I agree, at lower levels physiological differences really should matter a lot less, and there ought to be considerations for each sport that we should think, beyond gender being the boundary. In a sense other types of categories do exist already: e.g. Kid’s hockey separated by age (despite their growth spurt being super variable), wrestling by weight etc. The issue as you rightly point out is that a certain section of amateur and junior leagues want to take themselves as seriously as their elite counterparts when there’s no self-evident need to do that.
Yeah, amateur sports mimicking elite sports is a big part of this issue and a microcosm of another issue with exercise culture at large. We’re more sedentary than ever, but when we go to the gym or train for a sport, we mimic what elite athletes do, which isn’t very appropriate for beginners. An example might be doing a lot of strength building in isolation without bringing it together into broader multi-joint movements, which results in poor motor control.
but anyway I digress. This really all should just be a hell of a lot less serious for the vast majority of us and gendered divisions in amateur sports is another arm of that problem imo.
Thanks for the nuanced response.
I agree, at lower levels physiological differences really should matter a lot less, and there ought to be considerations for each sport that we should think, beyond gender being the boundary. In a sense other types of categories do exist already: e.g. Kid’s hockey separated by age (despite their growth spurt being super variable), wrestling by weight etc. The issue as you rightly point out is that a certain section of amateur and junior leagues want to take themselves as seriously as their elite counterparts when there’s no self-evident need to do that.
Yeah, amateur sports mimicking elite sports is a big part of this issue and a microcosm of another issue with exercise culture at large. We’re more sedentary than ever, but when we go to the gym or train for a sport, we mimic what elite athletes do, which isn’t very appropriate for beginners. An example might be doing a lot of strength building in isolation without bringing it together into broader multi-joint movements, which results in poor motor control.
but anyway I digress. This really all should just be a hell of a lot less serious for the vast majority of us and gendered divisions in amateur sports is another arm of that problem imo.