In this talk, former club and high‑school swimming coach Mike Domitrz discusses the recent exposé of boundary violations within United States Swimming (USS) club swimming and frames it as a sport‑wide problem. He emphasizes that while no system can guarantee 100 % protection for young athletes, parents and coaches can create safer, more supportive environments by establishing clear policies and guidelines around personal boundaries. Domitrz outlines concrete steps for parents: ask coaches about the written policies, how those policies are communicated to athletes and families, and whether regular meetings reinforce expectations. He illustrates how seemingly innocuous actions—such as a celebratory hug—can unintentionally breach personal space and make other athletes uncomfortable when boundaries are not explicitly set. The speaker urges coaches to consider the broader impact of their behavior, seek alternative ways to celebrate, and maintain ongoing dialogue with athletes and parents to ensure a respectful, safe sporting culture.
Chapters
Today we are discussing the exposé that was recently done involving USS Swimming— that's club swimming, by the way, in the United States— and coaches who violated the boundaries of those they're responsible for coaching and how that was handled in the sport or mishandled within the sport. And we're going to talk about this because this isn't just a swimming issue. This is a sport-wide issue that we are learning about in multiple sports in the past year We need to be discussing this. So, and by the way, this one is really close to my heart because I'm a former club swimming coach that worked with very young athletes at that time, as far as the youngest group of athletes in swimming, and then I also worked with older athletes in swimming. And I wasn't in there for a long time, I don't want to mislead, but I did coach at that level, and then I coached at the high school level, both men's and women's swimming at the high school level. So, this is close to my heart. Now, you might be sitting there as a parent going, Yeah, Mike, how do we protect our children nowadays with all that's going on? Even in sports where they should feel safe, how do we protect them? Well, here are some things you can do. One, you can ask a question of your coach to see if they're creating the right atmosphere for safety for everyone. And keep in mind, we know there's no one thing you can do to stop anything horrible from ever happening to your children. That's just a fact. Things can happen. There are people who do bad things to other human beings out there, and there's no 100% protection of that. But what we want to do is make sure our kids are in the safest, most protective, supportive environment possible when they're involved in sports. So, here's the first thing to do. You ask the coach, hey, what are the policies and guidelines you have for making sure that the kids' boundaries are respected and that yours are respected as a coach? 2, how do the athletes and parents learn about these guidelines? Are they sat down and had this conversation as soon as they joined the team, or do they have a meeting every so often where everybody who's new, they come and they share what the guidelines expectations are for behavior of coaches and athletes specifically regarded to personal boundaries. Now, some of you might be going, geez, Mike, I coach youth and I've never had a conversation like that. You know, I would never do anything wrong. Do I need to be having these conversations? Here's why you do. You may think what you're doing is okay, but you may not be aware of how it's making others uncomfortable who you're coaching. I'll give you a classic example that can happen. You have an athlete who who just had success in an event and/or in the sporting competition you were in at that time, and they get out of the event, they want to come over to you and they want to celebrate, and they are someone that's comfortable with you giving them a hug, they like that, you give them a hug. What you don't realize is you doing that, there's now 5 other teammates watching this who are thinking, oh my gosh, I hope they don't do that to me if I do well. That's a real breach of personal space. Why would coach be doing that? Well, when you haven't set up guidelines and boundaries, they might not understand that you asked, would you like a hug? And that athlete said yes, because they don't know. They just see you hugging someone. They don't understand how you operate. And so, you want to make sure that that's established. What are the boundaries? What are the guidelines? And think as a coach, hey, even though I think this is okay and that athlete thinks it's okay, could this create a harmful environment or uncomfortable environment for other athletes? If so, what else could we do to have the same connection or moment of celebration, whatever it is? Right? But establishing an environment that's supportive for everyone, this is a simple technique that parents and coaches can engage in to try to create the safest, best environment for everyone.
