Not only is he a very talented MAN v FAT Coach who has built a fantastic community in our Bournemouth club, but Steve Couch is also a highly skilled author – and he’s just released his latest novel, ‘Imogen Imagine’.
With the new title going live this week, we caught up with Steve to find out more about the book and what he’s learned in putting it together.
How long have you been involved with MAN v FAT?
I’ve coached the Bournemouth club for almost five years now. I hadn’t actually heard of MAN v FAT before I saw the job advert, but as soon as I looked into it I loved the concept and knew that it was something I wanted to be involved with.
In those five years, it’s been a privilege to see so many people make huge changes to their lives. We’ve had 23 players become BMI Bosses, lost over 2,300kg as a club, and had at least one player in the Amazing Losers match for each of the last three years. I’m hoping that we’ll extend that run next year – we’ve got a couple of lads who are in with a chance.
More importantly, I love the community that we’ve established at the club, with amazing levels of mutual support and friendship that go far beyond just playing football together on a Friday night. It’s genuinely a pleasure to spend my Friday nights in a subterranean room in a leisure centre weighing fat blokes (not a sentence I would ever have imagined myself saying before hearing about the job).
You combine your work with MAN v FAT with being a published author. Is there any crossover between the two roles?
On a superficial level, as well as the simple weekly roundup that the new system automatically produces, I also write a weekly report which goes out on our WhatsApp group. I enjoy the challenge of trying to make it fresh and entertaining each time, as well as taking the opportunity to nudge the players’ attitudes in the right direction.
There are a few running jokes that have established themselves through the reports – the official unit of measurement for weight-loss at Bournemouth is now the Kylie (46kg). We have a few players who have lost an entire Kylie in weight all by themselves, and the club record is Season 9 (236kg lost) which was heralded as a five-Kylie season.
More seriously, if there’s a link between the two roles, it’s empathy. As an author, I want readers to identify with the characters in my books, to get into their heads and to feel something of what they’re experiencing.
The books I write tend to be character-led, with my main characters being lost or broken and needing to find a way out of their current situation, either getting back to where they belong or on to something better.
That kind of empathy is something that I think is one of the byproducts of MAN v FAT as well and the bonds that form within the community. There’s a corny but true motto in coaching: ‘players won’t care what you know until they know that you care’, and I hope that my players get a sense of being genuinely cared for by me and by others at the club.
I used to be a full-time Youth Worker, and the pastoral side of my role as a coach taps into the same mindset of caring for and supporting people as they work out their way forward.
Tell us about the latest book and its storyline
It’s about a young woman, Immy, whose life gets derailed when her ex-boyfriend becomes a massive pop star on the back of a song about their breakup. Everyone thinks they know her story, but what they really know is Carl’s version of events, which is very different to Immy’s.
When she tries to reclaim the narrative and get her side out into the world, it has unexpected repercussions both for her and for her ex. We’ve even recorded the song as well – it’s available on all the major streaming platforms: Imogen Imagine by Carl Denby.
How did writing this book compare to those you’ve put together previously?
The most obvious shift is that the main characters in my previous books have both been middle-aged men, whereas now I’m writing from the perspective of a 20-year-old woman. I’ve never been a 20-year-old woman, and the time that I was closest to women of that age (when I was a 20-year-old man!) was a long time ago in a very different cultural setting.
I had to work hard to get Immy’s voice right and to make her feel like an authentic, believable character. Feedback from my early readers is that she feels real, so I think I’ve got away with it!
How does writing help with your own personal wellbeing? Do you find it a creative escape from day to day life?
I love writing, and it’s not so much an escape from day-to-day life as an integral part of my day-to-day life. When I’m making progress with a story, it definitely adds to my sense of wellbeing. It’s a nice balance with the other things I do for a job (as well as MAN v FAT, I also go into local primary schools as a football coach and run lunchtime or after-school clubs).
Writing is a solitary and sedentary pastime, whereas the other two are much more physically active and involve lots of interaction with other people. I think I need both of those things from a wellbeing point of view (so if the book sales suddenly take off, I’ve got no intention of giving up my involvement with MAN v FAT!)
What aspects of the book might be relevant to our MAN v FAT community?
I realised quite early on in the process of scoping out the book, that Immy needed to have some trauma in her past to explain quite why the song has such a triggering impact on her. There are some fairly big mental health issues, for her and for people that she loves, that get an airing in the book.
One of the things that most impresses me about MAN v FAT is the way that while its focus is on weight-loss, it’s about far more than just that. I’ve seen players at Bournemouth make huge steps forward in their mental health during their time with us, growing in confidence but also being able to talk about much bigger issues and to get meaningful support from the community.
I’d love to think that Imogen Imagine might have a positive effect on readers in a similar way: helping them to reflect on any situations in their own life that overlap with Immy’s experience (I’m not talking about having a song written about them here!) and to maybe take steps forward in moving on from those things.
Of course, first and foremost it’s a book that’s written to entertain, to grab the reader’s interest and make them want to keep reading, but I’ve tried to tackle the mental health side of the story in a responsible and helpful way.
