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
I know some USA teams would never tolerate this situation. As I said before, the girls that are going to want to excel will find a way to minimize the impact their period has on their swimming. Those are the types of girls that will swim in a top level practice in a USA group. I have a problem, though, with the idea that age-group swimming is only for the elite. There are young ladies that desire to compete in swimming that may just want to be low-key about it and not swim when they are having their periods or want to miss a practice to go to a dance. This should be o.k. for a teenager to do.
I'm particularly concerned about one 7th grade girl. She's miles above everyone else, one of my best swimmers, and she seems to be friends with the lazy ones who don't seem to care. I've got 2 in particular that seem to be influencing her in a negative way. Today, a group of 4 of them tried to skip practice to watch their schools basketball game, which happened during practice. Three weren't very good swimmers. All of them were seventh graders, and one was that one good swimmer. I gave them all strikes, and then an hour into practice (we had free time for an hour, which I planned to do on Friday, but nobody showed up today so we did it today instead) and I gave them all the chance to get that strike removed if they swam for the second half of practice. One was particularly indecisive... and I don't know why. One had to go home... which has been a constant problem with her... I've had to call her mom to see if I can get her to stay longer than an hour (practice is 2 hours). One has been on her period for the past 11 days... I don't think she wants to be on the team, and one forgot her suit - she's the good swimmer. Normally, when they forget their suit I give them a strike and tell them they can work it off by doing a dry land work out. It sorta warns them, but doesn't let them miss a practice. She said she wanted to find a suit, but then couldn't' find it, so I told her she could do the dry land work out, and she didn't want to, claiming that her shoes were slippery.
The girls at this school have a reputation for being spoiled. They used to skip practice for basketball games all the time. They used to work out for maybe 45 minutes tops. The other coach had no control of the team. They're really not used to being held responsible for showing up and trying hard. I've had to have two speeches where I simply said, "I don't care if you can't do it. I care if you don't try."
I know some USA teams would never tolerate this situation. As I said before, the girls that are going to want to excel will find a way to minimize the impact their period has on their swimming. Those are the types of girls that will swim in a top level practice in a USA group. I have a problem, though, with the idea that age-group swimming is only for the elite. There are young ladies that desire to compete in swimming that may just want to be low-key about it and not swim when they are having their periods or want to miss a practice to go to a dance. This should be o.k. for a teenager to do.
I'm particularly concerned about one 7th grade girl. She's miles above everyone else, one of my best swimmers, and she seems to be friends with the lazy ones who don't seem to care. I've got 2 in particular that seem to be influencing her in a negative way. Today, a group of 4 of them tried to skip practice to watch their schools basketball game, which happened during practice. Three weren't very good swimmers. All of them were seventh graders, and one was that one good swimmer. I gave them all strikes, and then an hour into practice (we had free time for an hour, which I planned to do on Friday, but nobody showed up today so we did it today instead) and I gave them all the chance to get that strike removed if they swam for the second half of practice. One was particularly indecisive... and I don't know why. One had to go home... which has been a constant problem with her... I've had to call her mom to see if I can get her to stay longer than an hour (practice is 2 hours). One has been on her period for the past 11 days... I don't think she wants to be on the team, and one forgot her suit - she's the good swimmer. Normally, when they forget their suit I give them a strike and tell them they can work it off by doing a dry land work out. It sorta warns them, but doesn't let them miss a practice. She said she wanted to find a suit, but then couldn't' find it, so I told her she could do the dry land work out, and she didn't want to, claiming that her shoes were slippery.
The girls at this school have a reputation for being spoiled. They used to skip practice for basketball games all the time. They used to work out for maybe 45 minutes tops. The other coach had no control of the team. They're really not used to being held responsible for showing up and trying hard. I've had to have two speeches where I simply said, "I don't care if you can't do it. I care if you don't try."
