Care, Costs in Coaching

 

Coaching is known to be a ‘caring activity’ where athletes are encouraged to flourish both as people and players (Corin and Armour, 2018). From experience, there has been one coach in my entire sporting career who will go up and beyond to ensure that all there athletes feel happy and safe, not only in there sporting environment but in all areas and aspects of their life, such as in school and at home. This coach is very passionate about their sport and truly care about every individual. Other coaches however don’t have all the athlete’s best interest in mind, coaching is just a job to them and so they conduct the bare minimum in regards to caring for every athlete, unless they feel they are gaining something by doing more e.g. Winning games, developing the next best athlete or for their own satisfaction. My question to you as coaches is are your athletes truly given the support to be successful or is this support to be successful come at the expense of the athlete’s welfare.

Successful coaching requires successful coach-athlete relationships. It’s an interpersonal act which involves coaches being “complementary”, “committed” and “close” with their athletes to facilitate with the development of trust in their relationship and to allow the athletes to prosper both on and off the floor (Cole and Gilbert, 2009; Corin and Armour 2018 p44-61). The boundaries in conducting these behaviours however  are often overstepped, compromising the safety and welfare of the athlete.

Corin and Armour (2018) identified that there are far too many reported and unreported examples of care neglections in sport. Like other laws, just because the Duty of Care act is enforced doesn’t mean everyone will abide by it, instead some coaches use their power to exploit their athletes through the conduction of unlawful behaviours and false promises (Duty of Care in sport review | CPSU, 2021). On the split side, due to the awareness on the duty of care act false accusations are made against coaches, destroying their life built careers and so many coaches have withdraw from sport in avoidance (Mirsafian 2016; Piper et al, 2012).

False promises which allow athletes to believe that the coaches “care” and their best interests are at heart result in athletes conducting  harmful actions (drugs; excessive diets; excessive training; physical contact). They trust their coaches and if their coaches say something they understand that this is the only way they can be successful. If they don’t fall through with what is asked, they understand it could be detrimental to their sporting career (Cart 1990; Greechan 2014; Piper et al 2012) . This is a form of black mail and manipulation which has caused individuals to do things against their will and at the cost of their health and wellbeing.

The balance between ‘Welfare’ and ‘Winning’ is therefore questionable, with the awareness that the welfare of an athlete is sometimes compromised as a price to pay for their success. This “will to win”, “win at all costs” mentality athletes endure shouldn’t be at the expense of the safety and welfare of the individual. In fact, I believe it to give more reason to protect athletes from the potential harm which may come my way.

Welfare directors and Performance Lifestyle Advisors both being job roles within the higher end of sport, highlight that I’m clearly not the only one to feel that welfare corruption happens too often and shouldn’t be at the expense of the athlete’s chances of success. But why are these job roles only at the higher end of the sporting spectrum? What about community sports and athletes? Is there welfare not as important as those elite athletes? Or is this “privilege” only there for those who give back to the sporting governing bodies through finances and medals?

 

References

Cart, J. (1990), Hearing Focuses on DeBus Track and field: TAC panel adjourns after hearing testimony from coach accused of providing drugs to athletes: Home Edition, Tribune Interactive, LLC, Los Angeles, Calif.

Child Protection in Sport Unit (CPSU). 2021. Duty of Care in sport review | CPSU. [online] Available at: <https://thecpsu.org.uk/resource-library/publications/duty-of-care-in-sport-review/> [Accessed 27 May 2021].

Cronin, C. and Armour, K. eds., (2018). Care in sport coaching: Pedagogical cases. Routledge.

Cronin, C. and Armour, K., (2018). Nurturing care in sport coaching: Jane’s story. In Care in Sport Coaching (pp. 44-61). Routledge.

Fisher, L.A., Bejar, M P., Larsen, L.K., Fynes, J.M., and Gearity, B.T. (2017). Caring in US National Collegiate Athletic Association division 1 sport: The perspectives of 12 female and male head coaches. International Journal of Sports Coaching Science and Coaching, 12(1), 75-91. DOI:10.1177/1747954116684388

Greechan, J .(2014), Waiting to take the PLUNGE; Benson is pushing his body to breaking point in the hope it will all be worth it in the end, Solo Syndication, London (UK)

Mirsafian, H. (2016), "Legal Duties and Legal Liabilities of Coaches toward Athletes", Physical culture and sport studies and research, vol. 69, no. 1, pp. 5-14

Piper, H., Taylor, B. & Garratt, D. 2012, "Sports coaching in risk society: No touch! No trust", Sport, education and society, vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 331-345.