From Black Cap to Betterman
Former Black Cap Todd Astle is using lessons from professional sport to help Kiwi men talk about wellbeing, but without making it feel like a mental health seminar.
Astle is one of the founders of BetterMan, a Christchurch-based wellbeing charity set up with his brother Ryan Astle and former professional rugby player Ged Robinson.
The organisation runs events, school and workplace workshops, and a weekly men’s exercise and connection group, with a strong focus on positive psychology and prevention.
Astle says the idea grew naturally from the founders’ sporting backgrounds and their interest in team culture and looking after the people around them.
“We thought, why don’t we run fun events that we would actually want to attend?” he says.
“Then there’s that ripple effect where our mates bring their mates, and it grows from there.”
BetterMan’s approach is deliberately informal.
Rather than leading with mental health, its events use humour, games, sport and competition to bring people together, with wellbeing messages introduced along the way.
“We understand that a lot of Kiwi men and boys are struggling, so it’s about asking how we can have a fun approach to mental health,” Astle says.
“You can layer in the positive psychology, wellbeing and mental health aspects, rather than almost scaring people off by saying, ‘We’re running a mental health workshop or wellbeing event.’”
Astle says sport has given the BetterMan team a useful way to connect with men who might otherwise be reluctant to engage with the subject.
“I think it’s using our profiles in sport and allowing people to feel a bit more disarmed.
“We can have fun and share our stories, and that then gives permission for others to do the same.”
BetterMan describes its role as helping build the “fence at the top of the cliff”, rather than waiting until people are in crisis.
Its programmes focus on practical ways people can maintain and improve their wellbeing, including relationships, resilience, emotional regulation and positive emotions.
BetterMan recently held its first Rural Edition of Quiz and Some Other Shizz in conjunction with North Canterbury and Mid Canterbury Rural Support Trusts.
The event took the BetterMan format toa rural audience, using a quiz, games, humour and guest speakers to bring people together while introducing some of the wider wellbeing messages behind the organisation.
Astle says farmers may already be carrying significant pressure when they walk into a mental health event, and confronting stories do not necessarily work for everyone.
“Our approach is about fun, engagement and interaction,” he says.
“Then you’re able to take that positive approach and look at, how can I maintain or improve my wellbeing? What can I put in place? What strategies and tools are going to support me to be at my best?”
Astle says that approach is particularly relevant in industries such as farming, where there can be a culture of simply getting on with the job.
“We hear it time and time again in farming and construction,” he says.
“There can be that stoic, ‘she’ll be right, just get on with it’ mentality.
“We want to challenge that and create environments where guys can come together in their own spaces, where stories can be told and people can have fun.”
Connection is a recurring theme in Astle’s own story.
He spent close to two decades playing professional cricket for Canterbury and also represented New Zealand before gradually stepping away from the game.
Despite planning for retirement, he says leaving a team environment that had shaped most of his adult life was still difficult.
“I guess the hardest thing for me was leaving the WhatsApp group with the Canterbury cricket team, which had basically been my family for close to 20 years.”
His friendships, routine and much of his identity had been tied to cricket.
“Nothing really prepares you,” he says.
“It’s probably like parenting. You can do all of the antenatal courses and things, but then when it happens, you are having to navigate that.”
Astle deliberately wound down his cricket career in stages and had already begun working as a mental skills coach before retiring.
He says many of the skills he was teaching other athletes became useful during his own transition.
“A lot of the things that I was teaching, I was kind of needing to practise as well around resilience and self-talk and routines.”
He now runs mental skills business Innerspin alongside his work with BetterMan.
Astle says major changes in identity and connection are not unique to professional athletes.
People can experience the same thing when they leave school, change jobs, become parents, move towns, stop playing sport or take on new responsibilities.
In rural communities that might mean finishing rugby, leaving Young Farmers, taking over the family farm or simply having less time to catch up with mates.
“We’re all going through transitions at different stages of our lives,” he says.
“Our identities can be so wrapped up in those things.”
BetterMan uses the acronym BYC to describe its approach: Betterment, Yarns and Competition.
Astle says competition brings the banter and interaction familiar to many men, while the “yarns” provide opportunities for connection.
That philosophy is also behind Six Ten Better Men, held every Friday morning at Halswell Rugby League Club.
The group meets at 6.10am for a short bodyweight workout, games and conversation.
“It is a chance to start the day with that physical wellbeing, but also that social connection, which we know is vital,” Astle says.
BetterMan also works in schools and workplaces and has run events featuring speakers including broadcaster Scotty Stevenson, Matt Heath and Between Two Beers hosts Seamus Marten and Steve Holloway.
Astle says the aim across all of its work remains much the same: giving people practical tools to look after themselves, creating opportunities to connect and making conversations around wellbeing easier to start.
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