ATP Announces New Partnerships To Ramp Up Mental Health Provision For Players & Staff

The ATP has announced new partnerships with Sporting Chance and Headspace to support the mental health and wellbeing of its player members and staff.

Founded by former Arsenal F.C. and England football captain Tony Adams MBE, Sporting Chance is a leading mental health provider working exclusively with professional and elite sports participants to give them a safe and confidential space to discuss emotional wellbeing and mental health.

The partnership between the ATP and Sporting Chance means ATP Player members will be able to contact a 24/7 helpline providing access to a triage team of therapists. Players will then be referred onto Sporting Chance’s network of therapists, all experienced at working with elite sportspeople. They will help the players deal with any issue they may be struggling with, from the psychological effects caused by COVID-19 and not playing tennis, to dealing with anxiety and depression or the effects of a sporting injury.

The ATP has also announced a new partnership with Headspace, a global leader in mindfulness, meditation and mental fitness through its app and online content offerings. This partnership will provide free Headspace Plus subscriptions to all ATP player members and employees, giving them access to all 1200+ hours of meditation and mindfulness content including sleep, kids, and mindful movement exercises. This also includes access to a new specially curated collection of content to support people’s mental health amid the COVID-19 pandemic called “Weathering the storm.”

Today’s announcement highlights ATP’s increased focus on supporting the mental health of its players and staff. Last month, the ATP announced it was offering players a way to develop new skills during the pandemic through a partnership with Coursera, an online education platform, where players will be able to choose from more than 4,200 different courses of study to keep themselves mentally sharp.

“Being mentally strong is just as important as physical strength in tennis and looking after the mental health of our players and staff is a key priority for us,” said ATP Chairman Andrea Gaudenzi.

“Everyone has been adapting to periods of self-isolation and decreased physical activity during the pandemic, but this can have a particularly detrimental effect on professional athletes who are used to particular training structure and playing day in day out. We want to make sure we’re doing everything we can to support our players and staff during this time and I’m proud of the partnerships we’ve been able to announce in recent weeks and months which allow us to do this.”

“We are delighted to be working with the ATP in supporting their players at this difficult time,” said Tony Adams, MBE. “The challenges that all sports and sports professionals are experiencing in the light of this pandemic will be affecting all of us in different ways. I started Sporting Chance twenty years ago with the vision of creating a safe place for professional and elite athletes to discuss their emotional and mental health in confidence. Holding out our hand to those in need at this time is important to me and working with organisations like the ATP is a pleasure – well done Tennis!”

“As a company dedicated to improving the health and happiness of the world, we take our responsibility to help support people’s mental health very seriously. That’s why we’re so delighted to be partnering with the ATP in supporting tennis professionals across the world during such an extraordinary moment,” said Renate Nyburg, general manager for Headspace Europe. “The focus in sports training has often been exclusively on physical health and conditioning, but as the top athletes at all levels have increasingly learned, mental health and fitness is also critical in supporting wellbeing and performance on and off the court.”

About Sporting Chance
Sporting Chance was founded by former Arsenal and England captain Tony Adams MBE who, as a recovering alcoholic, saw the need for a safe, dedicated environment where male and female athletes could receive support and counselling for the kinds of destructive behaviour patterns that exist in the world of competitive sport.

Since its creation in the year 2000, Sporting Chance has developed into one of the world’s most innovative centres for the treatment of emotional and behavioural problems among current and former professional sportspeople. The charity operates a 24-hour helpline, a network of over 200 trained therapists across the UK, and a residential treatment centre located in Hampshire – the only one of its kind built specifically to treat professional and elite-level athletes suffering with an addictive disorder.

Today, in addition to its recent partnership with the ATP Tour, the charity works with a number of stakeholders across the professional sporting landscape in the UK and beyond including the PFA, the Premier League, the FA and the LFE (in Football), RL Cares (Rugby League), the PCA (Cricket), both the PJA and the Injured Jockeys Fund (Horse Racing) as well player unions representing the sports of Snooker, Darts and Squash.

About Headspace
Headspace was created with one mission in mind: to improve the health and happiness of the world. Reaching more than 65 million users in 190 countries, Headspace was one of the first meditation apps in the world and remains a leader in mindfulness and mental training. Headspace is committed to advancing the field of mindfulness through clinically validated research, with one of the largest research pipelines of any digital health and wellness company. Headspace operates a B2B business (Headspace for Work) to offer its mindfulness products and services to more than 700 companies, such as Starbucks, Adobe, GE, Hyatt and Unilever, to help them build healthier, more productive cultures and higher performing organizations.

Headspace supports government entities like New York State and the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) to offer digital mental health tools. Headspace partners with many of the world’s most-recognizable brands, including Apple and Amazon, as well as with Nike, NBA and the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team to offer sport and movement content. Headspace Health is Headspace’s digital health subsidiary pioneering new ways to incorporate the Headspace mindfulness experience into digital medicine.

Headspace has been recognized by Fast Company as one of the World’s Most Innovative Companies, Apple’s Best of 2018, Samsung’s Best of 2019 and one of CB Insights’ top digital health companies, along with being selected for five Webby Awards in health and fitness between 2018 and 2019. For more information please visit us at www.headspace.com, or follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.