About knee pads for middle school volleyball?

Question

so what do you do when the 8th grade coach tells the girls to take off their knee pads because in high school they don't wear them, then the coach has. them practicing dives. i need something concrete to take to the principal, talking to the athletic director does nothing.

Answer 1

OK well your coach is so wrong! I am in high school and I play volleyball for my high school and we do wear knee pads! It  is very important for players to wear knees pads! Especially if you are like a DS I mean you are on the floor all the time! Although you can barrel role really fast and you will not get floor burns but you will get bruises! Although I wear knee pads and still get bruises! But still you should wear knee pads! I mean they wear them in college! That should be enough! But you should like go to the principal or like get the parents to go talk to the principal about it! I mean if you dive hard enough you can shatter your knee! But if you have knee pads it will help your chances of preventing that not necessarily stopping it. But yea go talk to someone of higher authority in your school!

Answer 2

your coach is an ****.

Speak to the V-principal, Guidance Counsellor, Phys-ed department head, other players on your team.  Perhaps a petition?  What about the boys teams - do they have the option?  Get a doctor's note.  Parent's group?  Perhaps ask some college or city rep teams' coach for their opinion.  

This is YOUR safety you are dealing with, not what "the other kids do".  

If all else fails, ask him if he (or the school) will assume liability when you get your 1, 2 and 3rd knee surgery to repair the damage done.

Answer 3

I play volleyball and I feel like I would be really bad without the knee pads and I would get hurt a lot, but my coaches say that I should try playing without the knee pads for a while because they say i have bad form when I dive and roll. I land on my knee and then roll. The proper way to roll is not supposed to use the knee and the knee should be fine without the knee pad. But it is very scary to try to roll without it and you might get hurt when you are still diving the wrong way so I think that coach should allow them to wear the knee pads and try to get them to learn the propper way without putting them in danger.

Answer 4

in high school you still have to wear knee pads. otherwise its really easy to mess up your knees, unless its sand volleyball. get a petition to go around about the issue, and talk to the principal about how dangerous that is. cause seriously thats RIDICULOUS!!

Answer 5

You may need to do some researching for solid evidence, but I tore my miniscus (the lining underneath your kneecap) while playing volleyball because my kneepad fell down.  I dove. . . and my skin stuck to the floor.  This transferred the force of my body's movement to the next moveable part, my kneecap.  The force tore the Miniscus.  Major knee surgery followed with 6-8 weeks off school.  It is more than irresponsible on the part of the coach.  What is the reasoning for playing without kneepads??

Do the football players get to wear pads??  Do the baseball players get to wear cups??  How about soccer players, do they get shin-guards??  Do they think their female athletes are tougher than their male ones??  Seems that way if the males are wearing protective equipment and the females aren't.

Answer 6

Get the girls to sign something saying that they think knee pads are important and take that to the principle.

Good Luck!

Answer 7

Knee pads shouldn't be needed BUT they should be mandatory...players shouldn't have to hit their knees but "it" happens. So, knee pads are injury prevention equipment. The rationale used to be to protect your knees coming out of a roll. But, in reality, it just protects your knees when going to the floor to play a ball. A defensive player shouldn't hit her knees...but it happens.

Check out Div 1 teams all wear them. Some guys don't wear them cause they dive. More women do run throughs, sprawls, extensions, rolls, etc. No knee pads are kind of a guy-thing but I still think smart guys wear them for prevention...they should get over the "what they think is cool" look.

I also think if you have knee pads on, you're more apt to really extend yourself to go for a ball...no fear thing.

I don't know if I'd take this to the principal...maybe the AD.  Everyone is so law-suit crazy that your coach may regret saying "no knee pads" if someone gets hurt and an expert witness says, "It wouldn't have been such a bad injury if she had knee pads on".

Fight for the knee pads...you're physical well-being is worth it!

Answer 8

I'm not taking the side of the coach, but I've played volleyball for years without kneepads and have not gotten any injuries from playing that way and I dive more than anyone I know.  There is a right way to dive and learning it does more to prevent injury than knee pads in my opinion.  Even kneepads won't help if your form is really bad.

(So what's funny is that when I dig, instead of going to my knees, I basically do a split.)

That being said, I think it is up to the individual player to decide if they want to wear them.

Your coach can still teach proper form while you wear kneepads.

Does you coach demonstrate the proper technique?

Finally, wear the kneepads and force the issue.  If you play well enough and aren't a discipline problem otherwise, there shouldn't be any reason for you not to play.

Also, take the coach a picture of any women's college team or national team.  They all wear pads.  (Incidently, a lot of men don't.)

Go to usavolleyball.org for pictures.

Good luck!

Answer 9

G'day Kathy K,

Thanks for your question.

It sounds pretty irresponsible to me. After all, they wouldn't make protective equipment if you didn't need it.

Rob Heidger who represented the US at the Sydney Olympics in beach volleyball says ""If you plan on playing indoors rather than at the beach, knee pads are a good piece of equipment." If it is good enough for him to wear kneepads, it is good enough for kids in middle school.

I would take a photo of your kids knees after playing volleyball and send a letter to the principal. It might also be worth mentioning that such practices leave the school vulnerable if there was to be a law suit.

I have attached a source for your reference.

Regards