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#Post#: 119517--------------------------------------------------
Rugby in schools is a form of child abuse, say sports experts
DIR By: GodstoneQuin
Date: February 2, 2024, 11:36 am
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Something of interest in The Times yesterday...
HTML https://apple.news/AbyoIXDnRTJuhuMHBvL1kcA
Two centuries after the birth of rugby on school playing fields,
academics say the game has become a form of child abuse and
should be banned among under-18s.
William Webb Ellis is credited with first running with the
football at Rugby School in 1823, eventually giving rise to a
global sport. But researchers say children should no longer
participate in rugby, or boxing, and that parents do not
understand the long-term risk of brain injuries.
Sports organisations, they claim, are in effect “grooming”
adults to ignore the consequences. Schools that have rugby on
the curriculum have not sought informed consent from children,
who could suffer injuries that affect them in later life,
according to the paper.
High-impact sports should be considered “abusive” to children’s
brains, argued academics at the universities of Winchester,
Nottingham Trent and Bournemouth. They examined medical evidence
around sports that can cause serious brain injuries and
concluded that the harm runs counter to child abuse laws.
Eric Anderson, a professor of sport at the University of
Winchester who led the study, said: “Sports for children should
not intentionally harm their brains. They should focus on fun,
health and social development rather than conditioning them to
play elite-level sport.
“These collisions cause cognitive harm and increase the risk of
neurodegenerative diseases and dementia; they are therefore
abusive to a child’s brain. Cultural perception is that striking
a child outside sport is abuse but striking a child in sport is
somehow socially acceptable. We are trying to change that. It
doesn’t matter what the social context is, the brain is damaged
in both.”
The study is due to be published in Sports, Ethics & Philosophy:
Journal of the British Philosophy of Sport Association. The
authors are two sociologists of sport and two sport
psychologists, one of whom, Gary Turner, is a multiple former
world champion in kickboxing and jujitsu.
They claim that neither children nor adults on their behalf are
legally able to give informed consent for participation and that
impact-sport organisations effectively groom children into
sustaining and accepting brain trauma. They argue that adults
who organise “brain-traumatising” versions of these sports are
complicit in a form of child abuse that they call “brain abuse”.
The study draws a distinction between sports that include
physical impact by design and other sports in which collisions
occur by accident. Its recommendations apply only to children,
not adults, and acknowledges the difference between contact
sports that aim for incapacitation and those such as rugby in
which loss of consciousness is an undesirable consequence of the
nature of the game.
It says no concussive hit to the head is benign, citing an
emerging consensus among experts that “knocks to the head”
result in mild to severe brain injury and contribute to damage
that can result in later diseases, including early-onset
dementia, Parkinson’s and problems with memory.
Players who take up rugby earlier in life are likely to face
more exposure to brain trauma than those who start as adults,
the paper says.
Youth sports act as “feeders” for profit-making professional
organisations, the report adds, with talented children showered
with praise and “commodified” — a process the study calls the
“grooming model of sport”. Even school PE classes are censured
for pushing pupils to excel in competitive sport.
Most adults are not fully aware of the long-term risks so cannot
give informed consent. Even if they were they should not be
allowed to give permission because of the dangers, which the
report likens to a parent allowing a child to smoke or not wear
a car seat belt.
Dr Keith Parry, head of the sport department at Bournemouth
University, said: “The Football Association was concerned enough
by the dangers of head injury to introduce guidelines to
restrict the amount of heading in junior football training.
Other even more injurious sports should follow and remove
intentional collision.”
Anderson added: “Despite the fact that we are sport scholars,
some will dismiss our claims as being anti-sport or trying to
wrap children in cotton wool. But the evidence of abuse to
children’s brains is a medical reality. Impact sports should,
thus, be regulated.
“Schools and clubs must not allow children to be exposed to harm
when they engage in sport. Society should recognise this brain
abuse as a distinct form of child abuse.”
A spokeswoman for the Rugby Football Union (RFU) said: “Player
welfare has and will continue to be our top priority. PE in
school is compulsory. However, rugby is not. The RFU and England
Rugby Football Schools’ Union work closely to support teachers
and coaches with guidance and resources, especially around
players’ safety and welfare.
“Rugby for young people at schools or clubs in England exists in
different forms — contact, reduced contact and non-contact.
Rugby has established and been at the forefront of concussion
and injury surveillance, education and law changes using
evidence to proactively manage player welfare.
“Playing rugby provides significant physical and mental-health
benefits along with life skills gained from playing a team sport
which has strong values. Against a backdrop of decreased
physical activity and a global obesity epidemic in children, we
believe rugby has a role to play in keeping people active,
healthy and engaged.”
#Post#: 119522--------------------------------------------------
Re: Rugby in schools is a form of child abuse, say sports
experts
DIR By: DOK
Date: February 2, 2024, 12:38 pm
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Will Greenwood: Rugby is not a form of child abuse – we must let
youngsters play this wonderful sport
HTML https://web.archive.org/web/20240202183511/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union/2024/02/02/rugby-not-form-of-child-abuse-we-must-let-youngsters-play/
#Post#: 119524--------------------------------------------------
Re: Rugby in schools is a form of child abuse, say sports
experts
DIR By: RodneyRegis
Date: February 2, 2024, 1:03 pm
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Sports experts have said nothing of the sort.
#Post#: 119526--------------------------------------------------
Re: Rugby in schools is a form of child abuse, say sports
experts
DIR By: Fursty
Date: February 2, 2024, 1:19 pm
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‘ universities of Winchester, Nottingham Trent and Bournemouth.’
- stopped reading at this point.
#Post#: 119534--------------------------------------------------
Re: Rugby in schools is a form of child abuse, say sports
experts
DIR By: Quinky
Date: February 3, 2024, 6:06 am
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Gotta love the views of "experts"...
#Post#: 119556--------------------------------------------------
Re: Rugby in schools is a form of child abuse, say sports
experts
DIR By: Bod
Date: February 3, 2024, 5:44 pm
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"Experts"
D'you reckon?
#Post#: 119557--------------------------------------------------
Re: Rugby in schools is a form of child abuse, say sports
experts
DIR By: Quinky
Date: February 4, 2024, 1:17 am
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--- Quote from: Bod link ---
>
> "Experts"
> D'you reckon?
>
--- End Quote ---
I remember watching a breakfast TV programme many years ago, and
it was around the regular sales period (Ney Year, Black Friday,
or something similar). They brought in a "shopping expert" to
advise the viewers. The advice was... "be careful of getting
crushed in a crowd".
When it comes to the looser use of the term "expert", I'm with
Billy Connolly.
#Post#: 119575--------------------------------------------------
Re: Rugby in schools is a form of child abuse, say sports
experts
DIR By: poorfour
Date: February 4, 2024, 3:13 pm
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There is a small group of public health experts who have taken
against rugby in particular.
The difficult bit is that the concerns they raise need to be
taken seriously, but every time I have looked at their research
they show signs of having lost objectivity and make
methodological errors that make it hard to trust their research.
For instance, it is an issue that not enough injury data exists
for rugby until the last few years... But it is a much bigger
issue to pretend that you can treat all the data - often
gathered under different training and injury protocols - as a
single homogeneous set.
Also, the idea that rugby clubs are "profit making" shows the
lack of attention to detail in their research...
#Post#: 119578--------------------------------------------------
Re: Rugby in schools is a form of child abuse, say sports
experts
DIR By: Rocker
Date: February 4, 2024, 4:21 pm
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That's easy to explain, like most of academia in particular and
the public sector more generally they are a bunch of lefties. As
everyone knows that rugby is a game for posh people (just like
hunting) they hate it. Therefore any massaging or subversion of
the facts is allowed in pursuit of the aim of spoiling the fun
of the posh boys ....
#Post#: 119585--------------------------------------------------
Re: Rugby in schools is a form of child abuse, say sports
experts
DIR By: Bolly-Quin
Date: February 4, 2024, 6:38 pm
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They rather like rugger at Oxford and Cambridge, old chap -
they're rather academic too, what?
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