Beyond The Activity: Your Duty to Care

Jess has joined the community dance group; this is her third session. She is very enthusiastic, however cannot seem to grasp the left and right commands in front of the mirror. Jess is trying really hard, however she keeps on banging into other dancers in the group. Ten minutes into the session, the dance coach pulls Jess to one side and asks her to just watch for the rest of the session.

Arun is an assistant coach to Ted; Ted has been really pleased with the support Arun has given him and the players over the period of his first season. Ted always comments on how Arun has a great rapport with the players every week.  Recently Arun has seemed disengaged and not his enthusiastic self. Ted sets up the session for the day and as usual, will keep a watching eye on the other sessions around him. Suddenly he notices Arun raising his voice repeatedly to the players, this is very unusual. Eventually, Arun loses it and walks away from the session with no explanation.

Sarah and Shruti have been coaching together for some time now and often co-design the sessions together and with the input of the participants.  It works well and there is a great buzz around the club. One day Shruti sees Sarah trying something with the participants that they have not discussed, this seems fine as Shruti wants to see Sarah bring her own style to the club. Shruti then notices that one of the participants is not happy with what they are being asked to do, there is an exchange of words and Sarah insists that they try this particular play.  Shruti watches this happening and notices that what Sarah has asked the participant to do could put them and the other participants in danger. Shruti approaches Sarah and asks her what she is doing, Sarah replies: "I’ve seen this on YouTube…all the elite players are doing this."