British gymnastics safeguarding email

[GeneralMusings]

Gosh.

We're still on the edges of BG (trampolinist) so get BG emails.

And I'm shocked. It's a new thing that has had to be spelt out that if a Dr thinks a gymnast shouldn't practice the coaches should respect that... 😬.

Is it still this bad??

Probably! I’m a recreational coach tho and a much bigger issue is kids wanting to jump on injuries- they have to admit honestly how much it hurts and generally they don’t. If they have a competition coming up they don’t want to miss training…so it can be quite hard to discover.

I did in the past hear of a (very competitive) local club that didn't seem to hear about a parents concern about recovery and the parent gave in to the coach and made her daughter go... I remember it shocked me at the time.

But it was around 10 years ago. The girl went on to do very very well... But it stuck with me. Not all of them do and who gets hurt or their health overruled in the name of competition when they're still young. They desperately want to stay in the team/make the next team so they comply.

I genuinely thought we'd moved on with all the stuff in the news about historic gymnastic abuse.

We got out of it when I realised my 6 year old was scared to go on holiday as she'd miss practice... So an early escape but hence my interest.

I have 2 dds in the sport, 1 training 17 hours and the other training 10.

I dont think these emails matter, clubs will do and act as they want which is obvs awful.

As a parent ive made it clear my boundaries and that noone will over rule me, we are lucky that both clubs the girls are in seem to be very supportive however that will be down to the coach you have.

I do think there is pressure anyways as gymnastics particularly as a sport is extremely competitive and skills are required to come thick and fast, one skill can affect progression and i know this first hand.