Raise Your Game: What is The Sporting Chance Clinic?

Peter Kay: The Sporting Chance clinic visits football, rugby and cricket clubs to hold sessions about the effects of alcohol and other drugs on the mind, on the body and on sporting performance generally. We also offer counselling and support services in our clinic in Hampshire and in London.

We offer support to sportspeople of every description, amateur or professional. The vast majority of people we help come from small clubs, although we are best known for the work we do with high profile sportsmen.

The clinic offers residential treatment for any form of behavioural problem. It could be addiction to alcohol, drugs, gambling or sex. It could be depression or it could be excessive use of alcohol and drugs, with all the problems that those things bring, where anger turns into uncontrollable rage. It's not about how much they drink, or how angry they get, but why.

Someone might come to us for a residential stay which could be for a week, three weeks or the full programme which is twenty eight days.

RYG: How does someone go about getting help from you?

PK: They can pick up the phone and speak to me or a member of my team. Quite often people visit our website and can answer questions on that site in the privacy of their own home. This first step is important as it gives us a fair idea if there is a problem or not.

Getting in touch with us usually indicates that there is a problem, our role then is not to try and label it but take an interest in the individual and how we can offer help and support.

In some cases I'll make a phone call and suggest a meeting just for a coffee and a chat. I will say something about my experiences, my behaviour, the thoughts and emotions that I went through. If they identify with any of those things, they tend to feel a lot safer, a lot more trusting and a lot more open about what is happening to them.

RYG: How difficult is it to start with someone who doesn't really know how much help they need?

PK: It's very difficult. Very often the first thing a person tells me is 'Look, I don't have a problem.' My response is 'if there's nothing wrong, why are you here?' It's a long process and it can take a long time before they finally reach out for help.

By the time some people seek help they have lost a lot. Only when enough has gone from someone's life do they finally put their hands up and say help. Just phoning me, or getting in touch to ask for support is a big deal. Half of our job is done when they do that.

RYG: For many young people the top sportsmen's lifestyle is the ultimate dream - money, fast cars, VIP celebrity treatment. What causes their lives to spiral out of control?

PK: They are human beings - with the same fallibilities as you or I. They're put on some kind of pedestal and they start believing the headlines their lifestyle creates. One client got involved in a fight and ended up in prison. As they shut the cell door he thought 'They could never do this to me because I'm so and so, but they can, and they did and I'm here.'

If people believe the headlines, they start to live up to an image, which is so false. To admit to any sort of problem is taken as a sign of weakness in what is often a very macho environment. We have to address and overcome that.

RYG: How difficult is it to work through the bravado and get to the real person?

PK: Very difficult. Their defence mechanisms are finely tuned from a young age. It can start as young as 10 or 11 at school, when boys who are good at football are made to feel special and different. They then progress to the clubs. There are some 14 and 15 year olds on vast sums of money at some clubs.

A lot of the footballers we've worked with come from backgrounds where, quite often the father was absent, so there was lack of a good male role model. When these youngsters join the clubs the older pros become the role models. The way those pros look, the way they speak, the way they look is transferred to the younger players. Of course they're not necessarily the ones who are living their lives quietly, with good habits and respect for others.

Young sportspeople might be given all sorts of information on nutrition, carbs intake and this and that, but no one tells them what happens if they go out drinking heavily, and how it affects the mind and the body. They must have that knowledge to make an informed choice. It's up to them what they do but they must be told the consequences of their actions.

Most of the people we see here are those who no one cares about and have no money. We do treat famous people as well and Tony Adams has been one of our greatest supporters. Over the years he has given thousands of pounds of his own money to help the project. You never hear him talk about it but his commitment to our work is total.

I was hugely impressed with Tony's honesty, despite the pressure of being the captain of Arsenal and England. He told me that, as an athlete looking for help with alcoholism, there was nothing for him. He could have gone somewhere like The Priory which does very good work, but they didn't have a gym or a pool. He needed the discipline of physical exercise to help him with his problems.

We started this together and appointed staff who had first hand knowledge of the problems that we were trying to overcome. Tony wanted to set up something for athletes so that they could come and be treated for addictions, but remain fit at the same time. He knew that the discipline of training and keeping fit was one of the first things to go when his life started getting out of control.

The core elements in our programme are all based on what worked for Tony Adams. This pattern is nearly always the case with our clients. Their form dips, yet they don't devote enough time to training. The manager drops them from the team, they get depressed so they drink and gamble more to try and change the way they feel - it's a vicious circle.

Although we do receive some financial support from various governing bodies of sport we treat everyone here the same. Over the years we have come to realise that a lot of great kids come out of bad homes and a lot of bad kids come out of good homes. Everyone is different, whatever their background or their financial means. We are here to help and we've never turned anyone away on the grounds of money.