Physical education and athletic staffs have numerous opportunities to become entangled in legal disputes. The information in this guide offers guidance for safer athletic programs and management of risk while reinforcing sound educational practice. The guide provides an overview of tort liability and negligence theory, followed by a discussion of various defenses employed by school districts and their employees when engaged in a lawsuit. Case summaries illustrate a wide variety of teacher/coach actions, as well as environmental and equipment conditions, that have been challenged in courts across the country. The case studies focus on practical applications of the law and suggest steps physical educators and coaches can take to deliver safer programs. Finally, the duties and responsibilities of physical educators, coaches, and other allied professionals are outlined emphasizing the duties and standard of care to which professional physical educators and coaches are held. Appendices provide a glossary of legal terms, additional cases of interest, and endnotes. (Contains 50 references.) (LL)

This sports-specific guide provides risk management strategies for over 15 different sports as well as forms, waivers, and medical releases. Fried addresses legal principles and terminology, transportation, insurance, first aid, issues of liability, etc. for a variety of people associated with sports. Athletes, administrators, facility and events managers, coaches, medical personnel (team physicians, athletic trainers, EMTs), spectators, parents, and students can benefit from the knowledge found in Safe at First. This book is written in an easy-to-understand style with sound legal advice expressed in non-technical terms. Fried guides the reader from the earliest stages of event planning to the completion of the event with special attention given to the concerns that accompany event management. Safe at First also includes a sexual abuse risk management manual for youth sports/activities organizations. This extensive guide appeals to the concerns of those involved with youth sports programs.

It is important for anybody involved in sport and physical recreation to be aware of the legal context in which their activity takes place, to develop an understanding of their legal responsibilities and to know what might happen if something goes wrong. Sport, Physical Recreation and the Law is the first textbook on this difficult subject for students and practitioners in sport and physical recreation. Covering a wide range of legal principles and cases, this textbook introduces the reader to legal systems, terminology, databases and the use of case law. Designed to encourage analysis, reflection and the application of examples and ideas from the reader’s own experience, the book clearly and comprehensively explains key topics such as: socio-legal aspects of sports violence and criminal liability negligence and defences against negligence manslaughter by individuals and organizations in sport principles of natural justice, disciplinary tribunals and doping discrimination, harassment and child protection risk management, statutory duties, and breaches of health and safety criminal liability – recognized sports, hazing, and cage fighting. Including over 300 exercises, hypothetical scenarios, investigative tasks and seminar activities, this book is an essential course text for all students of sport, recreation and the law, and an invaluable reference for coaches, physical education teachers and those who play, lead or organize sport and physical recreation.

Since 1980, childhood obesity rates have more than tripled in the United States. Recent data show that almost one-third of children over 2 years of age are already overweight or obese. While the prevalence of childhood obesity appears to have plateaued in recent years, the magnitude of the problem remains unsustainably high and represents an enormous public health concern. All options for addressing the childhood obesity epidemic must therefore be explored. In the United States, legal approaches have successfully reduced other threats to public health, such as the lack of passive restraints in automobiles and the use of tobacco. The question then arises of whether laws, regulations, and litigation can likewise be used to change practices and policies that contribute to obesity. On October 21, 2010, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) held a workshop to bring together stakeholders to discuss the current and future legal strategies aimed at combating childhood obesity. Legal Strategies in Childhood Obesity Prevention summarizes the proceedings of that workshop. The report examines the challenges involved in implementing public health initiatives by using legal strategies to elicit change. It also discusses circumstances in which legal strategies are needed and effective. This workshop was created only to explore the boundaries of potential legal approaches to address childhood obesity, and therefore, does not contain recommendations for the use of such approaches.

Bigger Faster Stronger (BFS) remains the premier training program for high school and college athletes. The third edition of the Bigger Faster Stronger book includes the latest research; training protocols for strength, speed, power, flexibility, balance, and agility; and new content on balance, safety, and plyometrics.

In Reclaiming the Game, William Bowen and Sarah Levin disentangle the admissions and academic experiences of recruited athletes, walk-on athletes, and other students. In a field overwhelmed by reliance on anecdotes, the factual findings are striking--and sobering. Anyone seriously concerned about higher education will find it hard to wish away the evidence that athletic recruitment is problematic even at those schools that do not offer athletic scholarships. Thanks to an expansion of the College and Beyond database that resulted in the highly influential studies The Shape of the River and The Game of Life, the authors are able to analyze in great detail the backgrounds, academic qualifications, and college outcomes of athletes and their classmates at thirty-three academically selective colleges and universities that do not offer athletic scholarships. They show that recruited athletes at these schools are as much as four times more likely to gain admission than are other applicants with similar academic credentials. The data also demonstrate that the typical recruit is substantially more likely to end up in the bottom third of the college class than is either the typical walk-on or the student who does not play college sports. Even more troubling is the dramatic evidence that recruited athletes "underperform:" they do even less well academically than predicted by their test scores and high school grades. Over the last four decades, the athletic-academic divide on elite campuses has widened substantially. This book examines the forces that have been driving this process and presents concrete proposals for reform. At its core, Reclaiming the Game is an argument for re-establishing athletics as a means of fulfilling--instead of undermining--the educational missions of our colleges and universities.