For athletes
You should know what
good coaching looks like.
Most coaches are good at their job and care about the people they train. This page is here so you can tell the difference, and so you know what to do if something feels wrong.
If you need help now
If you are in danger, call the police on 112. If you are under 18, you can call Childline on 1098 at any time. Both are free, and you can call from any phone.
You can also tell any adult you trust: a parent, a teacher, another coach, or someone at your centre. You do not need proof to tell someone. You only need to be worried.
What to expect
What a good coach does.
Hard training is normal. Being pushed is normal. These are the things that should be true anyway.
Training that is planned
Your coach should be able to tell you why you are doing a drill, and change it if you are hurt or unwell.
Clear reasons for decisions
If you are dropped, benched or moved down a group, you should be told why in plain words.
Respect when you are corrected
A coach can be tough on your technique. They should not be tough on you as a person.
Sessions others can see
Training happens in open spaces at normal hours. One-to-one sessions should be visible to someone else.
Normal, open messages
Messages should be about training, and should usually include your parents or the group.
A way to raise a problem
You should know who to tell if something goes wrong, and be able to tell them without fear.
Warning signs
Things that are not okay.
If you see any of these, tell someone. You are not overreacting, and you are not getting anyone in trouble unfairly.
Secrets
Anyone who asks you to keep something from your parents is doing something wrong. This is the clearest warning sign there is.
Being singled out
Extra attention, gifts, lifts home or special treatment that comes with strings attached.
Contact you did not want
Touching that is not needed for the sport, or that continues after you have said no. You never have to accept it.
Private messages late at night
Messages that move to private chats, or that stop being about training.
Comments about your body
Remarks about your weight, shape or appearance that are not about your health or your sport.
Being cut off
A coach who turns you against your parents, your friends or your teammates.
Threats about your place
Being told your selection, your funding or your future depends on keeping quiet or doing something you do not want to do.
Pain treated as weakness
Being made to train through injury, or mocked for saying you are hurt, unwell or tired.
If something feels wrong
What you can do.
Trust the feeling
You do not have to explain why something felt wrong. That feeling is enough reason to talk to someone.
Tell an adult you trust
A parent, a teacher, another coach, a friend’s parent. If the first person does not listen, tell someone else. Keep going until someone does.
Write down what happened
The date, the time, who was there, and what was said or done. Keep any messages. You do not have to show it to anyone until you are ready.
You are allowed to say no
To a session alone. To a lift home. To contact you do not want. Saying no does not make you a bad athlete, and a good coach will not punish you for it.
Check your coach
You can look them up.
An Axio certified coach has been checked against government records and has answered real safeguarding situations out loud. You can see their status in a few seconds, free, without an account.
A coach without a certificate is not automatically unsafe. Most coaches in India have never been offered a way to prove this. But if your coach is certified, you can see exactly what they have demonstrated and when.
If you are an adult athlete
This applies to you too.
Safeguarding is often talked about as a children’s issue. Adult athletes face the same problems, often with more at stake: selection, funding, a place in a squad, a career.
The POSH Act, 2013 covers workplace sexual harassment, and a training centre is a workplace. If you are being harassed, you have a legal route through your organisation’s Internal Committee, and you can go to the police.
Women’s Safety in Sport and Exercise is part of what every Axio certified coach is assessed on.