It seems USRowing is reading RowSafeUSA. That’s good.
RowSafeUSA contains important information they should be paying attention to, and much of it comes directly from their safety guidelines, features and videos. Yet, they seem be missing the point(s).
There are questions about USRowing’s safety guidance that should be clarified and inconsistencies between their warnings and guidance that ought to be corrected. This may not be a priority for elite rowers and masters, but it’s important for scholastic rowers. Kids who start rowing in high school or middle school deserve better safety guidance than they’re getting. Important matters of safety should be clear, not ambiguous.
Let’s start with a basic question: why doesn’t USRowing issue safety standards?*
My understanding is that USRowing issues guidelines rather than standards because it disavows the authority to set standards per se. It’s a point we disagree on, but one that USRowing should clarify for the benefit of club administrators, coaches, and the parents of scholastic rowers.
Why is this important? Because standards carry more force than guidelines. If a club assures parents of young rowers that it adheres to USRowing’s safety standards, parents, presumably, have the right to assume their kids are protected by the established standards of the sport. If there are no standards, or a club misinterprets or disregards important guidelines, the kids may have little or no protection at all.
USRowing should clarify this point. If a club has no written safety program and its coaches have no USRowing training, no CPR/First Aid, and no boating safety certifications, can the club rightfully tell parents of scholastic rowers that it adheres to USRowing’s Safety Standards? I’ll send this question directly to USRowing’s Safety Committee by email and post both my email and their response when it’s received.
Once we have clarification on the issue, we can discuss it.
Row safer, row smarter,
Marc
* “Standards” as used here refer to rules that must be followed, as distinct from “guidelines,” which may or may not be followed according to judgment or circumstances.