Anon Poking buttcheeks/inappropriate?

[Anonymous (fb52)]

We’ve had a lot of complaints about a coach , but most of them center on mental and emotional abuse. There is some physical with things like punishment conditioning and disregard for safety. Recently a parent discovered an old video where the coach is clearly grabbing the gymnasts butt for a prolonged amount of time, then slides his hands up her legs while she is in a handstand. It is a fluke that this was even caught .
After this my child and another former gymnast were talking and told me that this coach would tell them to squeeze their butt and then poke both sides of their butt cheeks.
Is this normal coaching behavior?

 

[That_Gymnast]

No! This is not normal. No coach should EVER me purposely poking a gymnast anywhere near private parts. Sometimes coaches hands slip and normally they apologize but it would only be occasional less than one second slip in my experience. If they’re purposely touching that’s a red flag! Leave the gym before you get involved with further abuse.

 

[superNova08]

It could just be that I've been in abusive gyms in the past, but I think it depends on the context and gender of the coach.

For a male coach, no way in heck that would ever be appropriate unless the gymnast was falling and he had to touch her there to catch her to prevent injury or something of that nature.

For a female coach, really depends on context. I've always had coaches do this when girls are struggling to stay tight, as when touched there, you automatically tighten.

As a coach, I usually poke the hips or thighs when trying to get gymnasts to tighten their butt. I find this is a better reminder, nobody is uncomfortable, and I can't get in trouble. Now obviously, if a gymnast is still having trouble I will ask first then touch that area to help explain.

Hope this helps!

 

[Anonymous (63bf)]

My daughter’s female coaches will poke the hip really lightly as a reminder to tighten up. It’s a quick jab, not really a touch, and very much on the hip. I noticed it when we joined the gym- they rarely touch athletes and are never touching them with a palm unless it’s to hold their ankles together when they’re really little. Even spotting rarely results in touching- the gym is conservative about skills and girls aren’t throwing anything that they can’t basically do on their own.

 

[Anonymous (0877)]

One of my daughter's female coaches did that (poke on the side of the butt) when telling the girls to squeeze. No other complaints or issues with this very mild-mannered coach. She was a former gymnast, so probably something she was exposed to in the past; not sure it fits with the general climate today, but I never had any sense that there was ill-intent when she did it.

 

[Anonymous (cf53)]

As a coach, I will sometimes poke my younger girls on the side of their bottom or at the top near their tailbone to get them to squeeze as they don’t have a good understanding of how to do that without the physical cue yet. For my older girls I’ve never needed to, they can fix it when told.

In this context though, it does sound inappropriate, especially when coupled with the other concerns about this particular coach