Kids embarassed to wear Speedo's
Tom K
story and thought I'd share it with you. Kids embarassed to wear Speedo's.
What can we do? I know many of you guys wear this type of suit while
boating. In my opinion, these youngsters should not have such shame in
their bodies. This cannot be healthy.
Tom
"Small suits reason for males to quit swim teams"
The Philadelphia Inquirer
August 7, 1999
"Some say they're ill-suited for the challenge. For boys, swim
meets are too racy."
By Michael Vitez INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Matt Bernetich won the Tri-County swim meet as an 8-year-old, the
fastest freestyler in South Jersey. Now age 14, Matt won't be swimming
in the Tri-County meet this weekend. For the first time since he was 6,
he didn't swim competitively at all this summer. He played on an
all-star baseball team. He went to soccer and basketball camp. And he
gave one other important reason why he quit swimming. "It was
probably the bathing suit," said the Haddonfield boy. "It's really tight
and really small. If we didn't have to wear that little suit, I'd
probably swim." This is a common sentiment around the region, and
apparently around the country. An increasing number of
middle-school-age boys, typically around 13, stop swimming - in part
because of the low-drag, faster Speedo-style suit. "In my opinion, the
main reason the boys stop swimming is the suits," said John Tract,
parent of two swimmers at Conestoga Swim Club in Radnor. The
problem seems to be greater among the more casual summer swimmers. His
pool's summer swim team has five boys ages 13 and 14 - an abundance
compared to other pools they swim against in the Delaware County B
division. "I have often said that I would love to be able to design
a boy's suit that was both streamlined and less revealing," Tract said.
"I'm sure a fortune could be made and swim coaches all over America
would jump for joy." His son, Matt Tract, 10, has begun to see
defections from the sport by his peers. "Every year in my school I ask
kids why they don't swim" on the summer team, Matt said. "They all have
the same answer: These little suits don't look good. I just say I know
they don't look very good, but that's part of swimming." Swimmers are
not required to wear the racing suits. But the alternative - being the
only competitor not wearing the standard gear - is an even less
attractive prospect for many teenagers, who don't want to be
conspicuous. And the bigger, less revealing suits that boys might
prefer at the beach or even casually at poolside would put them at an
enormous disadvantage during a swim meet, like wearing basketball
high-tops to run the 400 meters. As a result, many of them simply
choose to quit swimming competitively. In the Cherry Bowl
swim meet last weekend, only seven of 13 Cherry Hill pools were able to
find four boys to swim in the 13-14 relays. In the Tri-County meet this
weekend, with 36 competing pools, only 22 have enough boys to field a
13-14 relay team. "I have a lot of problems getting 14-and-unders
because of the Speedo, because it's [perceived as] not a manly
sport," said Stu Kukla, who coaches at Maple Manor Swim Club in Upper
Dublin and at Upper Moreland High School. "Their friends, the
nonswimmers, rag on them about this point." Many area swim-club and
high-school coaches say the shortage of boys - either on summer swim
teams or in year-round programs - is not new. Some say it seems to
be getting worse. They differ as to the degree. Most area high-school
teams have far more girl swimmers than boys, area coaches say. For most
girls, the suits are not an issue. "There's a national trend of boys
getting out of swimming," said Bill Trabosh, owner and coach of NRG
swimming, a year-round aquatic club in Bucks County with 250
swimmers - 70 percent of whom are girls. Besides the question of
modesty, coaches, parents and swimmers give other reasons for the
decline in boys' swimming: Boys generally are less willing than girls
at that age to work hard - and swimming is hard work.
Boys don't believe swimming is a cool sport. They
prefer sports considered more manly: soccer, baseball, basketball,
hockey and football. Boys now have more sports choices in the
summer, including camps for every sport and summer leagues. Nationally,
swimming leaders are well aware of these trends. "The
issue - boys leaving swimming because of racing suits - is not new,"
said Chuck Wielgus, executive director of USA-Swimming in Colorado
Springs. "It is one of the primary reasons why boys quit." But like
others, he believes the suit is only part of the problem. On average, 30
percent of the group's 180,000 year-round swimmers quit annually, boys
and girls, and the quitting age is often around 13. Many no longer
find swimming fun or no longer feel successful. John DeYoung, 14, swam
every summer for Downs Farm Swim Club in Cherry Hill but quit this year.
He planned to play basketball all summer, hang out with his friends, hit
the Shore. Downs Farm had no 13-14 boys for its first two meets.
Desperate, the team lured John back. "He thought he was a basketball
player - he still does," joked his brother, Chris, 17, who also swims
for the team. "We convinced him to come out for the team because we
needed him desperately." John will swim in the Tri-County meet this
weekend, in a racing suit. At practice Wednesday, he wore long
shorts. When asked why he was not wearing a tank suit, he shrugged. "I
don't know," he said. Many teenage boys practice in two or three
racing suits at a time, or mesh suits that are longer, known as drag
suits, or boxers, or even baggy beach suits. Some do it for modesty.
Some do it to increase drag during practice, making them faster in
meets. John Greeby, 14, is one of five 13-14 boys on the Barclay Farm
swim team in Cherry Hill. He has no problem with his racing suit, which
he wore to practice. "Some kids even make fun of me at school, but I
don't care," he said. "It's part of the sport."
___________________________________ Attitudes
out there are worse than I thought.
Phoenix
to see the infamous "shrinkage" that takes place while swimming. If he was
large he would want to show off his package... but that is just my not so
humble opinion.
--
Jim
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Tom K <tk...@cetlink.net> wrote in message
news:1AFt3.34$DO1.4...@news1.i1.net...
Jim
shorts by my YC. Seems some of the ladies get um well
<blush> aroused.
Bullshooter
what does that tell us about these people ?
are they just less blatant now that the public is more aware of the man/boy
thing ?
Ross Carlisle
the world is just better off if I stick to the standard swim trunks...
Tom K wrote in message <1AFt3.34$DO1.4...@news1.i1.net>...
Jeremiah Weed
The medical term for the shrinkage is called TNS or "Turtle Neck Syndrome".
Jeremiah Weed
Phoenix <Spamfre...@mindspring.com> wrote in message
news:7p7mc9$uko$1...@nntp5.atl.mindspring.net...
Gould 0738
>Some people just cant pull off a speedo.
And I'm one of 'em. Them sweet young girls *wearin* the speedos are just too
fleet of foot for a middle aged guy like......(oops,
might have meant "pull of" in a different manner,,,never mind)
________
Chuck Gould
Float and let float.
Larry KN4IM
REC.BOATERS in Speedos! I can see the headline now, "MASS EXODUS OF
12 YEAR OLDS RUN FROM SWIM MEET IN SPEEDOS".
Larry....in my Speedo.....don't look....
On 17 Aug 1999 03:44:42 GMT, goul...@aol.comspamkill (Gould 0738)
wrote:
>Ross Carlisle wrote:
>
>>Some people just cant pull off a speedo.
>
hoot...@gmail.com
John H.
>They shouldn't be facing any shame, it's sad. If they are an athlete, they should wear them exclusively I would say. I did and still do, same with many friends of mine. After high school years were done, it was never talked about since. I spend 6 years in the Army, and I spent alotttttt of time in my favorite pairs of men's bikini swim briefs, nothing else, for up to a week at a time even, indoors and outdoors, public and all, no one cared at all what you wore,plus males weren't given any other choice but wear them during basic and AIT for me, so it was normal, and females weren't bothered with it, even though they were pretty revealing, it wasn't odd at all, we all are humans, so what about a bulge or something, its nothing new honestly.
another soldier in a pair. 'Men's bikini swim briefs'? Saw some on the beaches in Europe, but not
here in the US. Maybe I go to the wrong beaches and swimming pools.
I suppose, in his younger days, our local Mr. Krause ran around like this:
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0993/8438/products/Savage_swim_custom_swimwear_-0707_2048x2048.jpg?v=1562189018
Maybe the Army has changed a lot.