* Those who flee the wonders of Diversity seem to overcompensate for their guilt by becoming shrill denouncers of racism.
This is particularly true in Woodstock, NY, where I live.
For decades, hipsters have fled to Woodstock to save their kids from the wonders of the diverse NYC school system. The violence, chaos and lack of discipline in NYC public schools is not something any sane person inflicts on his children if he has other options.
Once in Woodstock, the refugees from NYC invariably became fervent denouncers of racism in other people and equally fervent advocates of integration for other communities.
* There is a blogger for the leftist insane asylum FIREDOGLAKE who when he was not planting his flag on Mt Moral Superiority in the name of Diversity Uber Alles, loved nothing more than talking about how his daughter’s soccer playing and her years participating in an top prep travelling league helped earn her an scholarship at an elite California private university.
Perhaps Steve should mention that all this female youth soccer mania helps to confirm what Steven Pinker wrote about in The Blank Slate, that there are limits involving what parents can actually do as far as molding their children’s character and future prospects by their own parenting style and example. However, what does seem to really matter is to what extent parents can influence their children’s peer environment.
Upper class leftist parents know this very well, their actions scream it, even if they would rather die than admit it.
* I’ve never really understood the whole push to force girls to play soccer. Soccer doesn’t seem like something girls are actually into–I’ve never seen groups of girls hanging out, just kicking the ball around for fun. I see boys throwing footballs or playing hockey, things like that, but never groups of girls with soccer balls.
I assume it’s a parent thing, some way to pretend to oneself that girls are totally into sports just as much as boys are, but it’s still kind of a mystery.
* My 14 year-old niece was seriously concussed playing soccer. She leapt for the ball, got upended and struck the ground head first. It took her a month to recover during which her school work really suffered.
She quit soccer and decided to take up cross-country.
* I’ve met a couple women who’ve had knee surgeries while still in their 20′s due to injuries incurred participating in high school sports. Soccer with it’s zig-zag movements seems to be hard on women’s knees in particular. I used to associate joint surgery with people over fifty years of age, at the minimum. Not anymore though, the coaches make a name for themselves while the youth who cycle through get the bum knees and hips. I don’t think most of it is worth it. The girls should be channeled into sports that can provide a good workout but are less likely to permanently injure them. Sort of a hard sell right now with all the razzmatazz and hype of the super-women.
* NYT: “Girls and boys diverge in their physical abilities as they enter puberty and move through adolescence. Higher levels of testosterone allow boys to add muscle and, even without much effort on their part, get stronger. In turn, they become less flexible. Girls, as their estrogen levels increase, tend to add fat rather than muscle. They must train rigorously to get significantly stronger. The influence of estrogen makes girls’ ligaments lax, and they outperform boys in tests of overall body flexibility — a performance advantage in many sports, but also an injury risk when not accompanied by sufficient muscle to keep joints in stable, safe positions. Girls tend to run differently than boys — in a less-flexed, more-upright posture — which may put them at greater risk when changing directions and landing from jumps. Because of their wider hips, they are more likely to be knock-kneed — yet another suspected risk factor.”
Luke: Can we note racial differences as well? Blacks have higher testosterone levels on average than whites who have higher testosterone than Asians. Asians have bigger brains and wider hips on average than whites who have bigger brains and wider hips than blacks, which gives blacks an advantage in running (the smaller the brain, the faster the runner, on average).
* Softball tends to be the same way, except that soccer has more straight girls.
* Not only is the pool of Latina players still small, but most of the best players are first- or second-generation Americans. As such, they are eligible to play for their parents’ home countries, and they often do because it is easier to make the squad. Ten members of Mexico’s World Cup team this year were born in the U.S.
I’ve said this before here, but the number of black players in girls soccer is increasing slowly. You can see this easily at the college level. Most of these girls come from middle- or upper-class families, so they fit in class-wise with the majority of girls club soccer participants.
Others are the daughters of African immigrants, who have a cultural affinity for soccer over basketball. And an increasing number are bi-racial; for example, the 2015 Gatorade High School Player of the Year has a black father and white mother.
Why don’t we see more black players with the USWNT? Often these girls are so dominant athletically at a young age that it hinders their long-term technical development. They spend the years of 4-18 simply outrunning everyone to the ball and scoring.
But as they progress up the ranks of college play and national team competition, that speed advantage dissipates — everyone is fast at those levels — and their lack of technical ability becomes a weakness.
* No mention of field hockey? When girls soccer becomes too diverse, field hockey and girls lacrosse stand ready to welcome the affluent avoiders.
The upper middle class whites haven’t much to fear however, the negroes by the age of reproductive maturity are busy reproducing while their white peers are reading vampire love stories and contemplating a college degree in English Lit.
* Steve Sailer: For instance, talking honestly about soccer reveals that much of what nice upper middle class people say out loud about diversity and immigration isn’t true. There isn’t a lot of talent coming from Mexico, even in soccer. There especially isn’t much female talent from south of the border. Massive Latino immigration doesn’t make America more sophisticated; it makes the population more backward and knuckleheadedly macho. Privileged whites don’t actually want their children exposed to diversity; they will spend a lot of money to keep them, especially their daughters, in a cocoon as white as (say) the U.S. Women’s World Cup team.
* Girls don’t generally play ANY team sport without being pushed into it, gymnastics and figure skating are not really team sports. Plenty of female team sport athletes have remarked on this: males naturally take to playing together without adult supervision and will even spontaneously develop rules, arguing over the details. Girls need adult supervision to play team sports. Main point, girls aren’t “choosing” to play soccer, their parents are picking soccer for them.
* In my previous post I should have mentioned that the FIREDOGLAKE lefty blogger’s daughter blew out her ACL jeopardizing her college scholarship.
ACL injuries are common among female soccer players. Lots changes in changes to body mass distributions in the late teen years. Hard enough for top high school and especially college male football players who have to learn that continuing to try to imitate Barry Sander’s jaw dropping moves as they advance to the next level will likely result in ACL tears. College “scat” running backs have trouble making it in the pros where they will be required to add ten pounds or more in upper body muscle mass in order to pass block. Aspiring running backs would be far more successful imitating an Emmitt Smith than Barry Sanders.
In their youth, athletes can get by by sticking their heels in the ground and bouncing like a waterbug to change direction. This rarely works as one matures and goes directly against the basic athletic fundamentals that apply across most sports; football, tennis, soccer, basketball, ski racing…. that all require a strong disciplined forward posture to avoid serious knee injuries. Barry Sanders again being the exception.
I once attended an ACL injury avoidance seminar at a top ski resort with an audience of ski instructors and racing coaches. They showed a gruesome highlight reel of ACL injuries for high school, college and pro athletes, male and female across a dozen sports. All involved the same basic issues.
Like Steve said, relentlessly drilling sound ball skill fundamentals is what makes a good adult soccer players.
And I should say, for women not being overly blessed in the TnA department helps.
