I don't know how much you're hearing about this in North America, but the Aussies are making a big stink about it. You can decide whether they're right to do so or not:
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=257137
My thoughts:
1. The footage should have never been broadcast in the first place. What goes on between a father and daughter or a coach and athlete is not a video clip for us to view and critique like a tabloid. It seems more like a papparazzi (sp) video than news footage. I am getting rather tired of seeing the toussle played over and over again. (If you're thinking I'm just making things worse by posting it, you'll get no argument from me).
2. This was nothing more than a teenage girl throwing a tantrum. She is unfortunate enough to have an over-eager parent who is also her coach. I have dealt with the pressure of being a competitive athlete at a young age, and I definitely got into a few nasty spats with my over-eager parents. Some of them were a hell of a lot worse that this clip. I'm not saying it's right, or excusable, but if you think this is an isolated incident, you're simply kidding yourself.
3. If you never have days when you want to kick your coach in the nuts, you're coach isn't doing his (or her) job. Do you think this young girl would be at the World Champs if there was nobody kicking her ass into the pool every morning and afternoon? I highly doubt it. Again, his behavior was by no means exemplary as a coach or a father. But coaches and families can have bad days, the same as athletes. These two just happened to be caught on tape.
Afterwords: The guy's coaching license has been revoked, and there are no criminal charges being laid. The girl was not physically harmed in the incident and is competing today.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Maybe I should put something nice here.
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=257137
My thoughts:
1. The footage should have never been broadcast in the first place. What goes on between a father and daughter or a coach and athlete is not a video clip for us to view and critique like a tabloid. It seems more like a papparazzi (sp) video than news footage. I am getting rather tired of seeing the toussle played over and over again. (If you're thinking I'm just making things worse by posting it, you'll get no argument from me).
2. This was nothing more than a teenage girl throwing a tantrum. She is unfortunate enough to have an over-eager parent who is also her coach. I have dealt with the pressure of being a competitive athlete at a young age, and I definitely got into a few nasty spats with my over-eager parents. Some of them were a hell of a lot worse that this clip. I'm not saying it's right, or excusable, but if you think this is an isolated incident, you're simply kidding yourself.
3. If you never have days when you want to kick your coach in the nuts, you're coach isn't doing his (or her) job. Do you think this young girl would be at the World Champs if there was nobody kicking her ass into the pool every morning and afternoon? I highly doubt it. Again, his behavior was by no means exemplary as a coach or a father. But coaches and families can have bad days, the same as athletes. These two just happened to be caught on tape.
Afterwords: The guy's coaching license has been revoked, and there are no criminal charges being laid. The girl was not physically harmed in the incident and is competing today.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Maybe I should put something nice here.