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did anyone see the story about the Illinois game?
They erroneously used a women's ball for about the first 7 minutes of the game untuil the error was discovered...
But where I worked this morning, several people who are fans expressed surprise -- as apparently it is NOT a very known fact that the women do indeed use a smaller ball...
apparently there are a whole lot of people who are surprised by that fact and did not know it...and even fewer who know why there's a difference..or how it came about.
Does anyone know exactly WHY this is the case -- after all in every other sport -- the size of the ball/puck/etc.. is the same - (and don't cite softball -- since that's a separate game from baseball and men DO play softball with the same size ball as women use)..
Golf, tennis, ice hockey, ping pong, checkers, tiddley winks, lacross, volleyball, and even archery the size of the object being propelled (ball, puck, arrow, checkers) is exactly the same for women as it is for men...
The answer is -- that nobody seems to know exactly why and where the decision was made -- but is was an idea adopted in the mid-1980's after a few years of study and debate.
When the first women's pro league started up, the WBL in the late 1970's, they used the regulation men's ball.
By the time the other pro leagues came about -- including the WNBA, the smaller women's ball was already in widespread use.
The general explanation is "the women's hands are smaller and in general it is easier for them to handle the smaller ball".
(But then, that means for many men, it also would be easier to handle the smaller ball but the men don't use it...)
Anyway -- here are some facts --
-Up until 1984, there was no such thing as a smaller ball for women. Women just used the same ball as the men...but the adoption of a smaller bal was being discussed mostly by college and NCAA people.
-According to "Mad Seasons: The Story of the First Women's Professional Basketball League" ... By Karra Porter, it was not until 1984 that talk serious began on using a smaller ball..mostly based on an NCAA study titled...
"Tests on small ball start to provide data"..but also other studies and articles indicated the women scored better and handled the ball better when the smaller one was used...
including one from University of Illinois as far back as 1962 titled...
"The Effect of a Modified Basketball Size on the Performance of Selected Basketball Skills by Senior High School Girls and College Women".
By 1985, the NCAA appears to have been the first adopt the ball and the pro leagues adopted the smaller ball later as did most high schools...
BUT....FIBA did NOT adopt the smaller ball and continued to use the men's size in international women's competition until they also finally changed in 2004.
BTW -- along the same time period.....there was also talk and study about lowering the rim to 9.5 or 9.75 ft as well, but that never got done as it would have required many gyms throughout the world to undergo costly backboard and rim adjustments!
They erroneously used a women's ball for about the first 7 minutes of the game untuil the error was discovered...
But where I worked this morning, several people who are fans expressed surprise -- as apparently it is NOT a very known fact that the women do indeed use a smaller ball...
apparently there are a whole lot of people who are surprised by that fact and did not know it...and even fewer who know why there's a difference..or how it came about.
Does anyone know exactly WHY this is the case -- after all in every other sport -- the size of the ball/puck/etc.. is the same - (and don't cite softball -- since that's a separate game from baseball and men DO play softball with the same size ball as women use)..
Golf, tennis, ice hockey, ping pong, checkers, tiddley winks, lacross, volleyball, and even archery the size of the object being propelled (ball, puck, arrow, checkers) is exactly the same for women as it is for men...
The answer is -- that nobody seems to know exactly why and where the decision was made -- but is was an idea adopted in the mid-1980's after a few years of study and debate.
When the first women's pro league started up, the WBL in the late 1970's, they used the regulation men's ball.
By the time the other pro leagues came about -- including the WNBA, the smaller women's ball was already in widespread use.
The general explanation is "the women's hands are smaller and in general it is easier for them to handle the smaller ball".
(But then, that means for many men, it also would be easier to handle the smaller ball but the men don't use it...)
Anyway -- here are some facts --
-Up until 1984, there was no such thing as a smaller ball for women. Women just used the same ball as the men...but the adoption of a smaller bal was being discussed mostly by college and NCAA people.
-According to "Mad Seasons: The Story of the First Women's Professional Basketball League" ... By Karra Porter, it was not until 1984 that talk serious began on using a smaller ball..mostly based on an NCAA study titled...
"Tests on small ball start to provide data"..but also other studies and articles indicated the women scored better and handled the ball better when the smaller one was used...
including one from University of Illinois as far back as 1962 titled...
"The Effect of a Modified Basketball Size on the Performance of Selected Basketball Skills by Senior High School Girls and College Women".
By 1985, the NCAA appears to have been the first adopt the ball and the pro leagues adopted the smaller ball later as did most high schools...
BUT....FIBA did NOT adopt the smaller ball and continued to use the men's size in international women's competition until they also finally changed in 2004.
BTW -- along the same time period.....there was also talk and study about lowering the rim to 9.5 or 9.75 ft as well, but that never got done as it would have required many gyms throughout the world to undergo costly backboard and rim adjustments!
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