Safety and Responsibility: It's Time to Step it Up

A brief history of the evolution of the legal process in sport and human performance BY MARC RABINOFF to develop coaches and fitness his January, Bigger Faster BEFORE AFTER trainers. Many of these programs, Stronger, Inc., will be unfortunately, did not adequately releasing the first book in prepare their graduates for their my three-part series about safety profession; and as a result, we and liability in coaching physical BEFORE AFTER started seeing lawsuits against education classes. Certainly there these individuals.

are many books available about the I testified in my first sportlegal process, but few are written related case in 1978, and since so that coaches and parents can Marc Rabinoff was involved in helping to “Feng then I have been involved in understand them. I will be discuss- Dr. Shui” the equipment in this high school weightroom to make it safer and to allow more students to train over 300 cases…and I have never ing the content of these books in at the same time. advertised!

I don’t even have a future issues of BFS magazine, website – all my work as a forensic What has made it different now but for this short article I want to expert has come about from word of compared to when I started years ago explain why I decided to take on this mouth and my professional publicais that sport has grown massively in project in the first place. tions and presentations. And this brings America.

For one thing, 40 years ago When I started teaching sport liability classes nearly three decades ago, women were seldom involved in sports, me to why I decided to write these three and most parents didn’t even want their books: there was no road map to follow, no Coaches, physical education daughters in sport. I started teaching concept of a forensic expert in human instructors and administrators must weight training classes in 1970, and performance and sport – none of that become better at what they do. If not, back then young women just didn’t existed. In fact, sport injury litigation injuries will occur, lives will be perenroll in my classes.

I did see girls in was one of the quietest aspects of injumanently affected, people will die and ries in civil suits. Forty years ago when I swimming and gymnastic classes, but very few women had any interest in lift- lawsuits will be filed. I’ve seen too many started teaching physical education and lives lost or tragically altered because sport-related classes it was very rare that ing weights. So sport was a male-domiof negligence to just stand by and do nated endeavor back then; and when a coach would be sued at all, because nothing. I have committed myself to someone got injured in sport, it was the word “coach”

was a very endearing being part of the change for the better, considered just a male problem – and term. Athletes, parents and the fans and that is why I do what I do. you moved on. loved and respected coaches. Surely, But as women became more coaches didn’t engage in sexual attacks, Dr. Marc Rabinoff is a regular involved in sport, there was a demand coaches didn’t cheat and lie; but if they contributor to BFS magazine and for more coaches and more adminisdid, their misbehavior was so far under is the author of the upcoming trators who knew sport and physical the radar that no one cared or no one book series, fitness.

And as a result, many of these ever caught on to it – certainly the The Dark fringe groups, especially personal trainer Side of Sports: media never caught it. If someone got Understanding hurt, it was simply because that was the organizations, saw the profit potential Safety and Liability. in developing educational programs nature of the sport.

From BFS Magazine — November/December 2008. Part of the BFS Magazine Archive (1980–2014).