USA Swimming Safe Sport Newsletter

The purpose of this newsletter is to provide a foundation that allows for direct on-going communication with each of you. Information contained within will cover the most current Safe Sport related information. If you have any feedback, comments or suggestions, please e-mail us at athleteprotection@usaswimming.org.

Safe Sport Updates

Please help us recognize Paul Stauder, Safe Sport Coordinator for Indiana Swimming. Paul first became involved with USA Swimming as a member of the media and later got involved with USA Swimming when his son was old enough to join. Paul covered the Olympic Trials and the 1996 Atlanta Games and has spent many years volunteering in numerous capacities. He sees the Safe Sport Program as a framework to educate everybody in swimming about potential dangers that can crop up, both in and out of the water. At Indiana’s House of Delegates meeting in October, Paul presented the athlete training module to approximately 75 high school-age swimmers as well as to the coaches and club presidents. This training was well received by the athletes and sparked some good questions by the club presidents. Starting this month, Paul also has scheduled time to start presenting the athlete training to athletes from individual clubs. Paul is a great example of how LSC Safe Sport Coordinators can really make a difference at the local level. Thank you, Paul!

Safe Sport is now on Deck Pass! We are pleased to see that the Safe Sport Training for parents and athletes has recently been added as a “perks” promotion on Deck Pass. This is a great tool to increase users of the parent and athletes trainings.

Splash magazine and the parent training. Please look for a Safe Sport ad in the November/December issue of USA Swimming’s Splash magazine. You can access more information about Splash magazine here.

Training and Education

We continue to offer free webinars as Safe Sport educational opportunities! In October, Sarah Pharr of Praesidium presented on peer-to-peer abuse prevention. If you were not able to attend the webinar you can access it here (Note: scroll down to the bottom of the list).

Our next webinar will be in December, and it will address Risk Areas and How to Respond to Boundary Violations.

As a reminder, if you are interested in bringing a speaker to your HOD or Swimposium to speak on Safe Sport issues, please contact athleteprotection@usaswimming.org.

Remind Your Clubs

Renewals are available for the Mandatory Athlete Protection Training for Non-Athlete Members. All expiration dates for individuals renewing their athlete protection training in 2013 have been pushed back to Dec. 31, 2013. These individuals will have until that date to renew their athlete protection training for 2014. You can access the training here for either renewals or the first time taking the training.

Safe Sport Literature

We all know that bullying can be a destructive issue in so many ways. Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Ask.FM and other social media outlets make it especially difficult for kids to escape bullying even after school lets out or when practice has ended. Please click here for some tips from ConnectSafely.com on how to handle cyberbullying.

Also, click here for a great one pager that highlights simple strategies that can be passed along to athletes as a resource for ways that empower them to be a supporter for putting an end to bullying.

Lastly, please click here to see a chart that provides a clear definition of bullying in the sports world which was developed by National Anti-Bullying Speaker and Bullying Expert Dr. Joel D. Haber PhD. Dr. Haber developed this chart to help team members become more aware of when they are crossing the line in an inappropriate way. This would be a great resource to use when/if a bullying situation comes up at a club.