Club Code of Conduct

Athlete Code of Conduct

Athletes should always

1. Treat sports leaders, coaches and club officials with respect.
2. Treat all other athletes as you would like to be treated.
3. Respect club-mates even when things go wrong.
4. Respect competitors and be gracious in defeat and victory.
5. Compete fairly at all times and do your best.

Athletes should never

• Intimidate, use physical contact that is not welcome
• Shout at or argue with another person unreasonably
• Cause harm to or damage property
• Bully or threaten another person online or offline
• Spread or circulate rumours online or offline about another person
• Tell lies

Parent Code of Conduct

Parents of Athletes

1. Respect the rules in the Athletics Ireland’s Code of Ethics for Children in Sport.
2. Respect your child’s club-mates, coaches and other parents.
3. Encourage your child to treat other participants, coaches and officials with respect.
4. Never demonstrate threatening behaviour or use foul language.
5. Never ridicule, humiliate or shout at young athletes
6. Recognise the value and importance of volunteers and coaches.

Coach Code of Conduct

All coaches involved with children and young should:

1. Consider the well being and safety of participants before the development of performance.
2. Develop an appropriate working relationship with members, based on mutual trust and respect.
3. Make sure all activities are appropriate to the age, ability and the experience of the athlete
4. Promote the positive aspects of the sport (e.g. fair play)
5. Display consistently high standards of behaviour.
6. Follow all guidelines laid down by the National Governing Body
7. Never exert undue influence over participants to gain personal benefit or reward.
8. Never condone rule violations or the use of prohibited substances.
9. Encourage participants to value their performances and not just results.
10. Encourage and guide participants to accept responsibility for their own performance and behaviour.
11. Never use foul or inappropriate language.
12. Never engage in any form of sexual relations with anyone under the age of 18, or vulnerable adults.
13. Do use a group email system for communicating with parents/guardians & coaches of athletes.
14. Do not communicate individually by social media, text or email with juvenile athletes
15. Do not engage in communications with underage athletes individually via personal social network sites.
16. Always use official squad group text or social media sites to communicate with juvenile athletes.
17. A coach should under no circumstance undermine the efforts of an athlete’s personal coach and/or attempt to ‘poach’ an athlete within a squad environment.

Failure to comply with the code of conduct may result in an athlete’s or coach’s membership being revoked.