Single Sex Versus Mixed Sex - Basketball and Netball

If you want to play a round ball game and you don't want to kick it, you are usually left with one sport that depends on your sex. For men, there is basketball and for women, there is netball. These sports are very similar, in fact it is believed that netball originated from a misunderstanding of the positions of basketball when they were writing down and passed on. Both games are fast paced and highly skilled; many commentators believe that netball is faster than basketball and has a greater need for physical fitness.

From an early age, the sports are separated out in to their gender defined groups, but is there anything that says that men can't play netball and women can't play basketball, or even together? Women's basketball isn't new and isn't that uncommon. The WNBA in America is alive, and kicking, just, and it is also played all across Europe, in competitive leagues. The UK doesn't seem to have taken it onboard yet really though. There was a children's/young adult television programme in the late nineties, called Hang Time that introduced a girl on to a boy's high school team, paving the way for mixed basketball, proving that men and women could play on the same team. Women playing basketball seems a lot more acceptable than men playing netball, but why?

Netball is a woman's sport. That is what we were taught, sub-consciously, when we were at school. Boys went to play football, girls went to play netball. Aged 11 upwards, men = football, women = netball, and never the twain shall meet. This made it easier for the school to implement. There would be a changing room for boys, with the open showers and hard wooden benches, filled with mud traipsed in from the field, and there would be a changing room for girls, with steam rooms and baths, and soft, comfortable seating and flowery (unblemished) carpet on the floor - I never went in the girls changing rooms, but from the reports I got from the guys that ran in on that fateful day in April '98, this is what I imagine all girls changing rooms to be like (and my experiences of ladies toilets in pubs and clubs does not dissuade me from this thinking). There was no mixed sex sport at my school - I do not count cross-country as a sport, that was a punishment - which I believe was due to a law that said that from the age of 13 (to 18) there could not be mixed sport/competition within schools (well that was what we were told when we wanted to play the girls football team, probably a good job as they were good), and this could be one of the reasons why mixed sport, in the established sports, has taken it's time to take off.

There is no reason to think that a man cannot be good at a sport, generally regarded as a female sport. There are many examples of it being true the other way round, certainly if the girl's football team at my school was anything to go by. There are many physical and mental attributes that a man has, that can be used expertly in netball, if the gender (and stigma) barrier can be broken down. If a guy said to his mates he was going out tonight to play netball, he would get a lot of querying looks and a whole heap of abuse, many questioning his sexual orientation or his fondness for flowers, but should this be so? Netball is a physically demanding, fast paced, action packed team sport; one player cannot take the ball from one end of the pitch/court to another, it is the epitome of team sports, almost every player is involved in every play, from front to back. Oh, also, isn't he the cleverest guy in the world? He will be on a team with a lot of women, before, during and after the game. Questioning his sexual orientation? He's a genius. What better way to meet women in a non-threatening, relaxed environment? He might get to use those steam rooms and comfy seats too.

Comments? Questions? Email Here

© HowtoAdvice.com

How to Advice .com