Category: parents

coaches ‘selling or spoiling’ sport

Wayne Smith is one of the most thoughtful and outspoken pundits on coaching.

Coaches and Officials – more than anyone else – are directly responsible for whether your sport succeeds or fails.

Coaches and Officials can be powerful and effective advocates for all the wonderful things your sport has to offer.

And they can be just as influential in contributing to the demise and even complete destruction of your sport.

So the question is: Are your coaches and officials Spoiling Sport or Selling Sport? …

New Sport Future
photo by NontrivialMatt – coach yelling at 4yr old

Independent review of Gymnastics Australia

… revealed “systemic risk factors” within the sport, including for child abuse and neglect, misconduct, bullying, abuse, sexual harassment and assault towards athletes.

The review, undertaken by the Human Rights Commission, was commissioned by Gymnastics Australia in August 2020 after serious complaints were made alleging mental and physical abuse of athletes. …

“Some of these risk factors also exist in many other sports, including significant power disparities between athletes and coaches and administrators,” the report, titled Change The Routine, stated. …

“There is a spotlight on the human rights of athletes around the world …

Twelve recommendations for change were made …

Australian gymnastics ‘a high-risk environment for abuse’, review finds

Read the report.

Beyond Safe Sport

Gretchen Kerr, University of Toronto:

  • At its core, the Safe Sport movement is about optimizing the sport experience for all—athletes, coaches, sport administrators, officials, support staff, and others in the sport environment.
  • Broader societal changes have influenced the Safe Sport movement: 
    • Changing approaches to child and youth development 
    • The #MeToo/Time’s Up movements 
    • Increased attention to equity, diversity, and inclusion 
    • Highly publicized cases of athlete maltreatment 
  • For sport leaders, understanding the process of change (i.e., denial, resistance, exploration, and commitment) can be useful to successfully embedding Safe Sport practices within their sport.

This article addresses the next steps in the Safe Sport journey; specifically, how to move from a focus on prevention of harms to a focus on optimizing the sport experience for athletes and sport leaders alike. This journey involves a cultural change in sport—one that challenges some traditionally accepted assumptions and practices and encourages the adoption of new methods. Building on my work with National Sport Organizations (NSOs), this article has three aims:

  1. To show that Safe Sport extends beyond the prevention of harms to the optimization of sport experiences;
  2. To highlight some of the broader societal influences on Safe Sport, which are also affecting other sectors in Canada and abroad;
  3. To address some of the common concerns and questions about Safe Sport. …

Next Steps in the Safe Sport Journey: From Prevention of Harm to Optimizing Experiences

Dutch Federation Abuse Report

A long-awaited report commissioned by Dutch gymnastics federation KNGU into the scale and nature of abuse in gymnastics has shown that former top athletes in particular have been the victim of ‘transgressive behaviour’, meriting apologies, after care and compensation. …

The problems ranged from ‘constant threats of humiliation, insults, negative criticism, being made a fool of, intimidation, isolation and threats’ to forcing gymnasts to practice with injuries and inciting them to lose too much weight.

Read more at DutchNews.nl: Intimidation, bullying rampant in top flight gymnastics: report

“Body Image” by Sydney Staier

Maryland athletes, including gymnasts, read Sydney’s important poem.

A good body is one that gets the job done.

Click PLAY or watch it on Twitter.

Sydney wrote that for herself. But when team dietitian, Paula Karamihas, saw it — she recommended it be shared.

Read the poem here.

Greek gymnasts abused

Nearly two dozen Greek gymnasts alleged they suffered decades of abuse and neglect “bordering on torture” at the hands of their coaches, in a letter published on Wednesday.

The letter was sent this week to Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou and Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis by 22 female and male athletes, revealed by Greek daily EfSyn.

It alleged “harsh and abusive” practices dating back to 1985 included forced fasting, psychological and physical punishment and sexual harassment. …

Greece in recent months has been rocked by a wave of allegations of sexual abuse in the fields of arts, sport and education.

More than three years after the #MeToo movement surfaced in the United States, the code of silence in Greece was broken in December by a two-time Olympic sailing medallist, Sofia Bekatorou. …

Greek gymnasts allege decades of abuse by coaches

#GymnastsatHome challenge

Dish to arch rolls.

Click PLAY or watch it on Twitter.

Dave Brubaker permanently banned

Gymnastics Canada (GymCan) acknowledges and accepts the decision reached by an independent discipline panel regarding formal written complaints received by GymCan against two elite coaches – David (Dave) Brubaker and Elizabeth (Liz) Brubaker.

The decision was received by all parties on Friday, March 12th, 2021.

Dave Brubaker was formerly the National Team Director for GymCan’s women’s artistic gymnastics national team …

The Panel ruled that Dave Brubaker is permanently banned and prohibited from any future application or attempt to gain reinstatement, membership, or any other status with Gymnastics Canada member associations or clubs. 
 
The Panel further ruled that Liz Brubaker’s suspension is extended until January 18, 2024, pending the completion of imposed reinstatement conditions. …

Gymnastics Canada by email

Yul on racism

One thing I like about sport is that people are far more likely to talk about an athlete’s toe point, than skin colour.

Most coaches want to work with the best athletes. Period. They can be purple skinned or albino, coaches don’t care.

Here’s what Yul has to say.

teen feminist empowerment

Gymnastics is one of the few domains where females are regarded as more important than males.

The opposite of American ConcussionBall.

It provides Simone Biles and other WAG influencers some power in how their lives are led.

The new Amy Poehler film MOXIE communicates some important messages for teens in 2021.

Here’s the clip that best sums up the themes.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.