To help prevent and deal with sport rage, all clubs will need to do some pre-season ground work – putting in place some critical policies, processes and personnel.
Here are six important things clubs must do:
Your club needs codes of conduct for administrators, coaches, officials, players and parents. They outline the agreed standard of behaviour for everyone.
Check with your national and/or state sporting body first. If they don't have codes for you to adopt, establish your own using our samples.
Developing your codes of conduct is a great first step - as long as they don’t remain on your club shelf gathering dust. Here are some ideas for raising awareness about your codes of conduct:
Your club constitution or by-laws must contain a procedure for the discipline of members who breach codes of conduct. Once your club has adopted rules about disciplinary procedures then it is entitled to apply and enforce these rules.
Disciplinary action may involve a simple warning, but it could also include suspension, expulsion or require the person to participate in a counselling session.
If your club does not have disciplinary procedures contained in its rules, it's advisable you seek legal advice as well as speak to your state sporting organisation.
With your codes of conduct and disciplinary procedures in place, your club should map out a clear process for dealing with sport rage incidents. Establish what the response is – step by step – and who is responsible for each step. A suggested approach is outlined below:
Sample - outlined suggested approach
When signing on as members, people must agree to abide and be bound by your club’s rules.
However, some people involved in your club activities are not club members and therefore not legally bound by your club’s rules. This might include spectators, officials or parents of visiting teams.
In this case it is important that your club secures the right to enforce its rules over such people by some other means. These can include:
Your club should appoint a ground official for every game day to prevent and deal with sport rage incidents by other officials, players, coaches and spectators. The title of the ground official will vary depending on the sport. For example in triathlon the ground official will be referred to as the ‘race referee’.
Club committees need to prepare ground officials by:
Clubs should provide ground officials with an information pack containing:
Ensure your ground officials stand out on game day by providing them with something distinctive to wear.
Ground officials need the skills and confidence to deal with difficult situations. Have your ground official:
Club committees should put in place an incident reporting system for ground officials to use. View a sample incident report.
Ensuring people in your club have the skills to deal with sport rage and a good understanding of fair play is essential. There are two important training options for you to consider: