Book Chapter

The issue of athlete welfare and why tackling should be removed from physical education and school sport: #BanTackling

Abstract

In March 2016, the Sport Collision Injury Collective called upon the UK government to remove tackling from schools’ physical education and school sport. This is because 1) tackling is the leading cause of injury in rugby, 2) rugby has a level of risk that is higher than non-contact sports, 3) there is no requirement or need for tackling as part of the physical education and school sport curriculum, and 4) many children are compelled to participate in contact rugby as part of the physical education and school sport curriculum. This debate has typically contested issues of informed consent and acceptable levels of risk, both issues being firmly positioned in the sociopolitical realm. It is this social concern that I will attend to in this chapter, concluding that the removal of contact in physical education and school sport is both the only logical and viable solution available at this time.

Attached files

Authors

White, Adam J.

Oxford Brookes departments

Department of Sport, Health Sciences and Social Work

Dates

Year of publication: 2020
Date of RADAR deposit: 2019-09-27

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All rights reserved.

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Related resources

This RADAR resource is the Accepted Manuscript of The issue of athlete welfare and why tackling should be removed from physical education and school sport #BanTackling
This RADAR resource is Part of Routledge handbook of athlete welfare [ISBN: 9780367193256] / edited by Melanie Lang (Routledge, 2020).