I just became the coach of my first swim team, and I, being a male, am having a hard time with the whole period thing. My girls are middle school level, and a little shy about the subject, as am I. Now, I know that you can swim on your period by using a tampon, but they cringed at the idea. However, on a 20 girl team, I've got as many as 6-7 girls sitting out daily because of it. I know that's far FAR too high. I'm about this close to going out and buying a box of tampons to shove in their face if they don't dress.
So my questions are:
How necessary is it that you wear a tampon? Is it an every day thing? are there times when it's worse than others?
And, how can I easily make the lives of the swimmers who don't swim (and keep in mind it has to be for a group of 6-7 people) a living hell. I need a dry land work out that can be done on the pool deck that takes little effort to watch (so I can coach the other girls) and something they can't really slack off - I keep giving them push ups and they barely go down.
I really can't think of anything outside of making the actual swim session fun, so if you guys have ideas on how to do that too it might work, too. It need to work on something important though.
Along the note lines, how about a written note from the doc? Then, those very few girls who are really affected, will have a valid excuse. Those that are faking or whose parents don't know what's going on will have to man up. Those that have tampon issues may then be forced to have a frank discussion/ lesson with mom and/ or older sis.
And create a swimming attendance policy (all the high school swim teams around here have swim team attendance policies.)
Don't get doctors involved in this. I already have crazy parents bringing their daughters in to the ER for me to tell them if they are still virgins (apparently they can tell this with 100% accuracy in Mexico).
"Susie can't practice today because she has really bad menstrual cramps."
signed Dr Dickson
Susie needs to go to the "B" team where attendance is optional and everybody gets a trophy for a good effort. (If she were swimming hard enough she wouldn't have periods).:bolt:
This whole issue is ridiculous--my daughter swam her last state meet on her period and my wife actually times her period to occur just prior to her big cycling races (supposedly some V02 advantage or some such nonsense).
Let the underachievers that like missing practice do it on another team.
Along the note lines, how about a written note from the doc? Then, those very few girls who are really affected, will have a valid excuse. Those that are faking or whose parents don't know what's going on will have to man up. Those that have tampon issues may then be forced to have a frank discussion/ lesson with mom and/ or older sis.
And create a swimming attendance policy (all the high school swim teams around here have swim team attendance policies.)
Don't get doctors involved in this. I already have crazy parents bringing their daughters in to the ER for me to tell them if they are still virgins (apparently they can tell this with 100% accuracy in Mexico).
"Susie can't practice today because she has really bad menstrual cramps."
signed Dr Dickson
Susie needs to go to the "B" team where attendance is optional and everybody gets a trophy for a good effort. (If she were swimming hard enough she wouldn't have periods).:bolt:
This whole issue is ridiculous--my daughter swam her last state meet on her period and my wife actually times her period to occur just prior to her big cycling races (supposedly some V02 advantage or some such nonsense).
Let the underachievers that like missing practice do it on another team.
