Times have changed: Joan B. Samuelson was punched by her college field hockey coach and says the coach did the "right thing"

The coach was wrong. It's never OK for a coach or a teacher to physically assault one of the people they are supposed to be helping. Nor should they mock or belittle them, and, of course, sexual assault is off the table.

Why do we expect less from coaches than we expect from other members of society when it comes to this kind of stuff?

Makes Joanie an even bigger legend.

Kathryn Switzerland gets a 1000 miles out of her “assault” which was a mild push and Joanie stays mum on a punch.

What a legend!

Yeah, just letting off some steam. No damage done. Walk it off.

Not!

1955 wrote:

The coach was wrong. It's never OK for a coach or a teacher to physically assault one of the people they are supposed to be helping. Nor should they mock or belittle them, and, of course, sexual assault is off the table.

Why do we expect less from coaches than we expect from other members of society when it comes to this kind of stuff?

Spoil the child or spare the rod. My dad told me growing up. The dentist would slap you if you didn't open up and the schools had paddles to discipline the students. People are soft today. But physical forms of punishment are needed. Or, else you'll end up with the current state America is in.

Can someone punch Rojo every time he posts a troll thread? I’d ask the same for typos, but that would probably violate the 8th amendment.

A "punch" can be anything from a mild gesture against the shoulder to a full on assault to the face, a headshot. Very unclear where this "punch" lies on the spectrum of violence. in any case it seems unnecessary to get a point across.

I know of a coach who threw a phone at an athlete, not sure it's really what was "needed" although the coach probably felt good in that moment.

Maybe a reasoned, pointed, and motivating comment could do the trick just as well?

This is never ever going to happen again for a number of reasons, the foremost being that an undergraduate runner ofJoan's caliber would now have a major college track and cross country scholarship and would not be playing any sport involving balls (actual balls).

Joan has a unique temperament and was very young at the time. But I don't know any athletes of either gender who would put up with kind of crap from a coach in 2019.

I will point out in the most respectful possible way that Joan probably has a somewhat masochistic (for lack of a better word) perspective, that woman knows how to suffer, and to her a punch might feel confirming of her guilt in the matter, even if it was an unintentional mistake on her part.

False Flagpole wrote:

Can someone punch Rojo every time he posts a troll thread? I’d ask the same for typos, but that would probably violate the 8th amendment.

+1

YMMV wrote:

I will point out in the most respectful possible way that Joan probably has a somewhat masochistic (for lack of a better word) perspective, that woman knows how to suffer, and to her a punch might feel confirming of her guilt in the matter, even if it was an unintentional mistake on her part.

Most elite championship runners are, are they not?

aren't all runner though? wrote:

YMMV wrote:

I will point out in the most respectful possible way that Joan probably has a somewhat masochistic (for lack of a better word) perspective, that woman knows how to suffer, and to her a punch might feel confirming of her guilt in the matter, even if it was an unintentional mistake on her part.

Most elite championship runners are, are they not?

Joanie was next level. The way she ran LA '84 was just beastly.

Plus I would say that most top championship 1500m runners are more into racing tactically rather than embracing suffering.

YMMV wrote:

aren't all runner though? wrote:

Most elite championship runners are, are they not?

Joanie was next level. The way she ran LA '84 was just beastly.

Plus I would say that most top championship 1500m runners are more into racing tactically rather than embracing suffering.

Makes sense why I am way better at the marathon than the middle distances.

maybe it was more like a Zen slap? done with her permission to awaken her to the idea to run?

There's a reason that this sort of thing wouldn't pass today: it flat-out wrong in every context. Times have changed for the better with regard to this. Joanie's perspective is that she had no other viable avenue but to suck it up and take it. She won't go revisionist on the coach because she (rightfully) won't go revisionist on herself. Give her credit for consistency. Joanie was as tough as they come in terms of performance and it doesn't seem she had a broader, progressive perspective more than most others of that era.

Lack of fast twitch fiber development would explain it more succinctly.

keisaku wrote:

maybe it was more like a Zen slap? done with her permission to awaken her to the idea to run?

A reenactment of it:

This. It was a different era and I'm sure most of you are making this bigger than it was. If it was a hard punch than obviously all this dribble posted is right, if not it was tough love; you don't come to matches unprepared, Div III or not. I know it sounds a bit like a guy wearing a wife beater t-shirt saying she had it coming, but it's not really that. A lot of us had complicated relationships with coaches, nit necessarily unhealthy, and learned more form that than from anyone else.

Bsksjsjs wrote:

Makes Joanie an even bigger legend.

Kathryn Switzerland gets a 1000 miles out of her “assault” which was a mild push and Joanie stays mum on a punch.

What a legend!

Though my coach never taught me about typos, geesus sorry about that