All coaches, gym owners, parents and gymnasts need to be concerned with gymnastics safety.  In every gymnastics program, safety considerations should come first.

USAG Safety Certification
Currently, the safety knowledge level of the average gymnastics coach derives from the USA Gymnastics Safety certification program.  This program was originally a one-day course with a multiple-choice test.  The course and test are now also available online.  The course is based on the USA Gymnastics Safety manual.

The Original Safety Association
Organizational involvement in the gymnastics safety issue began with USGSA (United States Gymnastics Safety Association) and the publishing of their safety manual in 1978.  At the time there was a “crisis” in gymnastics liability insurance and the USGSA tried to set itself up to be the intermediary between insurance companies and gyms.  Gyms and coaches theoretically could only be insured if their staff and coaches passed the USGSA safety testing.

Must Be Certified
The USGSA disappeared after a few short years and the responsibility for safety certification passed to USA Gymnastics.  They enforced rules for coaches to become certified by the USA Gymnastics Safety certification program by not allowing anyone not certified to coach at meets. 

Safety vs. Liability
With both of these certification programs, there was and remains some question as to what policies are truly related to safety and which are liability issues.  No one in America can be unaware of the concept that there are too many lawyers and that America is “suit-happy.”  And yet there should certainly be a distinction made between what is safety related and what is a result of liability concerns.

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