Boys Don’t Cry, Girls Can’t Throw: How Sports Stars Are Redefining the Conversation Around Mental Health

Who has the power to spearhead the mental health revolution? Martin Nash believes it’s the world’s elite athletes.

In Boys Don’t Cry, Girls Can’t Throw, Martin presents the experiences of renowned sports figures and mental health champions, including Tyson Fury, Ben Stokes and Naomi Osaka, and uncovers the often-concealed struggles behind the allure of professional sports, exposing the immense pressure and relentless scrutiny athletes confront. But this book doesn’t just identify these challenges - it also examines the strategies, coping mechanisms and support systems vital for thriving in the high-stakes world of elite sports, ones that are easily transferrable to everyone’s lives, regardless of their athletic prowess.

All of these stories are interwoven with Martin’s interviews with sports psychologists and mental health advocates, as well as the narrative of his own mental health journey. In the end, Boys Don’t Cry, Girls Can’t Throw will show you that athletes’ experiences are not only relevant to us all, but have unparalleled power to move the conversation around mental health forward.

Born in 1984 in Wiltshire, England, Martin Nash studied politics and sociology at the University of East Anglia before moving to London. Despite lacking sporting prowess, Martin has worked in the sports world for much of his adult life, starting at Swindon Town Football Club in various roles, and for the past 15 years as a sports marketing researcher and strategist.

Inspired by his own mental health journey and the lack of comprehensive books linking sports and mental health, Martin wrote Boys Don’t Cry, Girls Can’t Throw. He excels in transforming complex, data-heavy studies into accessible narratives and has been recognized for his work, winning the UK Sponsorship Awards in 2022.