Swim Coaches in Trouble

Swimming is a clean sport. Some people take advantage of swimmers, that is not good. Crapping on the sport because of the weakness of a few is just lazy. Another sorry takeaway from this is how many good people are going to get lumped in with the bad. There is nothing inherently bad about the sport. However, it is very, very different than a great many other ones. The relationship between coaches and swimmers is very unique and individualistic for several reasons. First, start with teh fact that the sexes train together, unlike more popular team sports. The head coaches are more often than not, males. The fact that it is an individual sport means that swimmers get individual attention from their coaches at a level that exceeds most by a pretty long shot. Perhaps the biggest difference is the amount of time the two spend together. Not just the fact that a lot of high school kids spend a ridiculous number of hours in the pool (e.g. my daughter, 13, is working to get in over 17 hours per week during school, and 19 hours per week in the Summer), but they may start working together as early as 6-7 years old. Girls in particular can start excelling at a very young age, and some as young as 12 are making J-Nats, Trials, etc. By 13, the better ones are training with the senior swimmers (on our team, the fastest female swimmer in each event is just 13), so they may be training with the same head coach for 6 seasons. That's a long time to develop a level of trust. Add to that that girls in particular that age often seek approval from folks other than their parents, and it makes them more susceptible to the influence of a coach. I'm not saying that child predators are more likely to be in swimming, but I'm saying that people whose judgement may lapse are more exposed to opportunity in swimming than in a great many other activities.d So no, nothing inherent in swimming, but the environment certainly is different. And there have been tons of cases like this one where an older coach has a very, very inappropriate relationship with his swimmers.

Swimming is a clean sport. Some people take advantage of swimmers, that is not good. Crapping on the sport because of the weakness of a few is just lazy. Another sorry takeaway from this is how many good people are going to get lumped in with the bad. There is nothing inherently bad about the sport. However, it is very, very different than a great many other ones. The relationship between coaches and swimmers is very unique and individualistic for several reasons. First, start with teh fact that the sexes train together, unlike more popular team sports. The head coaches are more often than not, males. The fact that it is an individual sport means that swimmers get individual attention from their coaches at a level that exceeds most by a pretty long shot. Perhaps the biggest difference is the amount of time the two spend together. Not just the fact that a lot of high school kids spend a ridiculous number of hours in the pool (e.g. my daughter, 13, is working to get in over 17 hours per week during school, and 19 hours per week in the Summer), but they may start working together as early as 6-7 years old. Girls in particular can start excelling at a very young age, and some as young as 12 are making J-Nats, Trials, etc. By 13, the better ones are training with the senior swimmers (on our team, the fastest female swimmer in each event is just 13), so they may be training with the same head coach for 6 seasons. That's a long time to develop a level of trust. Add to that that girls in particular that age often seek approval from folks other than their parents, and it makes them more susceptible to the influence of a coach. I'm not saying that child predators are more likely to be in swimming, but I'm saying that people whose judgement may lapse are more exposed to opportunity in swimming than in a great many other activities.d So no, nothing inherent in swimming, but the environment certainly is different. And there have been tons of cases like this one where an older coach has a very, very inappropriate relationship with his swimmers.