Coaching is Different Now

Trigger Warning - this post may upset people who think that everything was great back in the 80s and that blind obedience to abusive behaviour acceptable if you win.

Coaching is different now and everyone needs to get onboard. The coaching methods of the past are no longer acceptable in a world where children have a voice and get taught how adults should behave towards them.

There are many sports who have made changes to their coach education and development processes, based on reviews of coach behaviour back in the early 2000s (amongst other things). With sustained focus on this evolution changes will become the norm, but there are still many coaches and parents who accept behaviour which has been marginalised by society for quite some time.

There are hundreds (thousands?) of research articles documenting how to teach  and coach effectively, without abuse. The answers are there. But we are still getting news articles like these about swimming. Hopefully they will dwindle as coaches embrace the many ways of developing elite performers without abuse.