#298 How to End Abusive Coaching: A Discussion with Dr Amy Saltzman, Dr Jennifer Fraser and Mitch Lyons

This week on the podcast we take a deep dive into what exactly is abusive coaching and how parents and coaches can take steps to stop it. To do so we gathered three experts in the field of bullying and coaching abuse to join John and Jerry for a fascinating discussion. 

Dr. Amy Saltzman a holistic physician, mindfulness coach, long-time athlete, and a member of the US Soccer Participant Safety Taskforce. She’s had the privilege of being recognized by her peers as a visionary and pioneer in the fields of holistic medicine and mindfulness for athletes, coaches, and other high performers, kids, teens, parents, teachers, therapists, and allied professionals. We had her on episode 77 talking about her book A Still Quiet Place for Athletes and now her new organization is Spot a Spider, which teaches children, teens, and young adults how to protect themselves and others from all types of abuse: sneaky (covert) emotional abuse (also known as grooming), and obvious (overt) emotional, physical and sexual abuse. Check it out at www.spotaspider.com. 

Jennifer Fraser is the Founder of www.TheBulliedBrain.com.  Jennifer earned her PhD from University of Toronto in Comparative Literature. Be A Good Soldier: Children's Grief in Modernist English Novels looks at pedagogical beliefs about children and the ways in which they fuel aggression and war. Her third book Teaching Bullies takes lived experience with an abuse crisis and puts it into the context of psychology, psychiatry, education, law, and neuroscience. What's being discovered in neuroscientific labs across the world has the power to change how we understand our brains and lives. This empowering research infuses her latest book The Bullied Brain: Heal Your Scars and Restore Your Health. Has been on WOC Podcast before Episode #275 and #27.

Mitch Lyons is one of the funders of www.EndAbusiveCoaching.org  and is a retired lawyer. He is the founder of GetPsychedSports.org (GPS) in 2002 and the Social Emotional Learning Alliance for Massachusetts in 2011, both of which are tax-exempt 501 (c)(3) educational advocacy organizations. GPS remains the only educational organization promoting athletic reforms that address the fundamental problems of using a 19th century team model in a 21st century world. SEL4MA was the first grassroots educational advocacy group promoting social-emotional learning (SEL) and is now being replicated in twenty-one states under the banner of www.SEL4US.org. Mitch is a former collegiate basketball player and long time youth coach.

This week’s podcast is brought to you by our friends at Sprocket Sports.  Sprocket Sports is a new software platform for youth sports clubs.  There are a lot of these systems out there, but Sprocket provides the full enchilada. They give you all the cool front-end stuff to make your club look good– like websites and marketing tools – AND all the back-end transactions and services to run your business better so you can focus on what really matters – your players and your teams. 

Sprocket is built for those clubs looking to thrive, not just survive, in the competitive world of youth sports clubs.  So if you’ve been looking for a true business partner – not just another app – check them out today at https://sprocketsports.me/CTG.

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• Downloadable transcripts of our best podcasts, so you don’t have to crash your car trying to take notes!
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