Question for sporty people

twitchy2.0 · October 7th, 2009, 10:51 AM

Why are women's basketballs smaller and lighter than men's? Not even by much. What difference is a couple of ounces going to make? or an inch difference going to make in the circumference of a basketball?

Basketball Size Chart

sluce · October 7th, 2009, 11:03 AM

I have always wondered about this too. My daughter plays. The net is the same height as it is for the boys. My daughter and her teammates say they would prefer the larger ball but their coach said it is too big for them to use proper ball handling skills since women have smaller hands.

twitchy2.0 · October 7th, 2009, 11:08 AM

and they're prone to hysteria, incapable of thinking etc.

Is there such a difference in women's hands? Like those retarded razor ads that tout the "comfort grip" handle that's easier for women to hold like we have some sort of deficiency in fine motor skills.

MontanaMama · October 7th, 2009, 11:16 AM

I feel the vapors coming on, must take to my bed...

twitchy2.0 · October 7th, 2009, 11:23 AM

Let me loosen your stays and fetch the smelling salts.

sluce · October 7th, 2009, 11:25 AM

I can tell you that at our school the girls did compare handsize against the boys and there was a big difference. Still the girls would prefer the larger ball. They did not feel the 1 inch larger ball caused them to lose any handling skills since few of them need to palm the ball. They did find the heavier weight of the guys ball did help them when shooting and that the ball "played" better off the backboard.

msdeb · October 7th, 2009, 11:27 AM

i would think its because the womens hand size is smaller. (except for khoe Kardashian)

McJag · October 7th, 2009, 11:57 AM

Pretty obvious! Just look at some tall men hands-compare with tall women hands. Since we have an abundance of both in our family,this is easy. Men have thicker,bigger (some might say uglier) ,fingers,wrists-everything. Equality has nothing to do with it-just genetics.

twitchy2.0 · October 7th, 2009, 12:09 PM

Then why is the difference in the balls so slight?

lurkur · October 7th, 2009, 12:40 PM

Probably a mixture of "science" and sexism, happily endorsed by the ball makers because it's an excuse to get families to buy double the amount of balls.

If it was about hand size, why are the boys grouped with the theoretically gargantuan men? Funny how so many girls and women are saying they prefer the larger ball, but the "real" ball is only allowed to be used by males.

Chilly Willy · October 7th, 2009, 01:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sluce

I can tell you that at our school the girls did compare handsize against the boys and there was a big difference.

Y'all haven't seen my gorilla hands, lol.

I remember from playing ball that the heavier/bigger ball was easier to handle. Plus, that's usually the size kids use when they play ball in their freetime and switching back and forth between sizes is counterproductive.

Same goes for footballs (soccer), shotput, handballs, etc.