Yes. I was a originally a varsity athlete, served in the military, and then held two responsibilities: pre-season training coach (what is today sometimes called "boot camp" technique for JV's to transition to Varsity status) and full-season coach. I held responsibilities for high school, undergraduate, and post-grad age groups. While I always stressed the importance of wearing both regular jockstraps and cup-jocks (I coached contact sports), I have to say that at no time did I ever inspect. Fetish/fantasy must be put aside. Parents entrusted their sons - what we all were at one time in our younger lives - to a "stranger", and I took that trust most seriously. Owing to the time period (a lifetime ago by some measure), all of the gear was distributed on a daily basis from the equipment room, and there were giant bins filled with jockstraps. I can only say that at the end of practice, the bins were quite filled with gear, including the jockstraps, so it is reasonable to assume that most, if not all, of the players were properly jocked.
Like most of the gentlemen on this great site (thank you, John!), I was introduced to a Bike # 10 cream-coloured athletic supporter when I entered the sixth grade. I have worn a jockstrap daily since, both for my own athletic training and as a coach and officer. I do not consider the jockstrap as a fetish, but rather as a proper piece of equipment appropriately categorized as a part of preventative sports' medicine. I am part of the generation which was taught and has accepted the concept that the primary function of a regular supporter is to secure the testicles while a cup-jock is to minimize/deflect injury from a direct hit.
Recently there was a national study which indicated a continued decline in fertility capability amongst men in this most recent generation since the millennium. Is there a correlation to the decline in fertility and the decline in the use of jockstraps? If, as I believe, the primary function of a jockstrap is to protect the testicles from over-heating or from suffering from a disruption in oxygen/blood (this happens when the two cords become entangled if the testicles shift in position; the jockstrap pouch is designed to keep the testicles in the same position and thus minimize the twisting of the cords which results in "blue balls"), then as each successive school-age young man eschews wearing proper testicular protection, how much unseen but long-term damage happens to his fertility? Wearing boxers or compression shorts or spandex tights - or "going commando" - whilst in serious athletic training is perhaps contributing (or should I say, diminishing) the issue of scrotal safety.
So, while I am a strong advocate that every athlete, military personnel, and all who are involved with professions in which there is stress and strain upon the genital area (for example, yard work, lifting boxes, climbing ladders to hang Christmas lights, etc.) should dutifully strap into a jock, I am perhaps one coach who has not consider my use and support (yes, every pun intended) of jockstraps as a fetish. For me, it is a professional and health-wise priority to always be jocked.
Let me close here by saying that it is my long-term hope that all of us who have benefited in our own lives from wearing a jockstrap have a professional, if not also moral responsibility to teach the next generation. I recall reading (and someone please correct me if I am mistaken) that at its apex, Bike was selling more than 3 million jockstraps each year. Today, the number of athletic supporters - and the fashion variants - account for only a fraction of that former total. Why? Has the male anatomy changed? No. But public perception, indeed squeamishness, has shifted the mindset away from the imperative of especially protecting early teenagers, who are growing and developing, from long-term injury to their virility. The "simple, humble" jockstrap has perhaps contributed more than anything, in generations past, to the ability of men to enjoy good health and yes, a healthy sex life, because early on, their developing testicles were protected.
Let me know your thoughts.
Mike
