Child protection training in sport-related degrees and initial teacher training for physical education: An audit

This article reports on an online survey of child protection training for students on sport-related and Initial Teacher Training Physical Education degrees, and on the views of recently graduated teachers of the usefulness of such training in their everyday work. The results indicate that child protection training is provided in most courses but in varying amounts. Respondents to the survey reported positively, in the main, about the effects of new requirements for teacher training (Every Child Matters: Change for Children, Department for Education and Skills, 2004). Reasons given for not including child protection in courses were: lack of time; the perceived vocational nature of the topic; lack of fit with course aims and objectives; lack of relevance; and the research rather than professional orientation of the course. Recently graduated teachers' views on their pre-service child protection training differed from the claims made about this in the survey. In particular, they raised concerns about their lack of preparation for dealing with potential child protection situations. The article concludes that child protection training within sport-related degrees is deficient in both consistency of delivery and in content, and that, in addition to preparing students to recognise signs and indicators of abuse, curricula should also address undergraduates' confidence and skills for responding to abuse in their everyday professional practice

Kicking ‘No Touch’ Discourses into Touch: Athletes’ Parents’ Constructions of Appropriate Adult (Coach)-Child (Athlete) Physical Contact

It has been suggested that sport is increasingly becoming a ‘no-touch zone’ as some coaches, driven by a desire for selfprotection, restrict their use of physical contact with (child) athletes in the belief that this reduces their risk of being accused of abuse. Research on coachathlete physical contact is limited, however, and no studies have yet explored how athletes’ parents understand such behaviours. This paper reports on a study that investigates athletes’ parents’ perspectives of appropriate coach-child athlete physical contact within youth swimming. Parents constructed physical contact as necessary and legitimate in three specific contexts and drew on children’s rights principles to rationalize this. This paper discusses the significance of this and explores the benefits of adopting child-centred coaching practices

Sports coaches as ‘dangerous individuals’ - practice as governmentality

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Sport, Education and Society on 31/03/2014, available online: doi: 10.1080/13573322.2014.899492Recent concern surrounding sports coaches’ interaction with young people has reflected a fundamental change in the way coaches and others regard the role of sports. In this paper, we consider the identification and definition of the contemporary sports coach (whether acting in a professional or volunteer capacity) as, in Foucault’s term, a ‘dangerous individual’. We suggest that the mainstream discourse of child protection and safeguarding, variously interpreted and applied, has contributed to a culture of fear in sports coaching practice. Drawing on data from a recently completed Economic and Social Research Council-funded research project, we argue that contradictions in policy and practice, which serve to privilege a particular discourse, have cast the coach as both predator and protector of young sports performers. This has undermined the role of the coach, led to intergenerational fear, created doubt about coaches’ intentions and promoted their adoption of defensive and protective practices. Utilising the concept of governmentality, we argue that, as a consequence, fundamental trust-based relationships, necessary in healthy athlete−coach engagement, have been displaced by a discourse embodied in sterile delivery and procedure governed by regulation and suspicion

Youth sports injuries and their immediate management: a review

Objectives: To identify the risk of injury to young people participating in non-elite sport, and to establish whether the immediate 'on-field' medical care they receive is adequate. Methods: A literature search of electronic databases was initially undertaken, in addition to searches of governmental bodies' websites; papers obtained were then cross-referenced and appropriate articles ordered through interlibrary loans. Results: A total of 24 relevant papers were identified for review. Conclusions: The lack of standardised injury definitions and surveillance methods confounds the development of injury prevention strategies for young athletes. Future studies should be designed to measure injury exposure, so injury rates can be calculated which will make analysis and comparisons easier and more meaningful. Further studies investigating the extent of coaches', teachers' and therapists' first-aid knowledge and qualifications, and also the quality of the training they receive would also help to determine whether young athletes are receiving adequate 'on-field' care