Are we going too far in monitoring sports social websites
The No. 1 concern about coaches and staff with whom we work on the professional and college level has been the increased vulnerability programs have when it comes to athletes' postings on social websites, predominantly the popular Facebook.
Some programs have even gone as far as banning their athletes from having Facebook accounts or in some rare cases have opted to have an outside party monitor all postings made by individuals. The constitutional issues aside; what kind of message does this send to team unity, leadership and support if such drastic measures are required? (Not to brush aside that document ratified in 1789, but at last check that mention of free speech hasn't been airbrushed out of the bill of rights).
Athletes on both the pro and college level use facebook as a communication tool. There certainly have been abuses. One of the major league baseball teams with whom we work reported to us one of their star players made critical comments about the organization on their facebook account, figuring no one would see it but his "friends." But one of the biggest misperceptions is that these social websites are private; they are not. A key element of our program has been to teach athletes they are always on the record and never to post anything on these sites (or text message or email) that they wouldn't mind seeing in someone's blog, website, broadcast or front page.
But to ban athletes from using the sites is an over reaction and an invitation to further problems. Many of the hundreds of athletes we train have admitted they get around such restrictions by using another name on their account; some others ignore it totally. The peer pressure to be on these sites continues to grow.
A better avenue is education; teaching athletes of the ramifications of such sites while reminding them of the key messages we outline in our trainings provides a better climate of trust and honesty. We remind them these sites are often viewed by potential sponsors, employers, supporters, fans and yes, the media and can adversely affect the reputation of themselves, their teammates and their program.
Avoid the temptation of fancy (and very expensive) claims by firms who say they will watch the web for you: monitoring of the sites by an assistant coach, SID or staffer makes sense and provides a better atmosphere in the coach-athlete relationship.
Some programs have even gone as far as banning their athletes from having Facebook accounts or in some rare cases have opted to have an outside party monitor all postings made by individuals. The constitutional issues aside; what kind of message does this send to team unity, leadership and support if such drastic measures are required? (Not to brush aside that document ratified in 1789, but at last check that mention of free speech hasn't been airbrushed out of the bill of rights).
Athletes on both the pro and college level use facebook as a communication tool. There certainly have been abuses. One of the major league baseball teams with whom we work reported to us one of their star players made critical comments about the organization on their facebook account, figuring no one would see it but his "friends." But one of the biggest misperceptions is that these social websites are private; they are not. A key element of our program has been to teach athletes they are always on the record and never to post anything on these sites (or text message or email) that they wouldn't mind seeing in someone's blog, website, broadcast or front page.
But to ban athletes from using the sites is an over reaction and an invitation to further problems. Many of the hundreds of athletes we train have admitted they get around such restrictions by using another name on their account; some others ignore it totally. The peer pressure to be on these sites continues to grow.
A better avenue is education; teaching athletes of the ramifications of such sites while reminding them of the key messages we outline in our trainings provides a better climate of trust and honesty. We remind them these sites are often viewed by potential sponsors, employers, supporters, fans and yes, the media and can adversely affect the reputation of themselves, their teammates and their program.
Avoid the temptation of fancy (and very expensive) claims by firms who say they will watch the web for you: monitoring of the sites by an assistant coach, SID or staffer makes sense and provides a better atmosphere in the coach-athlete relationship.
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