In a recent Q&A session Gretchen Kerr, vice-dean of academic affairs at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education talks about her role as a volunteer athlete welfare officer with Gymnastics Canada and her views regarding emotional abuse.
As a psychologist Kerr’s field of expertise is the emotional abuse of athletes which she is using to advocate policy change and influence coach education. …
There is a fine line between pushing an athlete to be their best and maltreatment. That line is crossed when the athlete performs through fear and intimidation rather than their desire to achieve.
In their paper Stirling and Kerr (2008) report that emotional abuse takes the form of physical behaviours, verbal behaviours and the denial of attention and support – bullying, berating, humiliating, degrading and intimidating/threatening are all forms of emotional abuse. …
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Emotional abuse has been little documented compared against sexual abuse.
