[ad_1]
TORONTO – Imagine a teacher who says to a child: you're fat. You are a shit. You are a waste of my time.
This kind of behavior would never happen in clbad, so Gretchen Kerr, a sports specialist, wonders why it is prevalent on playgrounds and in the gym.
While badual abuse is in the spotlight, Kerr said that Canadian sport also needs to look closely at the potential harm caused by psychological abuse, because of many high-profile cases.
"Society is generally aware that when young people experience badual harm, they suffer in one way or another for a very long time," Kerr said. "And what research shows, and I do not think it is as moving in the minds of the general public, is the same with psychological abuse, which is that when young people experience psychologically abusive relationships, the long-term negative consequences can be just as long-lasting and damaging. "
Kerr and his colleague, Bruce Kidd, a professor at the University of Toronto, spoke to Canadian sport leaders at a recent conference in Ottawa and used several concrete examples of young athletes. There was the swim coach who pitched skateboards on the kids. There was the coach who angrily threw the equipment around the locker room. Or the coach who refused to talk to his team for a week after a defeat.
A young athlete said that after a bad match, the team had to report to the field at 6 o'clock the next morning. The coach called it the "Breakfast Club". Players were forced to do sprints and push-ups until they vomited.
"It's shocking to see what coaches in particular can do in sport and we would never allow our children's teachers to participate," Kerr said. "Parents would be called to the carpet when they demonstrated these practices, the bosses would be in trouble, and yet we allow coaches to treat youth this way."
In a study of 3,760 coaches in Canada, 78% reported experiencing emotional abuse.
This type of abuse, Kerr said, can come in many forms, including derogatory comments, constant shouting, manipulation of attention and support, or recourse to exercise. as a punishment.
Kerr has handled more than 200 complaints as an athlete's badistant for Gymnastics Canada over the past 30 years and estimates that 95% of complaints relate to psychological abuse.
"The big difference between psychological abuse and badual abuse is that psychological abuse occurs in public, in training when other coaches are watching, when sports administrators monitor, and often when parents watch their children, "Kerr said.
"I realized: how can parents stay out and observe these behaviors when if the teacher did so, they would see the main division in lichets? parents, and they are very well intentioned, often well educated parents, who are initiated to the world of sport and the first time that they see these behaviors, are disconcerted, but they look for clues of parents who are in the world a little longer and find that they do not react.They also see the best children of the club treated this way.So they say to themselves: "Well, I guess it's just what it takes to create a top athlete. "
Kerr added that what is disconcerting is that this type of behavior and attitude goes against research on the best motivation of people.
"These practices in sports are all contrary.There is a huge gap between research on teaching and learning and what is really happening in the field of sport."
Lori Ewing, The Canadian Press
[ad_2]
Source link
