Following yesterday's cricket I got thinking about women's sport. For
years, I was not aware of there being a women's international
football/soccer tournament. Not until suddenly England had got
somewhere near or actually won the world cup. Same happened with
cricket and rugby. Why was I not aware of this? At college, it was
often worth watching the ladies first rugby team play. They were
brutal and played well. I have also found myself watching bouldering
competitions. Well, the women's challenges are often far more
interesting and technical. The men's tend to involve brute strength
and are simply boring to watch. It helps that Janja is a sheer delight
to see as she flashes most of the routes. While watching The Hundred
final, I saw very little difference between the female and male teams
beyond the men hitting several sixes. However, is this because cricket
gear is aimed for men and so women require greater strength to hit a
four? Cricket bats are heavy things which make it hard to swing in the
form necessary for a 6. It was great to see the crowd remained the
same sort of size for both games.
Sport can be great to watch. I am not a sporty person but I have found
a few which hold my interest - sumo, bouldering and short cricket. I
prefer the female version for all bar sumo which has it's own issues.
While women are able to partake in the amateur competitions, they are
not allowed even to get onto the dohyo, the clay platform which holds
the ring. This is due to professional sumo being essentially a
religious ceremony. Alot of the pomp and ceremony is about scaring the
demons from the area and providing a show for the gods of shinto.
There was even controversial scenes when a wrestler was injured and
a female medical staff member was refused to get onto the dohyo. It
seems madness. I can understand why you would not want women and men
fighting against one another in sumo. There are no weight classes
which means you can get a 96kg wrestler facing a 200kg behemouth. But
they prove that strength and weight is not everything. Perhaps women
could do as they do with bouldering and achieve success through
superior technical skills? Enho, the 96kg wrestler shows that
technical skills can lead to being in the top division. He is
currently in the second division but keeps threatening to appear again
in the top division.
While growing up, I knew several girls who just did not do anything in
PE. They had no interest and there was often a notion of girls sports
and boy sports. Netball was a classic example of a girls sport. It is
delightfully naff in so many ways but fun to play. The limitations of
not being able to tackle and only shoot within a specific spot means
there is a clear technical element and it makes you strategise. I
played netball while in primary school (5 to 11 years of age) and
enjoyed it. Whereas I have never really enjoyed playing basketball. It
is an annoying game if only for dribbling. I hope things are improving
and more girls are enjoying PE. Greater variety in the sports being
played probably would help alot. It took me a long time to find what I
enjoy doing due to having to do the same sports every year. It is
great that women are becoming more visible in sport and on an even
footing with men for many of those. Go watch and support women in
sport. More support means more visibility and that means more women
taking part instead of saying they cannot.
