A Touchy Subject: The Impact of Child Safeguarding Regulations on

Youth Swimming CoachesDr. Melanie Lang, Edge Hill University

Dr. Melanie Lang, Department of Sport and Physical Activity, Edge Hill University Langm@edgehill.ac.uk

1 Child Safeguarding in Swimming

Methods

What The Coaches Said3

What Does This Mean For Coaching?

I only feel like I can touch

people with kickboards not my hands and I think that’s very sad. It’s

protecting yourself rather

than the children. It’s very difficult now to bea coach.

I’m not a menace to society and I resent being made to feel as though I am. I resent

being told how I can and can’t coach. It’s totally wrong. ... it put issues up where they possibly shouldn’t be. Those

issues have always been there but now they’re major, you know, you can’t touch

them, you can’t do this, you can’t do that. It drives you

mad.

If a swimmer’s done well and you’re pleased for them, in the

past you’d give them a hug. Now you can’t. I watch what I do. I worry about being accused of

something. It can end your career.

You’ve got to be so careful

about how you handle a kid ‘cos

people jump to the

wrong conclusion. Everybody

is just ready for

suing each other, aren’t they?

4

To explore competitive youth swimming coaches’ perceptions

and opinions of the ASA’s child safeguarding strategy and the

impact of this on their practice, I observed 13 coaches of 17

2

The Amateur Swimming

Association (ASA) introduced a

child safeguarding strategy aimed

at protecting its members in 1996.

Since then, several high-profile

cases of child abuse within and

outside of sport have led scholars

to argue we now live in an era in

which social anxiety about child

abuse has become a ‘moral Picture credit: Jennifer Bradford

Some swimmers come up to me and give

me a hug and I’m like

‘wooaaah!’ You want to congratulate

them but you’re so scared of

what people are gonna

think so I don’t do it now.

You just touch their hand or their arm to point things out but you make sure you do it in

view of everyone. One wrong

move or comment and

that’s it: Career over.

I don’t want to be misinterpreted but I can’t

be doing with all the regulations. I’ve known

coaches say ‘I’m not going down that road anymore, I’m packing in.’ They’re

afraid to do things that are part of their job.

competitive squads at

three ASA-affiliated swim

clubs in the north.

Observations were

followed by interviews

with 12 of these coaches.

All were ASA qualified

and four were women.

Working in an environment where they are under constant

scrutiny/suspicion could prompt good coaches to leave the sport.

Moreover, the estrangement created between coach and athlete denies

adults and children a fulfilling, rewarding professional relationship.

panic,’ with safety from abuse defining every act of adult-child

touch as suspicious. As a result, an increasing amount of

attention is being paid to adult-child interaction, although little

attention has so far been paid to the impact of such an

environment on sports coaches and their practice.

Picture credit:Melanie Lang