U.S. Center for SafeSport’s first-ever National Coaches Survey Report generated a good amount of media buzz yesterday.
The full report can be found here. The main focus is athlete safety and abuse prevention — SafeSport was established by Congress to protect against emotional, physical and sexual abuse in Olympic and Paralympic sports. But the data regarding parents was very headline-friendly for ESPN and other outlets:
57% of impacted* coaches received threats from parents
56% of impacted coaches were verbally abused by parents
47% of impacted coaches were discriminated against by parents
38% of impacted coaches were physically abused/harmed by parents
38% of coaches believe lack of parent understanding is barrier to athlete safety
* — percentages reflect coaches who have suffered verbal excuse, etc., not all coaches surveyed
Another big topic: Coaching burnout. A whopping 85% of all coaches surveyed said they have felt burnt out at some point in the last five years.
65% of coaches have seriously considered quitting at some point in that span
Female coaches had a higher burnout rate then male coaches (92% to 82%)
Female coaches were also more likely to seriously consider quitting (74% to 61%)
The survey did find 88% of coaches believe they can raise concerns about athlete welfare to their organizations; 84% believe athletes who report abuse would be believed and supported and 76% are confident orgs will address concerns appropriately.
But female coaches were roughly 10 points less confident than male coaches on the above questions.
Quick Take: Close to 3.5K coaches participated in the survey across 66 sports. Soccer was by far the most represented sport with 37% of respondents, but it is worth noting many of the other sports with high coach participation skewed individual and/or less prominent — e.g. skiing had the second-most coaches participate at just over 9%.
That makes sense for an organization that is heavily involved in Olympic sports and NSOs, but those are also sports prone to more frequent (and more intense?) coach/parent interactions.
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