By TORU NAKAKOJI/ Senior Staff Writer
September 15, 2022 at 16:26 JST
The Japan Baton Twirling Association issued a warning in June to a female coach for physical and verbal abuse against two girls, The Asahi Shimbun has learned.
The coach is also an accredited judge for the general incorporated association.
The two girls are sisters, a first-year junior high school student and a third-grade elementary school student.
They have already quit the Tokyo club to which the coach belongs.
According to the warning issued by the association, the coach started beating the younger sibling when she became a first-year elementary school student, several months after she joined the club.
The coach hit the girl’s hands and legs with a baton and yanked her arms. She also pulled on the older sibling’s arms.
The older sibling told the association during an investigative interview that the coach struck the girls’ heads with a baton. The coach had also shouted abusive language at the girls, calling them “an idiot,” “fat” and telling them to “die.”
The girls’ parents filed a complaint with the association earlier this year.
After an investigation, the association concluded that the coach’s actions amounted to “violence and went beyond the body contact necessary for coaching.”
The association decided the coach “deserves strong criticism” and said what she did had “an incalculable impact on their physical and mental health.”
At the same time, the association did not suspend the coach’s membership and merely gave her a warning, which said, “Do not do inappropriate coaching.”
The association said it will give compliance lessons to athletes and coaches to prevent similar incidents from occurring.
The coach is a former board member of the Tokyo Baton Twirling Association.
When asked by The Asahi Shimbun how she would apply the warning to her future coaching, the coach bristled.
“The Japan association rendered its judgment, and it’s already a dead issue,” she said. “I don’t want to have anything to do with it. I don’t need to answer that.”
The Asahi Shimbun obtained an audio recording of a lesson from October 2021 held behind closed doors.
The recording caught the coach loudly berating and denigrating the child.
The girls’ parents said they blew the whistle because they “want the coach to regret her actions and also want to eliminate violence from the baton twirling world.”
The parents said some parents accept violence because they think “that’s what coaching is about.” But that way of thinking needs to change, they said.
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The Asahi Shimbun obtained an audio recording of a female baton twirling coach verbally abusing an elementary school student during a lesson. This image is an illustrative photo. (The Asahi Shimbun)
