Well, That Settles It: Boys > Girls
Soccer, Women's Sports, Youth Sports May 9th. 2008, 3:15pm
Got a kid? Are they interested in sports? Then you’ll definitely want them to take a gander at this lengthy piece in the New York Times Magazine about the brittle nature of today’s young female warrior-girl athletes. “The pressure to concentrate on a “best†sport before even entering middle school — and to play it year-round — is bad for all kids. They wear down the same muscle groups day after day. They have no time to rejuvenate, let alone get stronger. By playing constantly, they multiply their risks and simply give themselves too many opportunities to get hurt.” The statistics on female ACL injuries are staggering and some of the descriptions are quite graphic. But if you’re looking for some solid weekend reading, and your daughter is contemplating joining the soccer team … well, give the story a looksee.
The Uneven Playing Field (NYT Magazine)
88 Responses to “Well, That Settles It: Boys > Girls”
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May 9th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
article about young girls soccer = jumping the shark
/sad day
May 9th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
this isn’t the first story to tackle this issue. sports illustrated did a similar story some years ago and usa today did a similar piece last year.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Women’s pole vaulting > Women’s soccer
May 9th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
My sister plays select and school soccer. I tried to get her to get her to quit soccer because of this shit and focus on basketball and volleyball cuz she’s 5′7″ and only 12, but she won’t listen to me.
/end grumbling about those goddamn kids
May 9th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
But female soccer players have such nice legs and tight asses, don’t make that stop.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
I tried to get her to get her to quit soccer
grammar police, grammar police! sorry, but wtf? slow down clown.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
All girls should be encouraged to play soccer because they could someday turn into “Soccer girls.” I miss college.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Sparty all TBL has to say to that is:
FO
FO
FO
FO
May 9th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
every time I see sparty say something I want to kick the monitor off my desk
May 9th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
There have been all kind of extensive studies addressing how girls jump/run relative to guys, with the key feature being that girls tend to jump/run with their knees angled inward versus vertically (like guys). Heck, there’s even training seminars on teaching women to jump.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
I’ve always felt that way about female volleyball players.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
My school didn’t have girls soccer, hence no “soccer girls”. Please elaborate.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
muah!
May 9th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
I pulled my Groin (Sorry about your groin, BTW) – at my institution of higher learning the female soccer players were generally hot. And cool. And they always traveled in packs and threw big parties.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
very time I see sparty say something I want to kick the monitor off my desk
you sure know how to make someone feel all warm and fuzzy.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
I am wholly against organized sports for kids. What ever happened to playing sports when you felt like it on a non-regulation field. I played basketball on a gravel driveway against brothers and neighbors. We played football in a pasture with crap everywhere. Stop scheduling your kids, just let them have fun.
/good old days rant
May 9th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Field hockey girls >>>> Soccer girls
Those soccer girls can get a little “softball”
May 9th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
coop…it’s all part of the Pussification of America…no one will let their kids do shit with out 4 shaperones…how will they be able to handle themselves in the real world without pats on the heads and organized events
May 9th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
I’m all for organized sports, but what’s up with every fucking kid getting a trophy? BULLSHIT, I say!
May 9th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
@coop
it is pretty sad. i remember playing football in the streets, the ditches(in michigan we had ditches) were out of bounds. do kids know what it is to count to 5 apple?
May 9th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
RWH,
don’t forget, everyone gets a trophy, and at field days at schools no one keeps score.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
I should change it to I pulled A Groin signifying my pulling of other people’s groins as well as my own. Stupid me had a girlfriend in college so I missed out on partying with hot female athletes.
/hangs head in shame.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Is a shaperone a pizza topping?
May 9th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
I dated a couple of soccer broads in highschool (I too was in highschool, for those wondering about shooting under par) and then in college went one Wright St’er and two tOSU soccer chicks. Nothing, and I mean nothing, beats a soccer ass. And the thighs. Oh, the thighs…
/Formerly Nomo
May 9th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
I tragedy is not kids playing organized sports, it’s the 10 year old kid who only plays one sport year round. The parents feel that’s the only way their kid will “get noticed” and get a scholarship.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
@st. bear
Amen. Too close to home with that comment.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
driving my kids to soccer is the only chance i get to show off my minivan with the flames on the side
May 9th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Rex Kramer, based on your various posts are we to believe you have bedded close to a 100 women?
May 9th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
I’m quite the fan of kids… sports. Kids sports. I totally meant kids sports.
/Hef
May 9th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
I also had grand experiences with high school soccer girls. Man, my 30’s were awesome….
May 9th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
I tragedy is not kids playing organized sports, it’s the 10 year old kid who only plays one sport year round. The parents feel that’s the only way their kid will “get noticed†and get a scholarship by 8th grade.
Fixed.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
irish – I can totally see you driving your kids to soccer practice /rims spinning/ yelling out the window at kids in Heat jerseys.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
ive dated a soccer chick and a volleyball chick…granted the soccer chick was in HS, but she had awesome legs. the volleyball chick was amazing on a whole different scale tho…total package.
which was great because she was WAY out of my league.
lesson to college kids wanting to hook up: find an amazing weed connection and the sorority chicks will come.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
/the irish I know
May 9th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
@cbh: My friends call me The White Wilt Chamberlain.
/Formerly Nomo
May 9th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
i’ve had great times with soccer players. 11 positions, 90 minutes…
May 9th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
When at tOSU, I lived in an apartment below an unnamed former Olympian/5 Time US National Gymnastics Champ. The dude was 5′4″ but had an affinity for the over 6′ vollyball babes, eventually marrying and divorcing one. Let’s just say I heard many a landings stuck. Only dude I’ve ever been jealous of, even with my 6′3″ height.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
soccer chicks: hot. soccer dudes: cool. soccer itself: zzzzz.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
SPARTY LIKES DUDES! SPARTY LIKES DUDES!
the spartans were a homosexual society, so maybe we shouldnt be surprised. and, judging by the talent at MSU…i dont blame him turning to man-ass for coitous.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
Do any kids go down to the sandlots to play baseball anymore. My son is only 2 so I wouldn’t know. actually, do sandlots exist anymore? Everything I remember from the few years I spent in Florida is that all the fields were park run. nice fields, but owned by the town. Same here in Jersey.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
RWH/Sparty, amen. You can play without jerseys are referee’s. That kid that sucks should get beat up and picked on, its called growing up. Make up rules, throw tantrums, get picked on, work it out on your own, valuable life lessons learned.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
soccer transgenders my dream
\Sparty
May 9th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
i knew that was gonna happen. lol.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Spencer, this better not happen.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/columns/story?columnist=schlabach_mark&id=3388100
May 9th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
I’m picturing Bart Conner and Gabrielle Reece
May 9th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Volleyball chicks
soccer chicks
softball chicks / Gymnastics Chicks tie
regular chicks
basketball chicks
May 9th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
I would never make my kid focus on one sport if he/she didn’t want to. I remember being involved in 5 sports growing up, and my parents finally made me cut it down to 3 because it was too expensive and took up too much time. What kid just wants to do one thing year ’round? When you hear people talk about kids losing their passion for the game, that’s exactly why. Overbearing parents forcing their kids to “specialize” and making it no fun.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Volleyball players have an unfair advantage with the spandex. I prefer my girls shorter so I stuck with the soccer team. The squad at IU was well stocked.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
You guys are crazy, I wish my parents had forced me become good at a sport. I would have hated them as a child but then when I started pulling athlete tail I would have loved them for it.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
My child is going to be the world’s best barrel jumper.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Yeah I don’t know if I’d put softball chicks in the same category as gymnastic chicks. There are plenty of hot college softball players, but I remember in high school they were always just all the beefy chicks that played softball. I don’t know where all these hot ones come from that I see on ESPN and stuff.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
It’s that easy? Chris Paul’s mom must have been super convincing.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
when a kid is also forced to focus on one particular sport, they find it hard to fill their time or find something else to do if they cannot get to that next level, be it after high school or college. A lot of them become depressed and/or that rebellion thing kicks in.
May 9th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
Kobe Bryant’s Mom was more convicing than LeBron James Mom.
May 9th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
sparty..we put together a weekly pickup softball game here at work…we go to the park and they LOCK UP the fields if they are not in use…we have to jump a fence and risk a ticket…now we are old guys I guess..but they don’t even give kids a chance to play a pickup game
May 9th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
Donovan McNabb’s mom makes him soup.
May 9th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
CRM ha. did you see that on the WWL?
May 9th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
@ sparty – I know what you mean. After high school was through, I had no idea what the hell to do with myself. For 10-12 years I’d been in sports year ’round and all of the sudden I had all this free time and didn’t know how to fill it… so I basically just drank every day for like a year.
May 9th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
When I was in high school the softball team was full of hot chicks but they only won 2 or 3 games. We didn’t get girls softball until my senior year. Soccer team and volleyball team were loaded.
May 9th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
No, they’ve all been developed over. (See: Mart, Wal-)
May 9th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
RWH,
That’s ridiculous, but doesn’t really surprise me. Parents won’t even let their kids ride their bikes to the store down the street anymore. like you said, the “pussification of America”
May 9th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
/fixed.
May 9th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Barrel jumping is a dying sport! Nooooooooooooooo!
May 9th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Meh to soccer girls. My lady’s a belly dancer.
May 9th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
@outofbounds-the equation for the freshman 15 is no more practice + lots of beer.
May 9th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
cbh…im being 100% honest with you. not only will the bucks beat USC handily, b10 teams will be lucky to keep it within 3 TD’s. the bucks are LOADED from top to bottom.
and before anyone says, “loaded with the same guys who will lose to an SEC team…” just realize that last year was a ‘rebuilding year.’ now you have a bunch of pissed off first rounders who are sick of hearing how shitty OSU is and theyre going to tear everyone apart.
i know i dont sound objective, but im trying. and think about it, if schlabach and all these other national writers didn’t think the bucks were legit, theyd have no problem throwing them down closer to 10.
and my two buckeye mancrushes: TP and Mike Adams, havent even suited up yet…
im dancing with glee.
May 9th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
@CRM: So what about those of us that already paid our Barrel Jumping Fantasy League fees? Prorated? Papa John’s coupons?
May 9th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
TBL, I finally made it through the entire article, and I wanted to let you know that this is exactly why I keep coming to this site. Excellent find.
May 9th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Spencer where the hell did that come from
May 9th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
spencer,
OSU should win it. bring home some pride to the big ten, you are all we got.
May 9th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
I posted a link to Schlabach having OSU as # 1 Diesel.
May 9th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Where I live there is a soccer academy that charges about $3000 so there kid can play soccer year round. We know families that want that to happen.
They get paid coaches, the uniforms and traveling bags. What I have found that is it much more competative in youth sports now. My kids for the town and not focused on any one sport.
We do allow our kid to ride her bike around to the ice cream stand, needs the helmet.
All the kids trophies are in the basement gathering dust, no one cares about them in the 1st grade
May 9th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
That and he just took a bong rip out of a skull.
May 9th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
well the pussification of america started when every different race in america (including white…think peta) formed groups that force everyone to be nice. “my kid didnt win he should get a trohy though!” please watching the other team raise the triphy and their index fingers in the air are what make you want to become better at whatever sport your playing people who want their kid to get trophy should spend less time watching stupid tv shows and go out and help their kids practice…but only if the kid wants to do it not for the inflation of your cheking account.
May 9th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
the trophy thing wasn’t bad when the other kids got a smaller trophy. its when they they made the second place trophy the same size, and then took off the inscription off them that made it retarded.
May 9th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
yes i did…
yea, these academies are getting ridiculous. i know a few kids who are on the verge of the Nationwide Tour in golf, and even tho they came from wealthy households, their parents still racked up $200k in debt PER YEAR from travel and equipment and so forth. and most of the time the kids HATE IT.
look up the story of Sean O’Hair (blossoming PGA star) and his father…they won’t even speak to each other anymore. it’s disgusting and it happens in every sport.
May 9th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
Weird Rex.
My friends call me The White Black White Wilt Chamberlain.
May 9th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
Spencer,
I read about him. The relationship with Tiger and his father is the exception.
Another example of parents and kids ending up at odds is Jennifer Capriati
May 9th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
sparty…yea, there’s some others too, like Phil and his mother have a good relationship. same with Hunter Mahan (other golf mancrush besides Tiger and Anthony Kim) tho, they had some rocky times.
Tiger’s dad was an amazing individual himself…smart man. then again, having Titleist, Cobra and Mizuno giving you cash when your kid is still in grade school helps a lot too. if the money wasnt coming in hand over fist, theyd probably not have been as successful.
May 9th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
It’s funny that the thought nowadays is that if a kid plays a sport year round, they will get noticed and be better. I read an article where someone asked David Wright about that, and how many teams he played for growing up. He said that he only played for his school, and that he played other sports in the offseason. It makes you think, if you’re good, you’ll be found. I mean, look at the NFL Draft this year, so many small schools represented. You don’t need to attend a Football Factory to get noticed.
May 9th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
Would you say the ultimate example is Todd Marinovich and his dad?
May 9th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
that guy’s story gets sadder all the time.
May 9th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
spencer…since you mentioned mahan, i got to caddy last year next to mahan at the US Open Sectional in Dallas. He got mad at me one time b/c i was in his eyesight. It was fun watching him shoot a course record 63 on the second 18. Hopefully, we will get past the local qualifying on monday so i can be next to more pros here in a few weeks.
May 9th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
Sparty, Marinovich’s dad fucked up another kid as well. Todd’s younger bro is a tightend who, I think, this last year was arrest for B&E.
May 9th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
Trying to steal clothing from the athletic department at the ‘Cuse. As athletes they get that shit free.
May 9th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
Sheriff, that’s some cool shit. I’ve caddied a couple of times for a friend on the Nationwide. He’s bounced back and forth between the Tour and the Nationwide/Nike/Buy.com. One year while caddying a group back, saw Doug Dunakey throw a 59 in Dayton (coulda gone 58).
May 9th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
sheriff_ersk…dude, that’s great. tho he got mad at you? everything ive heard of the guy, he’s as nice as can be. then again, golfers get a little nuts when theyre inside the ropes, so i wouldnt be THAT surprised.
yea, mahan can play thats for sure. when he gets hot, it’s a birdie bonanza.
May 9th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
it was just a quick tiger glare after the hole b/c he proceeded to flub the next two flop shots and made a double. he was real cool to play with.
the best thing was there was a rain delay, so everyone went to the clubhouse. mahan, leonard, ryan palmer, and TA III were all at the table next to me. pavin was two tables on the other side. as a joke, i asked my friend if he wanted to break out some cards and play poker for some quarters and ask if they wanted to play, but he shot my idea down.