A Colorado cheerleading coach seen in a viral video forcing a girl into an extended split as she screamed in agony was fired from a previous job for the same thing.
The 13-year-old cheerleader was shown crying and begging her coach, Ozell Williams, to stop as he pushed her to the ground during an exercise at a camp in June, reported KUSA-TV.
The teen, Ally Wakefield, told the TV station she tore a ligament in the exercise, known as “breaking,” and her parents sent video of the incident to school administrators shortly after the cheerleading camp began.
Williams, who oversaw the camp, was suspended Wednesday by East High School in Denver, Colorado.
KUSA also reported that Williams had been fired from his paid consulting job last year after parents at Boulder High School complained about the forced splits.
There is a video of this but I refuse to post it here because it is too disturbing. (If you want to see it just click the Raw Story link.)
I spent twenty years training in martial arts, and was also a gymnast as well as a coach, but only once did I ever see this barbaric training method.
It was in a dojo in Anchorage, and the sensei literally stood on my legs, which were in the split position, while giving instruction to the other students.
Fortunately for me I could already do the splits to there was no injury, just some mild foot shaped bruising on my thighs. (That guy really hated me.)
As a coach myself I NEVER engaged in this type of forced stretching because I knew it to be harmful, which is something that is actually touched upon during your training to be a coach.
Sports are fun, and they should be taught with the idea of keeping them fun.
(Yes I know I have diverged from the usual topics covered here on IM, but damn this thing really bothered me. Don't worry back to politics after this. )
Source http://ift.tt/2vfrLNm
