesty, self-knowledge, and development. You will notice things. You will hear things. You need to know what to do with them.
The framework is simple — Spot, Support, Signpost.
Spot
Recognise the signs that a participant may be struggling with their mental health or emotional wellbeing. Know what to look for, and what changes in behaviour or performance might indicate.
Support
Respond with care and without judgment. Create space for the person to be heard. Do not minimise, advise, or fix. Listen, and let them know you have noticed and you are there.
Signpost
Know the support resources available and how to direct people towards them. You do not need to carry the weight of someone else's crisis. Your job is to connect them with people who can.
Recognising when someone is struggling
Mental health difficulties rarely announce themselves clearly. What you are more likely to see in a coaching context is a pattern of changes over time — in behaviour, in physical performance, in social engagement, and in the way a participant relates to challenge and risk. The following are the most common indicators to be aware of.
No single sign is conclusive. What matters is change — particularly persistent or worsening change over multiple sessions.
Withdrawal from participation
Stops attempting things they previously enjoyed. Finds reasons to sit out. Disengages from group interaction. Becomes quieter or more isolated during sessions.
Uncharacteristic risk-taking
Attempts movements well beyond their established capability without apparent care. Seems indifferent to the consequences of falling. Appears to be seeking out dangerous situations.
Emotional flatness or volatility
Noticeable changes in emotional regulation — either a flatness that feels unlike them, or disproportionate reactions to minor setbacks. May appear tearful or distressed without clear cause.
Physical decline not explained by training load
Visible weight change, apparent lack of sleep, low energy levels, reduced physical capability that doesn't correspond to training volume. May suggest poor self-care, disordered eating, or sleep difficulty.
Unexplained marks or injuries
Injuries that don't have a clear training explanation, or a participant who seems reluctant to explain how they occurred. This may require a safeguarding response — see ADAPT's Safeguarding page.
Direct disclosure or concerning language
A participant expresses hopelessness, worthlessness, or makes comments about not wanting to be here. Even seemingly casual comments of this nature should always be taken seriously and followed up.
You do not need to be certain that something is wrong before you respond. If your instinct is telling you a participant is not okay — check in. You can ask without diagnosing. A simple "I've noticed you seem a bit different today — are you alright?" costs nothing and may matter enormously.
Responding well
How you respond in the moment when a participant discloses distress, or when you decide to check in with someone you are concerned about, matters significantly. A poor response — however well-intentioned — can close down a conversation that might have been the beginning of real support.
Do: create privacy and time
Step aside from the group. Make sure you have time to listen — not a rushed two-minute conversation between activities. Sit at the same level. Put your phone away. Signal with your body language that this person has your full attention.
Do: listen more than you speak
Resist the urge to reassure, to offer solutions, or to share your own experiences. Your job in this conversation is to listen — fully, without interruption, without judgment. Reflect back what you have heard: "It sounds like you have been finding things really hard." That kind of acknowledgement is often more valuable than any advice.
Do: ask directly if you need to
Research consistently shows that asking directly about suicidal thoughts does not increase the risk of suicidal behaviour. If you have genuine concern for someone's safety, it is better to ask clearly than to talk around it. "Are you having thoughts of harming yourself?" is a direct, caring question. You will not make things worse by asking it.
Don't: promise confidentiality you cannot keep
If a participant asks you to keep something secret before they tell you, do not agree. Explain that you want to support them and that you will keep the conversation as private as possible — but that if you are worried about their safety, you may need to involve other people. Be honest about that limitation before they disclose.
Don't: try to diagnose or counsel
You are not qualified to identify mental health conditions, to interpret symptoms, or to provide therapeutic support. Do not offer diagnostic language ("it sounds like you might have depression"), and do not attempt to provide ongoing counselling. Your role is to listen, to acknowledge, and to connect the person with appropriate support.
Don't: leave the conversation without a next step
Before the conversation ends, make sure there is a clear next step — even a small one. This might be: "I'm going to look up some support options and come back to you." Or: "Would you be willing to speak to your GP?" Or simply: "I'm going to check in with you next session." Do not leave someone in distress without a plan, however modest.
Signposting to support
The following are well-established, accessible support resources. Familiarise yourself with them so you can share them confidently when the need arises. They are not a substitute for professional care, but for many people they are the first step towards it.
Mind — UK mental health charity
Provides information, support, and advice for anyone experiencing a mental health problem. Includes a local service finder, an A-Z of conditions, and guides for supporting others.
mind.org.uk →Samaritans — free listening support
Available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, for anyone struggling to cope. Free to call from any phone. Call 116 123. Available to people of all ages.
samaritans.org →Shout — free text crisis support (UK)
A free, confidential, 24/7 text service for anyone in the UK in crisis. Text SHOUT to 85258. A trained volunteer will respond. Suitable for people who find talking on the phone difficult.
giveusashout.org →ChildLine — for under-19s in the UK
Free, confidential support for children and young people. Available 24/7 by phone (0800 1111) or online chat. Also provides resources for adults concerned about a young person.
childline.org.uk →CALM — Campaign Against Living Miserably
Focused on suicide prevention for men, though open to all. Helpline: 0800 58 58 58 (5pm–midnight daily). Also provides online chat and a wide range of resources.
thecalmzone.net →Mind — Sport, physical activity and mental health
Resources specifically for coaches and organisations working at the intersection of sport and mental health, including the Spot. Support. Signpost. toolkit.
mind.org.uk/sport →Building a psychologically safe session culture
The most powerful thing a parkour coach can do for the mental health of their participants is not to identify distress after it has developed — it is to create an environment where distress is less likely to be masked, where difficulty is normalised, and where the culture of the session actively supports psychological safety.
Psychological safety in a parkour context means: participants can say "I'm not ready for this" without embarrassment. Failure is a learning event, not a social one. The group supports each other through difficulty rather than watching each other struggle in silence. The coach models honesty about their own limits and uncertainty.
Name the difficulty
Make it explicit in your language that fear, uncertainty, and hesitation are normal, expected, and respected parts of the training process. Say it often. Say it when it applies to you too.
Create opt-out by default
Every session should have a lower-challenge option available for every activity. Choosing the easier option should never require explanation — design the session so that no one has to say anything.
Actively moderate peer dynamics
Peer pressure in a group training context is one of the most common reasons people push beyond their real limits. Notice it. Name it. Intervene without embarrassing anyone.
Check in routinely
A brief check-in at the beginning or end of sessions — "how is everyone doing today?" — normalises asking and answering that question. Over time, it builds the habit of honesty in the group.
Parkour already teaches people that the gap between where they are and where they want to be is not a source of shame — it is the whole point of the practice. A coach who embodies that belief creates a fundamentally healthier training environment than any resource or intervention after the fact.
Looking after yourself as a coach
Coaching is demanding work — physically, intellectually, and emotionally. The pastoral dimension of working closely with people in a discipline as personally meaningful as parkour adds a layer of emotional labour that is easy to underestimate. Coaches who absorb the difficulties of their participants without building in their own recovery, support, and honest self-assessment become less effective over time, and are more likely to burn out.
ADAPT's expectation is that coaches care for themselves with the same rigour they apply to caring for participants. This is not a luxury or a sign of weakness. It is a professional necessity.
Maintain your own support network
Have people in your life — peers, friends, mentors — who you can talk honestly with about the demands of coaching. Isolation is one of the most common contributors to coach burnout. Being well-connected to other coaches, particularly through the ADAPT community, helps enormously.
Recognise the limits of your role
A coach who becomes the primary emotional support for a participant is operating outside their role. The relationship between a coach and participant is valuable and real — but it is bounded, and bounded for good reasons. Referring a participant to appropriate professional support is not rejection. It is the right action, and one that protects both of you.
Take your continuing development seriously
ADAPT's CPD programme includes content relevant to working with special populations, understanding diverse participant needs, and coaching people through difficulty. Developing your coaching knowledge is also a form of self-care: it builds confidence, reduces anxiety, and improves the quality of the decisions you make under pressure.
Know when you need support
The same resources you might signpost to participants are available to you. If you are struggling — with the demands of coaching, with your own mental health, or with something a participant has shared with you that has affected you — use them. There is no professional threshold you need to reach before asking for help.
Crisis resources
If you are working with someone in immediate crisis — expressing intent to harm themselves or others, or in acute distress — these are the resources to have to hand.