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- Category:
- Sport
- Author:
- Wally Salinger
- Posted:
- Wednesday, 12 November 2008
The playing field, court, floor or fluid is a dangerous thing. Fields get rough, hard and very, very dirty. Floors become slippery, hard to land on and are generally encumbered with obstacles, walls and court boundaries. Let’s not explore the water sports option – deep, cold, slippery, hard to get in and out. All this and I haven’t mentioned the three things that make up sports: people, equipment, skills.
Sportspeople take on challenges that pit them against opposing teams, countries, world records and personal bests. Is it excusable to allow dangerous practices to occur within the confines of a sport? Injuries “happen” means it’s OK to push oneself beyond bodily abilities. An “unseen” splinter on the floor punctured his bare feet when he slipped entering the boat.
Adult sports participation always carries a degree of personal injury risk. Enter the bureaucratic boffins who assure us that exiting our beds on any given day will have us injured beyond the medical fraternity’s ability to put Humpty together again.
Councils, venues and sports organisations live in legal fear of being held accountable for that which cannot be accounted for: error, omission and negligence. Hence the need for risqué management: or management that verges on impropriety and indecency.
Should a player who doesn’t wear a box be able to sue the softball team? A swimmer the pool for damage to a permanent wave that cost $150 at the local salon? Or a badminton player rendered semi-conscious when struck by a shuttlecock? Vexing questions which are used by insurers to keep their people glued to seats, stuck in offices, empanelled like chimpanzees for the amusement of upper levels of management.
How can we determine who are the upper levels of management? They are the most stressed, inactive and lacking in life balance. They talk the talk, but have failed to apply risqué management to their own lives. Medicare and private health insurance assist in putting them back together when they burst at the seams
Team Sydney facilitates the development of clubs and individuals participating in local, national and international sports challenges. Thirty member clubs promote participation and provide the infrastructure, physical or bureaucratic, psychological or sport specific, for community members to be involved in sport.
Tags: good sports, risk management, safety, Sport
