81–90 of 91 posts
It's not gynmastics that is child abuse, it is the bad behavior of coaches that is child abuse. Let's not confuse the issues and terms, please.
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FYI, Dance can have similar problems. I’m convinced a world reknowned ballet school had a major negative psychological effect on someone I know. Not sure how common that is in lesser schools, but something to be mindful of.
Yeah, I'm just thinking that dance seems less about the competition than gymnastics, so might be a healthier atmosphere. Our gymnastics club has a kind of parkour club which seems more about having fun and being active which I think me might move my son to when he's old enough.
One thing that always surprises me about gymnastics is how inherently sexist it is. For nearly all sports, the male version of the sport is identical to the female version. Maybe women don't lift as much, don't run quite as fast, or do shorter distances (like in speed skating), but the basics of the sport are the same. Not so in gymnastics: men and women do entirely different things. Men are all about upperbody stren…
My point is, where one falls short, play to your strengths. Doubly so in a competitive environment. Nothing stopping female athletes from doing rings. Absolutely nothing. Just like there was nothing stopping women from joining the mens junior or senior VB teams.
One thing that always surprises me about gymnastics is how inherently sexist it is. For nearly all sports, the male version of the sport is identical to the female version. Maybe women don't lift as much, don't run quite as fast, or do shorter distances (like in speed skating), but the basics of the sport are the same. Not so in gymnastics: men and women do entirely different things. Men are all about upperbody stren…
I played college volleyball about a decade ago and made the first team. We trained with the womens team on some days and as one of the more even sports - the chasm in athletic ability was insurmountable. So we mixed teams when playing and never one versus the other. My point is, where one falls short, play to your strengths. Doubly so in a competitive environment. Nothing stopping female athletes from doing rings. Ab…
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> how inherently sexist it is Something is sexist when you create sex criteria. So the whole sport is sexist since you have distinguish between men and women categories in most of the disciplines.
What really surprised me is the existence of chess championship and women chess championship.
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How many males do you know how genuienly like dancing? You are picking a small population of males and generlizing to all of them. Most males have no interest in dancing. Nothing wrong if you do, but most don't.
I see you’ve never heard of the country of India among many many others. What you are describing is machismo Americana, not men.
Wow, where are the parents? I mean bad parents here and there I expect, but enough to fuel an international industry is a surprise...
When my daughter came to me in tears and complained coach is yelling at her, I explained this is a good thing. This means coach is looking at her and is trying to correct her mistakes.
Would raising the minimum age for Olympics and other high-level competition for women to 18 or 20 help?
I would think so. Part of the problem here is that they're trying to get these girls to win before puberty changes their body, which puts enormous time pressure on the training. If they're only allowed to compete from 18, all of those issues drop away.
Pro sports have age minimums but kids start prepping at age 8.
This problem with women's gymnastics is the rules of the sport favor children's and childlike bodies.
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No amount of verbal abuse is going to make a 15-year-old boy as strong as a 25-year-old man.
But why is strength important for male gymnastics but not for women gymnastics? The argument for women's gymnastics was that they are smaller and lighter weight and thereby can do crazier stunts... doesn't that apply to men? It just sounds like there is something fundamentally different to the sports themselves that I am not understanding as someone who knows nothing about either.
Secondly while the strength to weight ratio of women might peak at 15-18, in men it keeps increasing into their mid-late 20s. In general, the strength difference between a 15 and 25 year old man is much much greater than that between a 15 and 25 year old woman. Basically a 20-25 year old man can pull off feats of strength that a 15-16 year old simply can't. The same isn't really true for women (again in general).
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What really surprised me is the existence of chess championship and women chess championship.
If creating another league increases interest and access, it's good to have another league.