ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a detailed scrutiny of the duty of care required of sports coaches by engaging with the relevant jurisprudence in a sustained, informative and rigorous manner. The cases discussed cover a range of sporting activities and performance levels, including the coaching of gymnastics, amateur rugby, professional football and elite level athletics. Detailed extracts from these judgments are extensively cited and analysed, enabling this chapter to offer authentic, comprehensive and instructive insights. The specific duties of coaches when managing the risk of injury to athletes are considerable and include providing adequate instruction, supervision and the proper use of safe equipment. Moreover, the developing jurisprudence recognises a coach’s duty to complete suitable and sufficient risk assessments, and emphasises a coach’s duty to pitch activities within the competence of the least able member of the group when planning and delivering group sessions. The Court of Appeal has also considered the extent of a coach’s duty to conduct pitch inspections. A recurring theme analysed in this chapter is the boundary between reasonable and unreasonable coaching practice when seeking to optimise the performance levels of athletes, for instance, by pushing athletes outside of their ‘comfort zones’ and when determining training intensity levels.
