22 August 2021

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.