Ethic in Coaching?

The history of public relations is littered with confirmations and allegations of unethical behavior
demonstrated by coaches and athletes. The latest firing of Indiana University's notorious
Bobby Knight and the suspension of baseball's John Rocker are two recent cases that involved
poor decision making on the part of Knight and Rocker.

 Professionals? One often wonders from what moral foundation do participants in the world of sport chose to make their decisions and subsequently act (1). Their ethical conduct was in question and steps were taken to remedy the situation.

Ethics means more than being honest and obeying the law; it means being morally good (2). Every athlete, every coach has to face the ethical dilemma of "What is ethics and what
criteria should I follow ?" Knowing what is right and what is wrong defines the boundaries of ethics.
Those involved in sport organizations need to be their own public relations expert and make
decisions on what is best for them and their organization. But how many of those involved in
sport know how to deal with a controversial issue, the public, etc? Coaches and athletes need to
be educated in public relations and situations such as Bobby Knight and John Rocker could possibly
be avoided. Managers must help their employees decide what is right and what is wrong.
But how and where do we begin?

The bottom line with regard to ethics rests within the "Golden Rule": Treat others in the
way you would like to be treated. This concept is not new. The principles that shape ethical
conduct have remained constant while people have chosen to manipulate those principles in
ways which foster self-promotion and self-aggrandizement (3). Coaches and athletes should 1 be the most ethical persons in an organization. The public and all of its people are constantly
observing and scrutinizing sport organizations. Sport organizations are in the public eye and the
public should demand nothing less than professionalism from its athletes and coaches.

Everyone knows that athletes and coaches are role models. Any prospective coach or athlete
should be aware of and strive to produce positive images and public relations for the sake of
the sport organization and the community. How a coach proceeds in developing a relationship with
the media and the public is vital. High profile athletes and coaches should realize that public
relations is a major part of their job. Literature points to the fact that coaches need to communicate
their role in society with various groups. Standards and tenets should be used as a guideline
to help develop ethical behavior.

"What is ethics" and how a coach should go about developing a sound ethical sports program
poses a dilemma to any rookie coach or manager. Whose ethics to follow is often in question.
How does one choose? Mark McElreath has identified five factors that one should consider
in developing ethical behavior. Sound ethics can enhance one's athletic program and give a
solid foundation on which to stand and build.

Ethics is defined by Mark McElreath as "a set of criteria by which decisions are made about what is right and what is wrong." The most ethical person in a sport organization should be the coach. How a coach should develop ethical behavior begins by looking at five factors:

1. Tradition
   Ways in which the situation has been viewed or handled in the past.
2. Public Currently acceptable behavior according to the majority of one and Opinion their peers.
3. Law Behaviors that are permissible and those that are prohibited by legislation.
4. Morality Generally, a spiritual or religious prohibition. Immorality is a charge usually leveled in issues on which religious teachings have concentrated.
5. Ethics Standards set by the profession, an organization, or oneself, based on conscience-what is right or fair to others as well as to self (6).

The world of sports is bound by rules and is very fragile in the face of the moral quest for
betterment. Those people in a position of sport leadership must possess a strong sense of priorities,
purpose and ethics for themselves and their programs. The sport participants and the
sport should begin with looking at the coach and the five moral obligations a coach should possess:

1. To ourselves-to preserve our own integrity.
2. To our athletes-to honor their contracts and to use our professional expertise on our athletes behalf.
3. To our sport organization-to adhere to organizational goals and policies.
4. To our profession and our professional colleagues-to uphold the standards of the profession and, by extension, the reputation of our fellow practitioners.
5. To society-to consider social needs and claims (7).

Moral obligations could be considered controversial, yet they are the basis for beginning to establish a noble and virtuous career as a coach. The explicit goal of all competitive sports is to win within the rules. When athletic participants engage in competition for its inherent pleasure, generally very few problems based upon ethical conduct emerges(8).

Any derivation from the inherent pleasures of simple participation intensifies the pressure
to win therein influencing the ethical constraints in decision-making, risking the loss of important
"teachable moments" which make sport the educational tool it can be. Lumpkin (1990)
states: When winning becomes the primary objective, other potential outcomes are lost.

Coaches are usually the ones initially caught up in this win-at-all cost attitude. To fulfill their own
ego needs, coaches too often pressure their young players to play while injured, to violate the
rules to their advantage, and to quit if they are not good enough (9).

When the outcome becomes so highly significant that some or all of the participants employ whatever means possible to achieve success, then the questionable behavior is covertl or overtly employed, to the detriment of values and sound character, and the ideals of sport.

Today's interscholastic sport managers and coaches are faced with more and more difficulty in making ethical decisions and appear to be distancing themselves away from a solid foundation for
making ethical decisions.

A solid foundation begins with building the five factors for ethical behavior and moral obligations.
The adoptions of these five factors could be the beginning of something positive for sports.
If moral and ethical values are to result from athletic programs then coaches must emphasize
them.

One might question if ethics in sport should have principles and values. The principles speak largely to character development, not the accumulation of victories. Four tenets have been identified
and linked to modern sports. These tenets intertwine sport's ideals and ethics. Each tenet
sustains the inherent and traditional values of sports, reinforcing the "goodness" of the experience.

1. Athletes must always be considered ends and not means (10).
2. The competition must be fair (11).
3. Participation, leadership, resources, and rewards must be based on achievement rather than ascribed characteristics(12).
4. The activity must provide for the relative safety of the participants (13).

Javelin Throw

The javelin throw is a track and field athletics throwing event where the object to be thrown is the javelin, a spear approximately 2.5 metres in length. Javelin is an event of both the men's decathlon and the women's heptathlon.The javelin thrower gains momentum by running up to a predetermined area.

Rules and Competitions

The size, shape, minimum weight,and center of gravity of the javelin implement itself are all defined by IAAF rules. In international competition, men throw a javelin between 2.6 and 2.7 metres in length and (at least) 800 grams in weight, and women throw a javelin between 2.2 and 2.3 metres in length and (at least) 600 grams in weight. The javelin is equipped with a grip, approximately 150 mm wide, made of cord and located at the javelin's center of gravity (0.9 to 1.06 metres or 0.8 to 0.92 metres from the tip of the javelin for men's and women's implements, respectively).

Unlike the other throwing events (shotput, discus, and hammer), the technique used to throw the javelin is dictated by IAAF rules and "non-orthodox" techniques are not permitted. The javelin must be held at its grip and thrown overhand, over the athlete's shoulder or upper arm. Further, the athlete is prohibited from turning completely around such that his back faces the direction of throw. In practice, this prevents athletes from attempting to spin and hurl the javelin sidearm in the style of a discus throw. Instead of being confined to a circle, javelin throwers are provided with a runway 4 metres wide and at least 30 metres in length, ending in a curved arc from which their throw will be measured; athletes typically use this distance to gain momentum in a "run-up" to their throw. Like the other throwing events, the competitor may not leave the throwing area (the runway) until after the implement lands. The need to come to a stop behind the throwing arc limits both how close the athlete can come to the line before the release as well as the maximum speed achieved at the time of release.

The javelin is thrown towards a "sector" covering an angle of 29 degrees extending outwards from the arc at the end of the runway. A throw is legal only if the tip of the javelin lands within this sector, and the tip strikes the ground before any other part of the javelin. The distance of the throw is measured from the throwing arc to the point where the tip of the javelin landed, rounded down to the nearest centimetre.

Competition rules are similar to other throwing events: a round consists of one attempt by each competitor in turn, and competitions typically consist of three to six rounds. The competitor with the longest single legal throw (over all rounds) is the winner; in the case of a tie the competitors' second-longest throws are also considered. Competitions involving large numbers of athletes sometimes use a "cut": all competitors compete in the first three rounds, but only athletes who are currently among the top eight or have achieved some minimum distances are permitted to attempt to improve on their distance in additional rounds (typically three).

Javelin redesigns

On April 1, 1986, the men's javelin (800 grams (1.76 lb)) was redesigned by the governing body (the IAAF Technical Committee). They decided to change the rules for javelin construction because of the increasingly frequent flat landings and the resulting discussions and protests when these attempts were declared valid or invalid by competition judges. The world record had also crept up to a potentially dangerous level, 104.80 metres by Uwe Hohn. The javelin was redesigned so that the centre of gravity was moved 4 cm forward, further away from the centre of pressure (the point at which the aerodynamic forces of lift and drag act), so that the javelin had an increased downward pitching moment. This brings the nose down earlier, reducing the flight distance by around 10% but also causing the javelin to stick in the ground more consistently. In 1999, the women's javelin (600 grams (1.32 lb)) was similarly redesigned.

Modifications that manufacturers made to recover some of the lost distance, by increasing tail drag (using holes, rough paint or dimples), were outlawed at the end of 1991 and marks made using implements with such modifications removed from the record books. Seppo Räty had achieved a world record of 96.96 metres in 1991 with such a design, but this record was nullified.

Matti Järvinen throwing the javelin at the 1932 Summer Olympics.

History and the javelin at the Olympics

The javelin throw has the greatest connection to warfare of all the Olympic events. During the era between the Mycenaean times and the Roman Empire, the javelin was a commonly used offensive weapon. Being lighter than the spear, the javelin would be thrown rather than thrust and thus allowed long distance attacks against one’s enemy. Athletes, however, used javelins that were much lighter than military ones because the idea of the event was to demonstrate distance rather than penetration. The one major difference between the javelin of the ancient games and the javelin of more modern times is a leather thong, called an ankyle that was wound around the middle of the shaft. Athletes would hold the javelin by the thong and when the javelin released this thong unwound giving the javelin a spiraled flight.

The javelin throw has a particularly strong tradition in the Nordic nations of Europe. Of the 69 Olympic medals that have been awarded in the men's javelin, 32 have gone to competitors from Norway, Sweden, or Finland.^] Finland is the only nation to have ever swept the medals at a currently recognized official Olympics, and has done so twice, in 1920 and 1932. (However, Sweden swept the first four places at the 1906 Intercalated Games. Finland's 1920 sweep also featured an additional fourth place finish. Sweeping the first four places is no longer possible, as only three entrants per country are allowed.) In 1912, Finland also swept the medals in the only appearance in the Olympics of two-handed javelin, an event in which the implement was separately thrown with both the right hand and the left hand and the marks were added together. Quite popular in Finland and Sweden at the time, this event soon faded into obscurity, together with similar variations of the shot and the discus.

Technique and training

Unlike other throwing events, javelin allows the competitor to build speed over a considerable distance. In addition to the core and upper body strength necessary to deliver the implement, javelin throwers benefit from the agility and athleticism typically associated with running and jumping events. Thus, the athletes share more physical characteristics with sprinters than with other, heavier throwing athletes.

Traditional free-weight training is often used by javelin throwers. Metal-rod exercises and resistance band exercises can be used to train a similar action to the javelin throw to increase power and intensity. Without proper strength and flexibilty, throwers can become extremely injury prone, especially in the shoulder and elbow. Core stability can help in the transference of physical power and force from the ground through the body to the javelin. Stretching and sprint training are used to enhance the speed of the athlete at the point of release, and subsequently, the speed of the javelin. At release, a javelin can reach speeds approaching 113 km/h (70 mph).