ABSTRACT
Over recent years many countries have expanded child protection legislation and policy to encompass sport settings (Lang & Hartill, 2015). Critics of these developments argue that this amounts to over-regulation and fuels a moral panic regarding the safety of children and the riskiness of adults (Lyons, 2014; Piper et al., 2013). Such regulations are positioned in the academic literature as a ‘crude and prescriptive injunction’ on adults’ coaching practice (Piper, 2015, p. 12). Critics focus on some coaches’ decision to avoid or restrict physical contact when working with (child) athletes, which it is argued is making coaching ‘impoverished and dehumanized’ (Piper, 2015, p. 12). Alternatives to this negative, adult-centred perspective are, to date, rare. Drawing on the conceptual tools of Michel Foucault, this chapter problematises the dominant discursive regime surrounding adult-child physical contact using examples from women’s artistic gymnastics (WAG) – an activity where physical contact is necessary for coaching. This chapter aims to re-frame the current debate and avoid (re)producing negative discourses of child safety that exacerbate current concerns about child (sexual) abuse in and beyond WAG. Instead, we offer solutions to the issue and, it is hoped, encourage positive engagement with safeguarding for the wellbeing of all involved in WAG.
