It’s not easy to keep up with the responses from NCAA Gymnastics teams.
How much is empty talk? How many will improve over coming seasons?
Catch up by listening to episode #428: Black Lives Matter This Week Too
GymCastic was disappointed with “empty platitudes from coaches like Dana Duckworth and Courtney Kupets-Carter“.
One concept new to me was optical allyship: when we focus on ourselves rather than the victims. It’s a dodge. For example …
https://twitter.com/CoachJeffGraba/status/1268979062992756736
One ‘tell‘ for me is whether or not statements include Black Lives Matter #BlackLivesMatter.
If not, they are usually avoiding the biggest controversy to not offend somebody or other. Weak support.
Check too if there’s an actual apology for past injustice at the University. A promise of action in future. If not, it’s likely just weasel words. Nothing will change.
GymCastic was impressed that K.J. Kindler and Mark Williams marched for George Floyd.
Cal Women’s Gymnastics supported the Black Lives Matter run June 8th. A good sign.
Other sports have done more. Especially football. A racist coach was put on leave at Iowa. His base pay $800,000 / year.
Gymnastics Coaching.com 
While Duckworth has done some other questionable things, the reason coaches might not be saying anything publicly is because they’re not allowed to by the University. I work at a University and while I am on University time, I am not allowed to say anything about this or anything political. So before we judge the coaches for not saying anything publicly, make sure you know whether they can or can’t.
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Good point. I’m sure there are some workplace restrictions
Still, we should be working towards removing those restrictions as IOC is doing right now.
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