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.
Parents
Former Member
Let the underachievers that like missing practice do it on another team.Here's the problem with that, do I kick girls off because they're on their period? Because, even though I know they're just skipping practice, the parents all think their children are perfect little angels who would NEVER do such a thing. They get pissed. They call up the school and complain.
You have to realize I'm dealing with super conservative parents. Both of the parents I've called have disgusted me so far. One said they were worried about their kid getting embarrassed. The other said their (incredibly fat) little darling couldn't walk two blocks from where the bus dropped her off so they had to be let out of practice 40 minutes earlier. Now, the parents are just like the kids. They fold once a stern person like me is breathing down their neck... politely.
I would love to kick about 4 kids off the team because of attitude. Ironically, they're all horrible swimmers. However, I prefer to do it the PC way and have them kick themselves off the team. I've got a strike system, and it's three and they're out. Let's just pray it happens sooner rather than later.
Let the underachievers that like missing practice do it on another team.Here's the problem with that, do I kick girls off because they're on their period? Because, even though I know they're just skipping practice, the parents all think their children are perfect little angels who would NEVER do such a thing. They get pissed. They call up the school and complain.
You have to realize I'm dealing with super conservative parents. Both of the parents I've called have disgusted me so far. One said they were worried about their kid getting embarrassed. The other said their (incredibly fat) little darling couldn't walk two blocks from where the bus dropped her off so they had to be let out of practice 40 minutes earlier. Now, the parents are just like the kids. They fold once a stern person like me is breathing down their neck... politely.
I would love to kick about 4 kids off the team because of attitude. Ironically, they're all horrible swimmers. However, I prefer to do it the PC way and have them kick themselves off the team. I've got a strike system, and it's three and they're out. Let's just pray it happens sooner rather than later.
