I think its worst for girls to be denied decent practice. Many high school programs still have girls practice as much or even less yardage than master teams. I read this on the net, that one girl commented that they only practice 2,000 yards, while the boys I remember in high school had workouts of yardage between 5,000 to 10,000 befored they tapered. So, this ruling hurts girl swimmers more. This is the state of Missouri of course. This is from Phillip Whitten on the swimming world news on the internet. We complain about college programs being elimnated for boys or young men but what about the unfair treatment of girls in high school sports that can't practice on a USA swim Team during their high school years.
Parents
Former Member
Wait a minute,
Are you saying that there exists rules in Missouri HS Sports Association that explicitly say that womens' teams cannot exceed some kind of standard, be it practice time or distances allowed, that is lower than the mens standards? I do not believe this. It's probably more like the coaching quality/philosophy. Also, correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't HS sports (nationally) follow the same rules and regulations that NCAA Division 3 follows? This would not allow hard rules to be set, not allowing HS swimmers to also swim USS. Again, this is probably a coaches choice. I know my USS club coach was totally against his swimmers swimming HS, and would pressure us not to. But, he was not allowed to bar us from doing so. Instead, he would simply use the 'power of the purse' (How the federal govt controls state laws) to pursuade us. But if you were good enough, coach still needed you and his 'persuasion' (sp?) had no affect (or is it effect).
Here is my own experiance with this sort of thing. I coached a club of over 120 kids from ages 6 to 18 for 10 years. When I first started, fresh out of college, I tried to apply the same training tecniques to the older kids. I quickly learned that they simply could not do the yardage I was demanding. And trust me, I was trying to get them to 3000-3500 in an hour practice. Not alot in my book. I found 99% of them would just sit out of sets. (believe it or not, the only swimmer never to sit out, was a girl! And, now, in college, she is doing 1:04s in the 100 ***) My impression was, they either lacked the mindset to do the yards, or they had been programmed over the years, by former coaches, for less yards. Rarely, did they break 2000yds. Finally, I found distance (about 2500) where the kids would do, without sitting out during sets.
Joe Bubel
Wait a minute,
Are you saying that there exists rules in Missouri HS Sports Association that explicitly say that womens' teams cannot exceed some kind of standard, be it practice time or distances allowed, that is lower than the mens standards? I do not believe this. It's probably more like the coaching quality/philosophy. Also, correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't HS sports (nationally) follow the same rules and regulations that NCAA Division 3 follows? This would not allow hard rules to be set, not allowing HS swimmers to also swim USS. Again, this is probably a coaches choice. I know my USS club coach was totally against his swimmers swimming HS, and would pressure us not to. But, he was not allowed to bar us from doing so. Instead, he would simply use the 'power of the purse' (How the federal govt controls state laws) to pursuade us. But if you were good enough, coach still needed you and his 'persuasion' (sp?) had no affect (or is it effect).
Here is my own experiance with this sort of thing. I coached a club of over 120 kids from ages 6 to 18 for 10 years. When I first started, fresh out of college, I tried to apply the same training tecniques to the older kids. I quickly learned that they simply could not do the yardage I was demanding. And trust me, I was trying to get them to 3000-3500 in an hour practice. Not alot in my book. I found 99% of them would just sit out of sets. (believe it or not, the only swimmer never to sit out, was a girl! And, now, in college, she is doing 1:04s in the 100 ***) My impression was, they either lacked the mindset to do the yards, or they had been programmed over the years, by former coaches, for less yards. Rarely, did they break 2000yds. Finally, I found distance (about 2500) where the kids would do, without sitting out during sets.
Joe Bubel
