Educating Coaches on Abusive Coaching Practices
There has been increased media coverage related to allegations of abusive coaching practices, and although garnering significant media attention, the issue is not new. However, in order to recognize abusive practices within sport and continue to promote positive sport experiences for youth and elite athletes, we must first clearly define what constitutes abusive coaching. We then need to educate stakeholders so they can understand and recognize coaching practices that are outside the realm of tough coaching and constitute abuse. Therefore, the clearer we can define abusive coaching practices, the more we can create change through education, awareness/recognition, and accountability. This delineation will allow for not only more positive sport experiences for athletes, but also greater protection for coaches and organizations from potential litigation and legal ramifications (e.g., University of California Berkeley recently spent 2 million investigating allegations of abusive coaching).
Abuse occurring within sport generally falls under the umbrella of relational abuse, which is abuse that occurs within a relationship that is critical to a person’s sense of “safety, trust, and fulfillment of needs” (Stirling & Kerr, 2009, p. 227). The coach-athlete relationship can constitute a critical relationship, particularly at the elite level of sport (Stirling & Kerr, 2013). Further, relational abuse spans different forms of abuse including physical, sexual, and emotional (Stirling & Kerr, 2009). Emotional abuse, however, seems to be the hardest form of abuse to clearly define and identify. Therefore, because of this ambiguity, it is important to educate coaches regarding how to clearly define emotional abuse. Emotional abuse behaviors typically fall into one of three categories. (1) physical non-contact behaviors (e.g., throwing an object out of anger without touching the athlete); (2) verbal behaviors (e.g., humiliating or ostracizing the athlete); and (3) denial of attention and support (e.g., giving the athlete the “silent treatment”, Stirling & Kerr, 2008).
In all cases, experiences of abuse can have both immediate as well as lasting effects on the athlete. Some of the lasting effects from experiencing abusive coaching can range from decreased self-esteem to clinical mental health diagnoses to dropping out of the sport entirely (Alexander et al., 2023). Elite swimmers who experienced abusive coaching practices, reported needing up to six years of professional mental health counseling after retiring from sport to feel as though they had mentally recovered from their experience (Stirling & Kerr, 2013).
So what can we do about abusive coaching practices? We first need to recognize that the majority of coaches are coaching because of a love for the sport and/or a love for the athletes and do not intend to cause harm. However, as a society, we have accepted and normalized abusive coaching practices, and therefore, in order to break the cycle, there needs to be intentional and deliberate education for coaches, administrators, staff, and athletes.
References
Alexander, K. N., Adams, K. V., & Dorsch, T. E. (2023). Exploring the impact of coaches’ emotional abuse on intercollegiate student-athletes’ experiences. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/10926771.2023.2166441
Stirling, A. & Kerr, G. A. (2008). Defining and categorizing emotional abuse in sport. European Journal of Sport Science, 8(4), 173–181. https://doi.org/10.1080/17461390802086281
Stirling, A. & Kerr, G. (2009) Abused athletes perceptions’ of the coach-athlete relationship. Sport in Society, 12(2), 227-239. DOI: 10.1080/17430430802591019
Stirling, A., & Kerr, G. A. (2013). The perceived effects of elite athletes’ experiences of emotional abuse in the coach-athlete relationship. International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 11(1), 87–100. https://doi.org/10.1080/1612197X.2013.752173
