America's foremost authority on Weight Training Lawsuits tells you the best ways to avoid legal trouble
here is a belief that when it health clubs and equipment manufaccomes to the possibility of getturers. He has represented both plainting sued, coaches have little to worry tiffs and defendants, and as such has about. After all, most coaches are developed valuable insight into identidedicated to helping athletes achieve fying the best approaches for his their physical potential and would clients. never consciously do harm. In this exclusive interview, Dr.
Everybody understands that coaches Rabinoff shares strategies you can use should be held in high regard because to make your conditioning programs they are teachers; and as such, isn’t it safe and discusses topics ranging from reasonable to expect their good intenthe value of strength coaching certificaMarc Rabinoff, Ed.D. tions to the relative safety of machines tions would be rewarded with a Sports and Fitness degree of “legal immunity” from the compared to free weights. We’re certain Liability Consultant legal system? Not quite. America has you’ll find many practical suggestions become an increasingly litigious socito improve your own programs.
ety, and coaches are just as vulnerable as anyone else BFS: Is it still true that most people are reluctant to to becoming involved in a lawsuit. sue coaches? There is no 100 percent guaranteed way to avoid lawsuits. The fact is you can be sued by anyone, at Rabinoff: In the past, lawsuits against coaches hapany time, for just about any reason. That’s the way pened, but certainly not at the rate we’re seeing now. our legal system works. Your aim should be to not Nowadays parents of athletes are not content to just give anyone a reason to want to sue you and to put sit back and look at coaches as if they couldn’t do yourself in the best possible position to win a lawsuit. anything wrong.
For example, we’re seeing lawsuits To help you accomplish these two goals, here’s some that deal with how coaches are treating the athletes expert advice from Marc Rabinoff, Ed.D. and even lawsuits involving sexual harassment. Dr. Rabinoff is a full professor and chair of the TDepartment of Human Performance, Sport and Leisure Studies at Metropolitan State College of Denver, Colorado. Possessing graduate degrees in administration and a master’s in physical education, Dr. Rabinoff is one of the most respected sports and fitness liability consultants in the nation.
Since 1980 he has served as an expert witness in over 200 lawsuits involving coaches, physical educators, schools, BFS: What are the common reasons people sue? Rabinoff: Most of the litigations I’ve worked on commonly relate to duty, standards of care, instructor qualifications, failure to warn and lack of supervision, equipment design defects and deficiencies, and inadequate equipment maintenance. Over the past two decades there has been a tremendous increase in the number of lawsuits against equipment manufacturers and weightroom operations. BFS: What do you mean by “duty”?
Rabinoff: This refers to the concept that there is a responsibility, a duty, of one person to another for their safety. In a lawsuit, the plaintiff first needs to establish that the defendant had a duty to him or her at the time of an injury. No duty, no lawsuit. their contracts for independent employees as to what their liability is. BFS: Will a waiver protect a health club? Rabinoff: I’ve found that waivers usually don’t hold up in a court of law. Instead of a waiver, what a health club wants is assumption-of-risk documents that prove that the person involved in an activity understands the risks involved.
BFS: Are there any specific BFS: If a duty is established, trends you see in lawsuits what happens next? against coaches? Rabinoff: The next step is for Rabinoff: Probably the most One of the most common reasons the plaintiff to show that the frequent lawsuit trend I’m seefor lawsuits against weight rooms duty was breached and that ing is in the area of profesis inadequate equipment maintethe injury was a result of the sional instructor qualifications, nance, as illustrated by this photo actions of the defendants. i.e., when a gym or health of a bench press taken recently at Then the plaintiff must show club does not have a staff of a high school weight room.
that the breach actually hapinstructors with recognized pened at that facility, a legal academic degrees, certificaconcept known as proximate cause. Finally, the plaintions or appropriate courses in continuing education. tiff must prove that there were damages. The idea is that instructors named in lawsuits must provide evidence that what they were doing was profesBFS: Many strength coaches and personal trainers sionally correct according to current standards and that believe that generally they are safe from lawsuits the injury was unforeseeable. because people will go after the organizations they work for, such as schools and health clubs.
BFS: What is the value of a certification for a strength Rabinoff: Not quite. Plaintiff lawyers try to name as coach or personal trainer? many defendants as possible to share fault, a concept Rabinoff: In theory, a certification means you went known as the “deep pockets” theory. In most states it through some course of study, you were tested and is the responsibility of the court to determine the balevaluated, and you are now certified to perform a parance of responsibility of the defendants to the plainticular task. A certification is a document that says you tiff.
In a case I worked on in 1997, $2.3 million was care, that you put out the effort, cost and time to learn, awarded to the plaintiff, with $1 million coming from that you want to learn more and that you’ve achieved a one insurance carrier, $750,000 from another insurmeasure of proficiency. The critical idea is to apply that ance carrier, and $850,000 from one manufacturer. knowledge and those skills to your job. BFS: Can’t a health club or school avoid problems simply by hiring independent contractors? Rabinoff: No, it doesn’t work that way—the trainee can still sue the health club.
If a health club is saying to the client that their trainers are working in their facility and using their equipment, they support them being here; and when the club is named in a suit, the trainer will be named also. That being said, I strongly recommend that a health club or any organization involved in physical fitness have an attorney review BFS: So the first thing a strength coach or personal trainer should do is become certified? Rabinoff: That’s one approach. But what I recommend for anyone in this field is to get a degree, whether it be an associate degree or a four-year degree in such areas as human performance of sport, physical education, adult fitness or exercise science.
These kinds of programs are offered in colleges and universities throughout every state. It’s the longest course of study available to prospective trainers: you take actual collegelevel classes, you actually do have to perform and you do learn the basics. After earning a degree, you can then focus on getting certified through groups in particular fields of expertise. BFS: Are certification organizations liable for the actions of those who receive certifications from them? Rabinoff: I get asked that question all the time.
I sit on the boards of some of these certification organizations and I say, “Look, at an entry level, if giving out information is what your certification is for, then go ahead and do it. However, if you say that this person can actually perform a skill, such as being able to mechanically spot a squat, that’s different. A certification may not reflect the person’s actual competence unless you’ve asked the right questions and truly have measured the level of his or her knowledge. So far I haven’t seen plaintiff attorneys take on national certification organizations for being inadequate or incompetent in their programs, but I believe that will change.
We could start seeing some lawsuits coming back to these organizations because the certifications weren’t rigorous enough academically and from a practical perspective did not prove that the persons certified could actually do what they said they could do. BFS: It appears that you don’t have such a high opinion of certifications that do not have any hands-on training or evaluation. Rabinoff: I’m from the old school in that I believe in physically watching someone do something. That’s the way I was certified in gymnastics—somebody had to watch me.
Unfortunately, most of the certifications for personal training, exercise leaders and strength coaches don’t require their graduates to physically BFS Safety Package Includes: • Weightroom Safety Video • Training Posters (5-poster set) • Safety Charts (3-poster set) • Weightroom Rules (1 poster) • BFS Online Membership • Acknowledgement Form • BFS Liability Article All for Only $99 perform those skills. What they should be saying in these types of certifications is that in order for you to truly know, for example, how to safely spot a squat, you’ve got to practice spotting a squat.
But if you say if you watch this video or read this textbook you’re OK to go out and teach squatting, there’s a problem. Think about it: If you knew of a medical school that did everything “virtual,” would you want to be the first patient of a doctor who had just graduated from there? Would you want to be the first client of someone who had never pleaded a case in court, even though he had graduated from law school and had passed the bar exam, which is a written exam? Would you want someone who had just become a dentist to work on your teeth even if he had the newest, best drill on the market but no one had really made him or her try it? I wouldn’t!
BFS: Many strength coaches and personal trainers give dietary advice. Is this a problem, and are there certification courses in nutrition that you see as valuable? Rabinoff: That’s a really dangerous place to go, because nutrition is very complex. I truly believe that to give nutritional advice, you need a degree in nutrition and have studied all of the effects of food and nutrition on the body—and that’s a very long course of study and very in-depth work. You can’t just do that in a weekend course—you will not have learned enough. BFS: With many insurance companies you have to be a member of an organization to purchase the insurance.
How does paying a membership fee make you more qualified than anyone else to receive insurance? Can a coach or personal trainer get insurance without paying membership dues?
Having been an expert witness in 10 lawsuits involving weight training, BFS Founder/CEO Dr. Greg Shepard saw the importance of developing the BFS Safety Package to help coaches run a more safety conscious weight room.
Rabinoff: There may be some carriers that offer personal liability insurance to those who are not members of a professional organization, but these are the exception. Usually the criterion to qualify for insurance is you have to be a member of a professional organization, because that then validates the fact that at least you’re getting the journals and you may be going to some seminars. Again, it’s not enough to have degrees or certifications; you must show that you are keeping current on what is going on in your field. If not, it is often difficult for a gym or health club to stand behind the skills and abilities of its instructional staff.
BFS: What is the biggest mistake you see coaches making? Rabinoff: We all know athletes get hurt in sport. As professional physical educators we have to do everything we can to ensure that the athlete can move on to a higher level. But you can’t have gymnasts, on only the second day of practice, perform double twisting backs when they can’t even do a forward roll. And just because a freshman is big and heavy doesn’t mean he’s ready to play on the varsity team, especially if he can’t run 20 feet without gasping for air. There’s a learning curve, with intermediate steps that must be achieved and documented to show that the athlete was able to perform physically and mentally at that level.
Otherwise, you’re putting the athlete in jeopardy and the risk of injury skyrockets. One of the most common mistakes coaches make today is that they rush their athletes too fast. As a matter of fact, if you talk to most sports medicine doctors, they will tell you that 85 percent of the injuries they see are overuse injuries. That’s because the trainees’ muscles were not ready to do what they were asked to do. BFS: The coaches who promote slow training protocols claim that their training methods are safer than traditional athletic training protocols, such as those that incorporate Olympic lifting exercises. What is your opinion?
Rabinoff: From the studies I’ve read, I believe this type of training may have its place, such as when training low-level athletes or when emphasizing technique, but I don’t believe it is necessarily safer than conventional forms of training. I say this because I believe most athletes need to do some ballistic training to perform at a high level and prepare the body for the stresses it will encounter in the sport.
BFS: Are there legal obligations of equipment companies for their equipment? Rabinoff: Absolutely! I am member of the committee for exercise and fitness equipment of the American Society of Testing Materials. Whether you’re a PE instructor in a high school or a football coach or a health club director, there are always minimum standards, and the ASTM is where you go to find them. We revise the standards all the time as we find things that are happening in the field. For example, there are standards for not only the design and use of treadmills but also the placement of treadmills, the distances from the side, the front and the back.
People fall off treadmills all the time, but we see a major problem when they fall off and hit their heads on walls because the treadmill is placed too close to a wall. I’ve done two death cases already, and one case involving serious, permanent injury. What I’m recommending to manufacturers is that we revisit the treadmill standard and see if we need to increase the space around the treadmill. BFS: What about the belief that machines are safer than free weights? What is happening in the courts?
Rabinoff: It seems people have this false sense of security with machines, but the fact is that machines are machines—they have moving parts that can cause injury if you do not use them properly: You have to insert the pins correctly, you have to read the warning signs and follow the instructions and so on. Most of the lawsuits I’ve been involved with deal with accidents that occur with machines, not free weights. That’s why machine manufacturers are getting better with their instruction plaques and warning statements they put on machines.
It may be common sense to most people that you should not try to adjust a machine that is jammed, but to protect themselves, equipment manufacturers and gym owners need to take steps to make certain their clients are aware of such dangers. BFS: Any final thoughts you’d like to share with our readers? Rabinoff: Just because you have a 19-inch neck or look good in a leotard does not qualify you to work in the field of fitness and athletic training. All of us in this field, from coaches to gym owners to administrators, have to follow established rules and procedures for conducting our programs in weightrooms and exercise facilities.
Only through communication and education can we provide the best training environment for our athletes and provide the best insurance against litigation. BFS All BFS POSTERS & CHARTS are 22” wide by 28” high and are printed on a glossy thick paper (even thicker than the cover of this magazine)
• Charts progress for up to 70 athletes • Yearly and school records for the top 10 • These posters are not laminated • Set includes 4 posters: squat, clean, bench, deadlift • Charts progress for up to 60 athletes • Yearly and school records for the top 10 • These posters are not laminated • Set includes 6 posters: total power ranking, vertical jump, long jump, 20 & 40 yard speed & the BFS dot drill • Covers all major core lifts • Includes squat, bench, clean, deadlift and quick lifts • Basic instructional • Extremely motivational • A must for every weight room!
• Complete detailed BFS standards for all athletes, sports and grades 9-12 • Mens & women's jumping & speed • Mens & women's strength & power • Each poster contains safety instruction • Learn how to train safely • Set includes 3 posters: knee safety, back safety, hamstring safety WEIGHT WEIGHTROOM ROOMSAFETY SAFETY 1. ABSOLUTELY NO HORSEPLAY! 1. ABSOLUTELY NO HORSEPLAY! 2. NEVER INTERFERE WITH A PERSON WHO 2. NEVER INTERFERE WITH A PERSON WHO IS LIFTING IS LIFTING 3. MAKE SURE YOUR AREA IS CLEAR OF 3. MAKE SURE YOUR AREA IS CLEAR OF EQUIPMENT BEFORE LIFTING. EQUIPMENT BEFORE LIFTING. 4. MAKE EYE CONTACT WITH THOSE NEAR 4. MAKE EYE CONTACT WITH THOSE NEAR YOU BEFORE LIFTING.
YOU BEFORE LIFTING. 5. MAKE SURE YOUR COLLARS ARE SNUG. 5. MAKE SURE YOUR COLLARS ARE SNUG. 6. PICK UP AFTER YOURSELF, RETURN 6. PICK UP AFTER YOURSELF, RETURN WEIGHTS TO RACKS. WEIGHTS TO RACKS. 7. SPOT CAREFULLY! CONCENTRATE ON 7. SPOT CAREFULLY! CONCENTRATE ON THE LIFTER. THE LIFTER. 8. KEEP IT CLEAN, NO FOOD, GLASS 8. KEEP IT CLEAN, NO FOOD, GLASS BOTTLES ETC. BOTTLES ETC. 9. PROTECT YOUR LOWER BACK: HEAD UP, 9. PROTECT YOUR LOWER BACK: HEAD UP, BUTTOCKS DOWN WHEN LIFTING, BUTTOCKS DOWN WHEN LIFTING, SPREAD THE CHEST, LOCK IN LOWER SPREAD THE CHEST, LOCK IN LOWER BACK, USE A BELT. BACK, USE A BELT. 10. HELP AND ENCOURAGE EACH OTHER. 10. HELP AND ENCOURAGE EACH OTHER.
MAKE YOUR FRIEND GREAT. MAKE YOUR FRIEND GREAT.
805 West 2400 South 805 West SLC, UT 2400 84119South This simple poster has the potential of preventing needless injury or even a lawsuit!
From BFS Magazine — September/October 2004. Part of the BFS Magazine Archive (1980–2014).
