A pair of Indiana teens have started a trend of wearing temporary green ribbon tattoos — the international symbol of mental health awareness — at their Franklin Community High School swim meets to support current and former teammates.
Alijah Hall and Jacob Meinczinger said their goal is to break the stigma around men seeking help for mental health issues.
“We started this for our friend — he went through and is still going through a lot,” Meinczinger said. “A lot of people on the team have realized that mental health is a big thing. There’s really a stigma for men that you shouldn’t reach out for help. I really think we need, as a whole as men, to break that stigma. I think it’s really important to reach out for help. Just showing that we support mental health and you shouldn’t be ashamed if you have problems — you should just reach out. That’s mainly why we started wearing the green ribbons.”
Hall and Meinczinger began wearing the green ribbons for their first high school dual meet of the season in honor of their friend who used to swim for the opposing team. Then they realized the potential for their message to resonate beyond just that one matchup and decided to continue the trend throughout the season with the hopes of sparking a larger conversation surrounding mental health in swimming.
“With basketball and football and all that stuff, you have your friends around you, your teammates talking to you the whole time you’re going through it,” Meinczinger said. “Swimming it’s just you, your brain, your thoughts, and the black line. With those long hours, doubles everyday, it takes a toll on you, especially when you’re just grinding out yardage and putting in a lot of work and you don’t have a lot of time for yourself out of the pool. I think it’s a lot harder to communicate while swimming just because you’re underwater and it’s just you and your brain.”
Hall said an eye-opening experience for him personally was learning how much his mind impacts his body’s performance in the pool.
“For me personally, I never really thought of mental health as something I thought about ever,” Hall said. “I thought it wasn’t a big deal. Being a guy, it’s always kind of gone around that you just put your head down and get through it. Once you really open your eyes to the effects that mental health has on you — it actually starts breaking down your body, the way that it releases stuff into your body — that’s something that’s really important for people to understand.
“Especially in a sport like this, your mind has a lot of power over what you do,” he added. “You could be feeling good physically, well-rested and everything, but if you’re not there mentally, you’re not going to get any of the results you want. In this sport, if you don’t have that control over your mental health, there’s no way you can get through and be able to be the person you want to be in the pool and outside of the pool.”
With their high school swim season wrapping up soon, Meinczinger and Hall want to continue their green ribbon trend with their club squad, Franklin Regional Swim Team, this year.
Well done young men.
https://robbies-hope.com/
downvotes for this are toxic.
If you’re the same ‘swimster’ who normally comments (and for all I know, that’s a pretty generic name, so who knows), I would love to recommend that you take a beat to evaluate people with different experiences from your own. Most of your comments are you raging because you project your own internal narrative on everyone else and struggle to understand that other people might have different perspectives or experiences than you.
For example: it’s easy to see someone read that comment and think “I hate that it’s such a pervasive issue in society.” Or, perhaps it’s someone who is struggling with their own mental health who can’t process something like this right now.
Maybe it’s frustration that we’re dependent… Read more »
I am pretty sure swimster was referring to the down votes made on supportive comments, tho. Which doesn’t support your thoughts on the poster not being able to evaluate different videos viewpoints.
I can appreciate the rest of your post in trying to demonstrate supportive viewpoints and approaches, but I’m not sure swimster’s comment was understood here.
Then again, I may be wrong, too. I’m just damn proud of these kids for speaking out in a sport that currently has a lot of “egg on their face” regarding the treatment of athletes.
Check out the “I’m Glad You Stayed Project” in Iowa & Iowa Swimming, too!
Proud of the athletes for bringing awareness to the importance of mental health.
This is amazing. Good for them for bringing awareness too such a pervasive issue in society.