Touch in Sports Coaching and Physical Education

Book excerpt: In our increasingly risk-averse society, touch and touching behaviours between professionals and children have become a fraught issue. In sports coaching and physical education, touching young sports performers and participants has, in some contexts, come to be redefined as dubious and dangerous. Coaches find themselves operating in a framework of regulations and guidelines that create anxiety, for them and others, and for many volunteer (and sometimes professional) coaches, this fearful context has led them to question the risks and benefits of their continuing involvement in sport. Touch in Sports Coaching and Physical Education is the first book to explore this difficult topic in detail. Drawing on a series of international studies from the US, UK, Australia, Canada, Sweden and elsewhere, it presents important new research evidence and examines theories of risk and moral panic that frame the discussion. By challenging prevailing orthodoxies the book makes a significant contribution to critical discussion around practice, pedagogy, politics and policy in sport and physical education, and also informs current debates around the nature and quality of all in loco parentis relationships.