“On the line. Now!” The four words that signify the impending physical punishment of 120’s, killers, triangles, champions, hills or anything else the coach can think of to get players as close to barfing as possible. Yet somehow there’s always that one player that never ends up having to do the conditioning. A sprained ankle magically seems to appear when ever those four words are spoken and coaches are starting to catch on.

“There are a lot of people who aren’t necessarily going for the gold.” Junior and swim team member Carly Eckstrom said. At the beginning of the year the women’s swim team saw an increase in the number of swimmers sitting out during their sets due to questionable injuries.

This year to make practice more efficient the Swim Team’s coaches have a new policy: if you’re injured you swim with JV until you’ve proven yourself able to practice with Varsity again. “Coaches have really started to crack down,” Eckstrom explained. “They’ve been encouraging us to push ourselves harder.”

After this policy change there have been a lot fewer complaints of injuries and the Varsity’s lane seems to be staying full. Hopefully other coaches will begin to make the switch to stricter injury policy so injuries can continue to be taken seriously instead of looked at as a day off.

Injuries still need to be taken very seriously, and if a person really needs a day off they should get one, but maybe a stricter team policy regarding practicing and injuries would bring a stop to those magically sprained ankles, torn muscles, or coughing fits.