Posted by alexandra_k on June 27, 2020, at 2:53:13
In reply to things are shifting in nz, posted by alexandra_k on June 26, 2020, at 21:24:16
i think the point of the vertical jump test for something like basketball is for the selectors not to care so very very much about the height of the jump (so very many people have so very much height to spare) -- but more to see about how they land from their jumps. automatically. when they are not thinking about how they land from their jumps because they are focused on their jump...
when you watch them land you see how many seasons of play (how many landings) they are likely to have in them -- before something implodes.
you see if they land light or if they land heavy. if they jolt through hyper-extended knee (knee surgery just waiting to happen) or if they land softly such that they will live to jump another day.
it's hard to know what women can do... and what they can't. because it's tied up in social things about 'try' and also social things about 'allowed'.
but netball is kind of a gateway sport to basketball because the netball girls land from jumps on one leg over and over and over and over and over and over and over throughout the course of the game.
in the early days of netball there was a lot of knee taping and a lot of knee support braces and a lot of knee injuries. but there are not so much of those anymore. the girls learned to land lightly with flexed knees and they lived to land another day. and they got pretty good at landing.
so now the sport is evolving a bit for shots from further away (but there is no backboard and there are ususally busy-ads right behind the line of sight of the hoop). but there is a new line to be drawn closer to the outer portion of the circle and for part of the game (to start with) they get 2 points for landing a shot from the outer ring.
i know there is supposed to be title 15 in the US. Equality or parity in sports. But it is hard to know how that can play out so that it is true equality or parity -- because there are obvious differences and you can't just say 'well half the team gotta be girls, then' and get equality or parity that way.
And first division female athletes don't appear athletic a lot of the time. Because not much has been invested in development and selection and so on... But it is also true that it isn't entertaining when it is cringe-worthy becuase you can sort of tell that they aren't playing to be able to play another day.
I think netball is a good gateway to basketball. What we have learned from netball our female netballers look a lot more athletic and land their jumps a lot better than many of the top female basketballers in the US.
It's a good gateway to basketball.
Cricket allows females to throw overarm. It's a gateway to baseball.
poster:alexandra_k
thread:1111035
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20200409/msgs/1111040.html