Abusive sports coaches

Our PE teacher was a waste of space. She wore shorts of the 'divided skirt' style and under them you could see her long pink knickers. She hadn't much of a clue about anything. Senior pupils organised hockey teams - very successfully - without much input from her. In the few weeks before the Christmas parties she gave us lessons in dancing - strictly not ballroom!

It would appear that a lot of PE teachers, at least in our days at school, were bullies. They did seem to relish humiliating less able pupils, and heaping praise on their 'favourites'. I expect they've just learned to hide it better these days.

I hated PE teachers too. I was bookish not sporty!

Not only did I hate the PE teachers at school, who devoted 90% of their attention to the good athletes, but I never met one I liked when I was teaching!

At my first PE lesson at secondary school the teacher introduced herself as 'the witch' and said we would soon find out why.....any boy did we find out. She was pure evil. I wasn't exactly built for sport. I was good at hockey ..well bulk helps there lol...but everything else was a nightmare and she humilated me week after week after week.

When my son was 7 he joined a Baseball Little League team when we lived in New York. It was part of several teams in our area for these kids. There was a weekly practice and a match every day - right next to Rikers Island funnily. How lucky we were with our coach and his assistant. The coach was a friend and his son was a school mate of my son and several boys and a couple of girls went to the same school. I say lucky as the other coaches were horrible and foul mouthed. We rarely won a match but at the end Roy - the coach - would say that they had played well and had done their best. Meanwhile the coach of the winning team spent his time haranguing his team because they hadn't won by a big enough margin. Our kids were horrified and so pleased that although they might not win many matches they learnt how to behave in a sportsman like manner.
I hated P.E. but loved softball and volleyball - luckily in all the many schools I went to the P.E. teachers were ok.

PS
We must protect today's children from all such coaches and PE teachers. Whether it is ordinary bullying or sexual nastiness we have to be vigilant.

What happened to me was very mild, but it left me loathing sport all my life (except cycling of course). It even ruined my educational chances because Mum insisted I leave school after my O levels: I wanted to stay and do A levels, and would have fought for this much harder, except for the thought of never having PE again.

At junior school we went to swimming once a week at a local pool, and the resident coach terrified us. He did not succeed in teaching any of us to swim; he threatened us with a long wooden pole when we were in the water, then when we were getting changed in curtained cubicles that surrounded the pool, he would pull open the curtains and shout at us to hurry up.

Of course, we knew nothing of paedophiles back then, so we just guarded one another, by one girl getting changed while the other gripped the curtain to keep it closed!

Later, at grammar school our PE mistress was abusive in a different way. She was just plain nasty to non-sporty types like me. Outside of school I did sports that were nothing to do with school - judo and cycling - and loved the way the coaches and experts were kind to us. Huge contrast. At judo we were taught 'breakfalls' which involved a sort of forward somersault and landing in a certain way. At school in gym one day we had to do something similar, so I did it really well. She was beside herself with fury at not being able to make her usual nasty criticism, but she could not say anything.

My one little triumph.

The NSPCC have a Child Protection in Sport Unit and there's lots of helpful online advice for parents. Any coach working with children has to have an enhanced CRB check. The governing bodies who simply ban coachs and don't take action to ensure these rogue coaches don't go elsewhere do children no favours. Fortunately, the majority are doing the job for good reasons. I have a great-niece who is a sports coach and has just graduated with a 2:1 in Sport Science - she undergoes regular Safeguarding training and there is a Code of Conduct she has to abide by. As Greatnan says, credentials should be checked - sports coaches have to demonstrate their qualifications and suitability for the job like anyone else who is working with children.

When I was at school there was a male swimming teacher who used to help the girls 'adjust' their straps and the fastening on their bikini tops. It happened to one girl so often she twagged lessons and got punished. None of us reported him because although it made us feel uncomfortable he made it seem so innocent.

Anyone in a position of power is in a potential position to abuse. Of course, there are many who don't, but there are too many who do. "I did not have sex with that woman."