Safe Sport

Best Practice Guidelines

The following Best Practice Guidelines are strongly recommended for all USA Swimming members.

  1. Parents should be encouraged to appropriately support their children’s swimming experience.
  2. All swimming practices should be open to observation by parents.
  3. Coaches should not initiate contact with or accept supervisory responsibility for athletes outside club programs and activities.
  4. When only one athlete and one coach travel to a competition, at the competition the coach and athlete should attempt to establish a “buddy” club to associate with during the competition and when away from the venue.
  5. Relationships of a peer-to-peer nature with any athletes should be avoided. For example, coaches should avoid sharing their own personal problems with athletes.
  6. Coaches and other non-athlete adult members should avoid horseplay and roughhousing with athletes.
  7. When a coach touches an athlete as part of instruction, the coach should do so in direct view of others and inform the athlete of what he/she is doing prior to the initial contact. Touching athletes should be minimized outside the boundaries of what is considered normal instruction. Appropriate interaction would include high fives, fist bumps, side-to-side hugs and handshakes.
  8. Coaches should avoid having athletes as their favorites. They should also avoid creating a situation that could be perceived as them having favorites.
  9. Gift-giving, providing special favors or showing favoritism to individual athletes is strongly discouraged.

Updated: June 23, 2019

City Swim Project Grievance Procedure

The City Swim Project Grievance Procedure provides swimmers, parents, coaches, club leaders and employees a system to address and report grievances in a productive, systematic way. Following these Procedures provides the appropriate parties a means to properly investigate, intervene, and take disciplinary action when needed.

WHERE TO REPORT:

For issues dealing with sexual misconduct, sexual harassment and/or sexually explicit or inappropriate communication through social media:

U.S. Center for SafeSport: 833-5US-SAFE (587-7233) or https://safesport.i-sight.com/portal

For issues dealing with physical abuse, emotional abuse, criminal charges and the use, sale or distribution of illegal drugs:

USA Swimming Safe Sport: safesport@usaswimming.org or https://fs22.formsite.com/usaswimming/form10/index.html

For issues dealing with known or suspected child abuse:

State Central Register at 1-800-342-3720

For issues dealing with peer-to-peer bullying, coach-athlete bullying, parent issues, violations of the City Swim Project Code of Conduct and violations of the Minor Athlete Abuse Prevention Policy.

These issues are handled at the club level following the procedures outlined below.

WHOM TO NOTIFY OF A GRIEVANCE (Chain of Command)

Regarding the Conduct of a Swimmer — Contact the swimmer’s instructor or coach.

Should a parent or swimmer feel another swimmer’s conduct is inappropriate or violates the City Swim Project Code of Conduct, the parent/swimmer should discuss these concerns with the instructor/coach of the swimmer responsible for the violation (Responsible Instructor/Coach). This complaint should be made in person or in writing. Instructors/Coaches will ensure the City Swim Project Learn to Swim Director or Head coach is notified of the complaint and will participate in assessing behavior.

Regarding the Conduct of an Instructor or Assistant Coach — Contact the Learn to Swim Director or Head Coach

Should a parent or swimmer feel an instructor or Assistant Coach’s conduct is inappropriate or in violation of any Club policies or procedures, the parent/swimmer should notify the Learn to Swim Director or Head Coach of this violation. This complaint should be made in person or in writing. The Learn to Swim Director or Head Coach will ensure that the City Swim Project Executive Director is notified of the complaint and will participate in assessing behavior.

Regarding Conduct of Learn to Swim Director or Head Coach — Notify the City Swim Project – contact the Executive Director.

Should a parent or swimmer feel the Learn to Swim Director or Head Coach’s conduct is inappropriate or violates any Club policies or procedures, the parent/swimmer should notify the Executive Director of this violation. This complaint should be made in person or in writing.

Regarding Parent or Official Conduct — Notify the Learn to Swim Director or Head Coach

Should a parent or swimmer feel another City Swim Project parent’s or an official’s conduct is inappropriate or violates any Club policies or procedures, the parent/swimmer should notify the Learn to Swim Director or Head Coach of this violation in person or in writing.

Note: With the exception of issues, which immediately affect the health and safety of swimmers, all matters should be discussed before or after a lesson or coaching session, as instructors/coaches should not be expected to deal with issues during water time.

HOW GRIEVANCES WILL BE HANDLED

The Learn To Swim Director or Head Coach has the authority to impose penalties for infractions of the City Swim Project Athlete, Parent and Coach Codes of Conduct or any behavior(s) they deem not conducive to the best interests of the Club or other swimmers. Consequences are at the sole discretion of the Learn to Swim Director or Head Coach and may include, but aren’t limited to, verbal warnings, dismissal from practice, contacting parents, temporary suspension from club activities and expulsion. Involved parties will be informed of the processes and range of potential consequences. The U.S. Center for SafeSport, USA Swimming and local law enforcement (if applicable) will be contacted within 24 hours if a coach, parent, or swimmer violates the SafeSport Code for the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Movements, the USA Swimming Code of Conduct, Athlete Protection Policy, or local laws.

  1. Gathering Information: The appropriate individuals will contact the person who filed the grievance, and the person against whom the grievance is being filed, to ask questions about what happened. In addition, other witnesses may be contacted for more information. All information will be recorded on the City Swim Project’s grievance procedure form.
  2. Assessing Behavior: The behavior of the person(s) against which the grievance was brought, will be assessed using club policies and facility rules, USA Swimming Code of Conduct, USA Swimming Safe Sport policies, as well as applicable local and state laws.
  3. Consequences will be given and disciplinary action will be taken, if appropriate. These consequences and disciplinary actions will be decided using the following general guidelines:
    • Nature of the misconduct
    • Severity of the misconduct
    • Prior disciplinary actions
    • Adverse effect of the misconduct
    • Application of the Code of Conduct