Before you start
Use it when
Use when you notice health-risk warning signs.
Have ready
- Observed symptoms or behavior changes
- Recent training, health, or eating context
You will get
- An observation-based priority route
- Referral notes and a conversation opener
Coach support system
When a coach sees red flags, Aspire shows exactly what to do next.
Program Access includes a practical workflow for neutral observation, the school emergency process, family communication, and referral. Qualified clinicians decide diagnosis, treatment, and clearance.
This is practical coach guidance and referral support, not diagnosis, therapy, or individualized treatment inside the platform.
What counts as a red flag
- Reported rapid or unintentional weight change, food avoidance, or rigid food rules
- Hidden food, secretive eating, or severe anxiety around meals or carbohydrates
- Extra training to burn calories or obvious guilt after eating
- Persistent fatigue, declining performance, recurrent injuries, or stress fractures
- Menstrual-cycle changes or loss of a period, when relevant
- Mood changes, social withdrawal, or refusal to eat at team meals
What the coach does first
- 1If there is immediate danger, a medical emergency, or a mental-health crisis, use the emergency action plan now. Do not delay for this workflow.
- 2Follow institutional policy and mandatory-reporting duties. Those rules can change who must be contacted first and what can be shared.
- 3Do not confront the athlete publicly or make the conversation about weight, leanness, or appearance.
- 4Document the concrete pattern you are seeing so you can speak from observation instead of suspicion.
- 5Use the program’s private support and communication process, then involve the qualified professionals appropriate to the concern.
How to open the private conversation
“I’m reaching out because I’m seeing a few red flags around energy, recovery, and eating patterns, and I do not want to ignore them. This is not about blame or appearance. I want to make sure the athlete is healthy and gets the right support.”
- Lead with concern, not accusation: “I want to make sure your athlete is healthy and getting the right support.”
- Use health and performance language, not body or weight language.
- Be specific about the pattern you noticed, then move quickly toward referral instead of trying to solve it alone.
When to pause or modify training
Do not make Aspire the clearance decision
This workflow is for coach action and referral. Participation status should be adjusted with the family and the appropriate medical professional, not guessed from the sideline.
Do not add discretionary load while safety is unresolved
If concerning patterns are present, stop normalizing them as “just training hard.” Follow institutional policy and ask the person authorized to make participation decisions before adding optional volume or intensity.
Return to training only as cleared
Use the same standard every time: the athlete continues or returns to normal training as cleared by the relevant medical professional.
People who may need to be involved
Choose the appropriate contacts through the institution’s emergency, safeguarding, privacy, and communication protocols. This is not a universal order or a diagnosis.
If a concerning pattern keeps showing up, document observations and move it into the appropriate private support lane. Do not diagnose or investigate from the sideline.
- The adult athlete and their chosen support contact, or a parent/guardian when appropriate
- Primary care or sports medicine physician
- Athletic trainer, campus health, or school nurse, when available
- Counselor or mental health clinician
- Sports RDN or eating-disorder specialist when indicated
This workflow builds awareness — it is not a diagnostic instrument. Immediate danger, mandatory-reporting duties, institutional policy, and the athlete’s existing care plan take priority over this general workflow.
What Aspire support to use next
Parent Conversation Scripts
Use coach-safe language for hard nutrition conversations without improvising.
Open next
Team Nutrition Policy Generator
Keep the disordered-eating protocol written down for staff and families.
Open next
RED-S Warning Signs Resource
Review the printable warning signs, urgent-action cues, and referral roles before the conversation.
Open next
Ask the Dietitian
Email a general implementation question when you want help preparing for the next conversation.
Open next
Use this in practice
- Open this workflow when a coach notices a pattern they should not normalize.
- Use the adult-athlete or appropriate-support-contact language block before a private conversation so the concern stays health-focused.
- Refer out early, then use Ask the Dietitian, Monthly Live Q&A, and Luke-backed assets to support the next step.
Ask the Dietitian
Ask general education and implementation questions anytime. Luke responds within 2 business days; individualized assessment stays in 1:1 care.
See Ask the Dietitian supportConfirmed live-session details
A live session appears only after a future date, topic, and join URL are confirmed. No session is represented as scheduled by default.
See how coaches use Monthly Live Q&AReviewed playbooks, tools, handouts, and policies
Use the released operational workflow and bounded family language without inventing clinical advice or collecting private household data.
See the coach tools and handoutsAlready have Program Access?
Sign in and this workflow opens directly inside the coach portal with the live Q&A and support assets wired in. Community is not part of this release.
Sign in to Program AccessOperating boundary
Aspire helps the coach notice the pattern, use safer language, and move the case toward the right referral lane. It does not replace the adult athlete, an appropriate support contact, clinician, or specialist.
Directly linked sources
What this tool teaches
Know when tired is more than tired
Red Flags & Referral gives a result. This is the idea behind it, for the runner, the family, and the coach.
For the runner
- Sore legs after a hard week are normal, and food and sleep fix them.
- Feeling cold, sick, or worn out for weeks is your body asking for help.
- Your coach writes down what they can see. They never guess a cause.
Read the six signs. If two or three sound like you for weeks, tell a coach or a parent this week.
For example Jordan was tired all month, out with a second shin injury, and quiet at team meals. After practice his coach wrote those three signs down with dates and called home.
Not true: you get in trouble for saying something. The next step is a doctor, not a punishment.
For families
- The workflow lists what a coach can see from outside: energy, illness, mood, injuries, missed meals, and cycle changes. It never names a cause.
- If the coach calls you, that is the handoff working. The next call is the pediatrician's office, not a new food rule at home.
- Ask which observations the coach wrote down and on what dates. Bring that page to the appointment so the clinician sees a pattern, not a worry.
- Return-to-training decisions belong to the clinician and your family, never to a sideline read or to this page.
Try this week Put your pediatrician's number and the school athletic trainer's number in one note on your phone this week, before you need either one.
Watch for Two or more signs lasting a few weeks, a bone stress injury, a missed or changed period, or eating that has turned secretive or rigid means a pediatrician visit this week. Fainting or chest pain means calling 911 now.
For the coach
Say this
- I am not asking what you eat. I am asking how you feel, and I write down what I can see.
- This goes to your family privately, and they decide the next step with your doctor. Nobody on the team hears about it.
- I am not deciding whether you race. Your clinician and your family do that, and I follow what they send back.
- If a teammate has been fading for weeks, tell me quietly. That is looking out for them, not telling on them.
Ask themHow has your energy been this month, compared with August?
Why it works
Low energy availability shows up as a cluster of observable changes long before any test would, so the workflow orders those observations and dates them.
Keeping the coach to observe, document, communicate, and refer protects the athlete and the coach, and leaves cause and clearance with a clinician.
Guidance splits on screening: the IOC treats REDs as needing individual clinical assessment, so a sideline questionnaire is not the instrument. Dated observations are.
Run it with the team
Preseason, I put the emergency number, the athletic trainer, and the safeguarding contact on one card in my clipboard. During the season I add dated observations after practice. Families see their own athlete's notes; the team never sees any of it.
Don't say
- “You look like you have RED-S.” Naming a cause is diagnosing; describe the dated pattern you observed and hand it off.
- “Let's keep this between us.” You cannot promise confidentiality; mandatory reporting and school policy decide who must be told.
- “Take a week off and you will be fine.” Clearance is a clinician's call, and rest alone does not resolve the concern.
Where to go next