http://1just4fun.wordpress.com/2010/02/20/ballgirl-catches-foul-ball/ (http://1just4fun.wordpress.com/2010/02/20/ballgirl-catches-foul-ball/)
Short video clip of an amazing bit of catching.... not by a regular, professional player.
;D
Definitely better than most field guys.
I've seen women playing soccer, basketball and baseball as good if not better than men and always wondered why can't someone start a unisex league. Perhaps because girls would destroy a number of chauvinist egos? ;)
Well, we know how much trouble all y'all have running & throwing like a girl... (http://www.citybuildingcontests.net/vbulletin/images/smilies/yeah2.gif)
(http://www.smilies.4-user.de/include/Sport/smilie_sp_128.gif)
In some sports raw muscle power and speed may be a handicap for mixed games.
In the latest olympics, it was actually the Swedish ladies's team that had any appreciable results, saving the national honour and all that. The gentlemen did not fare so well, despite their much larger funding and sponsorship deals. Maybe we should abolish the men's olympic team and place all the resources at the disposal of the ladies' team, in the name of increased efficiency and larger medal gain quotas?
Wow.
Climbing walls like that is amazing, predict that ball's trajectory, climbing walls and then catch it...
That is almost doing the impossible.
As for mixed games as long as the rules stipulates how many men and how many women each team should have at the field at any given time that wouldn't be a problem.
Men and women competing against each other would be trickier, but in sports like sailing for example there is really no need for separating men and women.
Actually I think the problem is more contact than anything else, and unisex leagues could be a perfect excuse to clean up the tactical violence of many sports. As for speed, strength and height not all players have to be the fastest, stronger or tallest, to be considered good players, and in many cases the best players are renown for their ability and talent than raw muscle (baseball hitters being the exception proved by all the enhancing drug scandals).
Obviously, sports like American football/rugby would be out of the equation for that reason.
As an undergraduate I once played in a male soccer team against St Hildas. To even things up we had to wear full academic dress and they wore sports kit. They slaughtered us. It was horrible.
Of course, they should never have handicapped us with the clothes - we simply claimed we were beaten only because we daren't get our subfusc ruined. If we'd been in normal kit, I reckon they'd have thrashed us anyway and we'd have had no excuse.
I have also found it's a great mistake to play hockey* against women.
*That's proper hockey, on grass.
Here's an interesting mixed-team contact sport that is gaining a lot of popularity, and has a very iconic star to promote it. There has even been a feature film made about the sport!
Wikipedia link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jugger)
And a german blog about the sport (http://jugger.uhusnest.de/jugger_internat.shtml)
Quote from: DavidH on May 02, 2010, 07:54:36 PM
*That's proper hockey, on grass.
Yer askin' to get jerseyed... ;)
Quote from: DavidH on May 02, 2010, 07:54:36 PM
*That's proper hockey, on grass.
You mean there's
another way of playing hockey? Pull the other one, it's got bells on it! Next thing you'll be saying some nitwits trying to play hockey on ice.... haw, haw, haw.... ahem...
<runs, ducks for cover...>
<drops the gloves>
Eh, actually our national sport is the proper version of what hockey on grass should look like:
(http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~br46/p1_lacrosse_0425.jpg)
More violent than ice hockey, and the stick doesn't look like you stole yer granddad's cane. Also comes in handy when fishing. ;)
No. 1 daughter's Lacrosse stick (?club, ?bat, ?bludgeon?) is still in the loft somewhere. Scary-looking thing. :mrgreen: