Parental pressure
Hi D67:
As you know, I am one volunteer coach at a local swim team. We had several years where all the experienced guys went to Jammers. We have an all comers rule, so we don't care what you wear, as long as you want to swim. The last several years the trend started to move back to briefs, I think driven by Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps here in the USA. This year, all the second year and above guys wore briefs for the first time in years. As always, the new kids wear shorts, board shorts, or whatever... and it is cool with me.
I had a parent call me. She was upset that I "required those tiny swimsuits." Her son told her that when he asked her to let him buy a Speedo swimsuit racing brief. When I explained to her that I don't require anything, she was aghast. I then explained to her that her son was probably conforming to the peer pressure of his teammates, who apparently chose to wear racing style swimsuits this year. She replied saying "I can't believe XXXX would want to wear a swimsuit smaller than his underwear." I encouraged her to let him wear whatever he wants, the main focus was swimming and shorts were fine, or jammers, or whatever. "If he is uncomfortable in a racer swimsuit, I am fine with whatever he puts on, its about the sport," I explained.
He wore his racer style suit at the next practice.
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