Tips and Techniques for Locker Room Supervision

Coaches have a duty to supervise student-athletes as a matter of specific supervision and general supervision. Specific supervision deals with the supervision of student-athletes while the student-athletes are engaged in the athletic activity itself, e.g., practices, competitions and other activities directly related to sports participation. General supervision is supervision of student-athletes for a reasonable period before and after the athletics activity and supervision of sports environments at times outside their use of athletic activities. To that end, supervision of locker rooms is an area included in the general supervision of student-athletes.

Conversations around locker room supervision are often uncomfortable as it is an area generally perceived as potentially problematic. In many cases, lack of adult supervision reflects administrative fear that grown-ups in the locker room could prey on children or face accusations to that effect. However, the locker room is where students are most vulnerable to hazing, harassment and injury from horseplay making it the last place that supervision should be lacking.

With the increased use of electronic devices in schools, students can use cell phones to photograph and videotape classmates dressing, undressing or in the shower.

Adult supervision is required in schools because parents expect school districts to keep their children safe. Students and especially those students participating in a school’s athletic program need to know that the locker room is a place where adult supervision will be present setting the expectation for safety. The responsibility for creating a safe playing and learning environment including locker rooms falls to each team’s coaching staff and the school’s athletic director. The presence of adults in the locker room is critical to maintaining a safe and positive environment. There are some fundamental strategies key to ensuring safety in locker rooms.

Laying the groundwork of priority, commitment and communication is the first step.

• Make locker room supervision a clearly stated expectation and priority. Athletic directors and coaches need to make the commitment to understanding the importance and necessity of locker room supervision as a best practice and an important part of the duties and responsibilities of coaches.

• Get buy-in from school district administration and school board. Having the support of everyone in the chain-of-command will make the effort needed for commitment to locker room supervision possible and sustainable. Upper-level administration and school boards must be part of the process to support the efforts of athletic directors and coaches in creating safe spaces in locker rooms for all student-athletes.

• Be intentional in communication. Athletic directors, coaches and other school personnel need to collaborate to develop a documented plan or policy to make sure that the expectations of locker room supervision and behavior are clearly defined and communicated. All parties including coaches, student-athletes, parents and school personnel need to know and understand any rules, expectations and behavior requirements for students that are established by school leadership and coaches’ roles and responsibilities in supervising locker rooms.

The athletic director and coaches should work together to establish the practical guidelines, rules and expectations that all coaches need to adhere to in order to provide adequate supervision in the locker room. Listed are some techniques and procedures that athletic directors and coaches can consider in planning to create a safe environment in the locker room.

• Define and establish practices of locker room supervision conducive to the logistics. Every school is unique and not all locker rooms are created equal. The athletic director and coach need to physically tour the locker room to view and understand the layout of the facility. It will be important to know how lockers are laid out, what type of lockers, where the restroom and shower facilities are located, location of any offices or storage areas, where exit doorways are located, and any other structural dynamic contained within the space. After understanding the lay-of-the-land and the characteristics of the locker room, coaches along with the athletic director should develop the methodology by which adequate and appropriate supervision of the locker room will happen.

• Collaborate with other school personnel. One of the best resources for understanding locker room supervision is a school’s physical education department. Physical education instructors utilize the locker room as part of their teaching environment and are most often well-versed on supervision techniques and methods. Meeting with the physical education staff and enlisting their suggestions can be an asset in assisting coaching staffs with locker room supervision. In addition, utilizing out-of-season coaches to assist in monitoring locker rooms can be a viable option.

• Establish a standard of practice and stick to it. Athletic directors and coaches need to create an appropriate locker room culture that ultimately filters into the overall culture of success throughout the entire athletic program. Coaches must be visible and vocal regarding locker room expectations and student-athlete behavior. The first step for lessening risks in the locker room is to provide the presence of authority. When locker rooms are not being used, they should be locked. When they are being used, student-athletes must know that someone from the coaching staff will be monitoring them. Student-athletes will meet expectations if they are held to a consistent standard of practice and held accountable by the adults in charge. The written plan should be reviewed by coaches with student-athletes every season to ensure that student-athletes understand their role in proper locker room behavior.

• Coaches not accustomed to being in the locker room will require adequate training to help them acquire a level of comfort when supervising the locker room. Experienced coaches new to the school district should be oriented to the specific expectations and procedures established by the district. Training coaches on how to manage and navigate locker room supervision will be an important proactive leadership function of the athletic department. With more responsibility falling on coaches, it is more important than ever to provide support.

• Locker room supervision does not require coaches to sit in the locker room and watch student-athletes prepare for practice or competition. Being seen and heard is the key - walking through the locker room, being vocal in encouraging student-athletes to dress and exit the locker room expeditiously and giving them a time limit is one method. Circulate and scan the locker room in an irregular pattern to see and hear what is going on. An irregular pattern will make it more difficult for student-athletes to try to hide something. Reasonable supervision does not mean that coaches or other athletic personnel must continually observe every student-athlete at all times. Coaching staffs can rotate this responsibility so that all coaches have a presence in the locker room and student-athletes know that the entire coaching staff is committed to the expectations of a positive and safe locker room environment.

• Coaches can require student-athletes to enter and exit the locker room all at the same time with the coaching staff. Often referred to as the “all-in and all-out” method of locker room supervision, this method ensures that the student-athletes and coaching staff are working together, and the expectations are clear that the locker room is a place for student-athletes to dress for practice or competition and not a place to hang out in or engage in inappropriate behavior.

• Pay attention. Coaches need to listen to the conversations of student-athletes. When walking through the locker room, listening to the chatter can make coaches aware of what is going on in the locker room. Similarly, athletic directors need to listen to coaches and provide support to struggling coaches and well as using regular check-ins with coaches to monitor any needs or concerns that coaches may have.

• Be detailed, clear and repetitive. Posting signage in the locker room with clearly defined rules and regulations is another proactive step in creating a safe locker room environment. However, along with signage in locker rooms must come the continuous messaging from coaches and administration about the expectations of student-athletes behavior in locker rooms. Direction, reinforcement and guidance from adults on a consistent basis show that the locker room space is to be taken seriously.

• Create a culture of success and respect consistent with the mission of education-based athletics. Interscholastic athletics as an extension of the classroom helps to promote positive life lessons to teach the students who participate in them ways to be productive and successful as an adult. The locker room should be treated like a room in one’s home – treated with respect. Similarly, the locker room is a place where only appropriate behavior is acceptable; it is not a place where poor behavior should be tolerated.

Lessening risks in the locker room is a best practice and a proactive leadership function of coaches and athletic directors. Understand the locker room as an important athletic facility and give its supervision priority. Establish the expectation of locker room safety in the minds of coaches and student-athletes. Well-trained coaches using simple supervision techniques consistently with support from administration will be the key.

Resources:
Proactive Coaching – www.proactivecoaching.info
“The Locker Room: Creating a Culture of Success” – www.greatresourcesforcoaches.com
ACP-E Supervision and Locker Room Plan – www.cusd80.com
Student Supervision Guidelines – www.ascip.org
MCPS Athletics Supervision Action Plan