I am afraid that I will be indicating my vintage when I reply to your question. Like many members here, I was an athlete in high school and college, served in the military, and then coached for many years. Jockstraps have been the cornerstone of equipment for my entire life. I have written on other pages on this website about the radical shift in attitude and therefore in practice against athletic supporters/jockstraps. I was surprised recently by the question "Should straight men wear jockstraps?" Only if their anatomy is different should they NOT wear one!
"Back in my day" as the expression starts, right down to high school physical education level, jockstraps were mandatory. Lists of equipment either supplied by the school or to be purchased by parents for their sons always included a line for "athletic supporter". When I was in university, the main gym on campus had a giant equipment room adjacent to the giant "gang hall" showers, and there were hundreds of jockstraps distributed every day, some of which were laundered by the school, others well ...
The shift away from jockstraps started first with compression shorts. In "contact sports", the compression shorts include a sewn-in pocket for a protective cup, though most purists would confirm that after several washings, compression shorts lose their restrictive fiber, and the cup consequently moves too much (hence so much adjusting by batters when they stride up to home plate). After compression shorts, spandex tights (what had been called "leotards" and "Peter Pan tights") suddenly became popular among straight men! And straight men scoff at jockstraps now! It is ironic to me because back in my day, no straight man would ever wear such tights, unless he was in a school play or Christmas pageant.
So today, it is not surprising (though definitely disappointing from a preventative sports medicine perspective because, after all, jockstraps are primarily designed for the prevention of scrotal injury) that equipment rooms and individual team lockers are devoid of jockstraps, but in their place, we find compression shorts and spandex tights.
The design of an athletic supporter is to safeguard the scrotum in the pouch in order to minimize the crisscrossing of testicles during strenuous exercise. The porous material of the pouch is designed to regulate the temperature around the genitals and to wick away perspiration. Protective cups are designed to minimize the trauma of direct impact to the genitals. Jockstraps, therefore, are for EVERY male, starting at puberty was the testicles are developing and "dropping".
Compression shorts, through the very name, compress the upper thigh area, which has its own purpose, but at the same time, there is the injurious compressing of the testicles. Also, compression shorts by design do not safeguard the testicles and protect against the twisting of the scrotal cords. As for spandex tights, it is unclear what preventative sports medicine purpose these serve with regard to safeguarding testicles, regulating the heat and moisture around the genitals, and providing a method of protecting against direct impact.
We must continue to urge sports medicine professionals to likewise urge all ages of boys and men to wear a proper athletic supporter, not only in team sports but when lifting at the gym and yes, mowing the lawn, shoveling snow, water skiing and all kinds of activities in which the testicles are at risk of being injured.
Thanks for reading, and let us all continue to inform the next generation about the imperative of genital safety and preventative sports medicine.
