It is no secret that a decade of investigation into sports culture exposes many outdated attitudes and assumptions that prevent sports from flourishing.
Previously laced with chauvinist and misogynistic connotations, the sports industry is now shifting toward a more open paradigm. As such, for years, athletes have suffered due to the negative off-the-scenes practices and expectations. On top of that, the rigorous regimens that prepare the players for high performance leave their mental health in a chaotic state. Now more than ever, with an open-ended and productive turn toward equality, people in sports spaces require counseling and consultation. Psychodynamic therapist and player care coach Alex Grove identified this fissure early on and has done incredible work to fill it with empathy, kindness, and growth.
Moving to a boarding school at 10, Grove learned the value of effective communication early on. At the same time, personal struggles kept him grounded. Owing to his battle with dyslexia, he developed mechanisms to deal with the anxiety that comes with wanting to do better. It led him to the gym during school, which gave way to his extensive 15-year-long career in fitness and athletics.
When his first child was born, he realized something far more critical than management and coaching; it was how stressors and anxiety are dealt with. He started exploring how people in stressful positions regulate stress, insecurities, and tensions and thus began the next phase of his life. The two elements of his expertise most notably come together in his wellness and development company, Alex grove Coaching and Development.
For Grove, what matters foremost is the humanness of people everywhere, and only then, their profession. He started out as a professional coach in the fields of IT, Finance, and Insurance but eventually expanded to explore more diverse areas like Sports, Education, and even domestic territories. He says, “As a qualified counselor, I am drawn to the human story between sporting performance and the tensions it produces. Both success and failure are side effects of those tensions.”
He believes that wellness can be experienced across a vast network of day-to-day avenues through emotional and cognitive balance. It spans work and personal life and helps us regulate routine anxieties to perform better and be present in the moment.
Grove prefers to call himself a player care therapist because he believes a tender way of going about an industry that caters to robustness would benefit his clients. He employs approaches like self-referral and self-identification with his clients to help them, in his own words, through ‘bespoke mental well-being coaching.’ This allows them to perform better on and off the field. He firmly believes in moving past the typical stereotypes of masculinity and promotes kindness and empathy. When one recognizes the same vulnerability in the other, far from making one weak, it makes them more powerful and united, thereby promoting a more profound and organic sense of belonging.
In many ways, the actual passion project for Grove is kindness and empathy, and he has done incredibly well in his pursuit to promote it. You can reach out to him through his LinkedIn.