I promise to those who come here for serious discussions of serious topics that I will soon return to that. For now, I have another quibble that may seem minor at the surface but when you realize the scale is actually quite important.
We need to stop the synthetic coaching polo madness. Now I’m barely old enough to remember a time before we universally decided that anything remotely athletically related had to be “dry fit” with “moisture wicking” properties. How did we ever survive without having the sweat wicked from our bodies and onto the clothes we were wearing.
Coaching clothes made of this material look nice and shiny and new, I guess, which is another factor in their popularity. There is obviously demand for them, since I haven’t coached a team in the US for over a decade that hasn’t had synthetic coaching polos as their default wear.
There’s one big problem, however, especially if you sweat like crazy (as I do) on a 75-80 degree pool deck. These synthetic materials smell absolutely awful.
Now I don’t know about you, but I find that smelling awful doesn’t really help me to coach better. In fact, I find it does quite the opposite, with the compounding effect of making me quite self conscious of my own body odor on the pool deck.
The synthetic coaching polo is an example of what Nassim Nicholas Taleb deemed “neomania”, where we embrace change merely for the sake of change and ignore the practical implications of that change. What would be the downside of returning to 100% cotton coach wear? I would argue nothing.
Don’t you dare counterpoint me by citing the seminal episode of Seinfeld where George Constanza suggest that the New York Yankees return to cotton uniforms! I won’t hear it.
So here’s my challenge to the major outfitters of coaches throughout the country (maybe specifically Speedo, who sponsor the team I work on now). Please come out with a cotton coaching polo. Sail against the current and take a stand against smelly shirts. Don’t do it for me, do it for the people who have to stand next to me on the pool deck.