UK high jump coach banned for 3 years for saying, "I don’t give a sh**t that you are crying, I couldn’t care” & other mean things

The greatest coach I ever had was completely ruthless when it came to the language he used with his athletes. I specifically went to this school to be coached by him as he was a nationally recognized and extremely successful coach. I knew full well what I was getting into. His verbal onslaughts sometimes bordered on the ridiculous, but I thrived in this atmosphere. It fired me up and pushed me to incredible heights (NCAA Champion, US Champion, several national teams). If an athlete can't handle a perceived mean comment, chances are they will never be able to handle the pressure at the highest level. This was thirty years ago and I'm still in contact with this coach and visit with him whenever I'm in town. I would've never succeeded in my current career field if I hadn't had the experience I had in college.

My college coach was a cross between the fictional Blake, Glengarry Glen Ross and Coach Dennis Green. My college coach got us into courses which were closed. I will take a coach who raises his voice and gets things done over a mild coach who cannot get things done.

I'm not discounting what he's produced. If the top sales guy at my company ran around calling his team dickwads, they'd get fired. He'd still be a great sales guy, but would be fired pretty quick. He'd still be a great sales guy.

I'll give you maybe "incompetence" is the wrong word in that case -- So maybe just "awful to work with".

Oh look a thread about an abusive coach. Let's see the vilest elements of this board crawl out of their hole to say how coaches need to be abusive to motivate the athlete. Sad. Sportsmanship and professionalism should matter in the sporting world. If you don't think so then let's hope you are not a coach.

Big difference between being fired and banned. Fired means your employer does not like your style, paycheck, performance, or whatever. Banned means you violated something far more important than those issues, and you cannot work anywhere else controlled by UK Athletics (it seems).

Speaking of the ever-changing goalposts on acceptable behavior, I'll remind people of the greatest Olympic moment of all time - 1980 USA vs. Soviet Union hockey. And did you see the DISNEY (!!!!!) movie "Miracle" and the coaching tactics shown there? If that happened today, Disney would be canceled, we would give the gold medal back, and self-withdraw from the next Olympics to demonstrate our nation's virtue. Glad I at least got to live for a while in a better, fairer world, before this.

Honestly you'd think a bunch of people on this thread WANT to be abused, like it's a badge of honour or something.

exactly. which coach would 99% of people run faster with:

1. the coach that says you need to get your head out your arse, toughen up, and fight. and if you don't he will express his disappointment

or

2. the coach that says just go out there and do your best and i'll love you even if you run like s**t

Coach number 1 will get the best results EVERY TIME. This is psychology 101.

There’s a reason that old-school coaches like Joe Newton won 20 state championships. It’s shameful what Western society, as a whole has become. Our grandparents would never have stood for this.

So making fun of an athlete's disability is supposed to "wake them up"? What are they supposed to do about it?

Just don't coach disabled athletes if you can't deal with their physical limitations.

That's what you got out of this? haha wow...weird

He's not just a top sales guy at a company. He's literally one of the three best coaches/technicians on the planet.

"Caan is also said to have described an athlete as a 'f****** idiot', a para-athlete as 'fat and slow' and a doctor as a 'f***wit'.
Another allegation was that Caan 'made fun of disabled people by doing an impression where he walked with a limp, held his arm bent and made noises whilst sticking his tongue out'. He is said to have regularly called an athlete 'bad foot Gay' and 'limp foot Christie'."

If he's calling a para-athlete bad foot Gay and Limpfoot Christie, that's f-cked up (and creative, but besides the point). But calling someone fat and slow, or calling a doctor a f-cking idiot, these are not even offenses in the majority of programs. Don't know what the right punishment is for the para-athlete comments, but for the high jump it's like if Nick Saban or Bill Belichick said something like this. He didn't get racial (and he is a minority), he wasn't f-cking anyone, it's ultimately going to be water under the bridge in a year.

Plenty of other coaches in the NCAA have said MUCH worse than this and still have their jobs...specifically thinking of Rita Gary at Furman and the extensive abuse that goes on there.

It boggles my mind that anybody would think that T-shirt is either funny or acceptable. I guess there are a lot of troubled, angry people out there. But wearing that should not earn a ban, no.

Please explain how this is coaching:

“Caan accepted a number of charges against him, including that he had made fun of disabled people by doing an impression where he walked with a limp, held his arm bent and made noises whilst sticking his tongue out. He also agreed that he had called a para-athlete “bad foot gay” and “fat and slow”.”

You can be a tough coach without belittling people. In what world do you live that this is something that makes people “soft”? You’re being paid to critique form, offer tips, build work-outs, and mentor adults. Being an ass is not part of that job. If you treat someone like that then the expectation should be you either get 1. Fired and stay unemployed until you treat adults like adults or 2. Get punched in the face.

You’re not tough or cool because you insult people.

Listen man, I don’t believe in kink-shaming so whatever gets your rocks off. But some of us don’t get off to older men belittling us. Some of us seek out coaches who are full-grown adults who don’t act out some weird power play during practice.

I don’t know about your grandfathers, father, or your self but if another adult male spoke to them/me like this: “called a para-athlete “bad foot gay” and “fat and slow”.” Then you’re likely getting pushed back- verbally or physically.

Where is your self-respect? Again, you can be tough without being a bully.

it's the coach's job to give the athletes thick skin

if the athletes don't like it they can leave, but the coach should NOT be suspended.

if you want to bring your blankie and stuffed teddy bear to practice then go ahead just keep your dirty diapers away from the adults you baby

There is a long list of studies that emphasize that positive reinforcement works. Some managers have come to this conclusion on their own.

I remember one Israeli Air Force study that looked at the criticism of pilots. They thought being harsh worked. The study, done by Khaneman, pointed out that criticism had nothing to do with the pilot's improvement-it was simply a bad flight and regression to the mean.

Apparently, this high jump coach missed some psychology classes.

Joe was tough but a gentleman. All of us IL runners respected him as a coach and a man.