Quote:
Originally posted by BktBallRef
Quote:
Originally posted by CYO Butch
Rich, I couldn't agree with you more, it's just that with middle school girls, the likelyhood of one girl being strong enought to rip it out of the other girls hands is so slight that bodies can go flying and kids get hurt. The previous week, the slow whistles resulted in girls going to the floor on at least four occaisions in the first half alone, and in one case a girl got mildly hurt and could not return to the game. As you say "A held ball occurs when opponents have their hands so firmly on the ball that control cannot be obtained without undue roughness." Maybe it's because boys hands are stronger, they are more likely to grip the ball with their hands when the ball is contested, but girls are likely to wrap their arms around the ball and use their bodies to try to get/maintain posession. I'm not saying that everytime two girls touch the ball at the same time a whistle should blow, I just saying that the officials who recognize this difference between boys and girls don't need to wait as long before the call. In my experience, it actually keeps the game going faster, keeps tempers under control better, and reduces the chances or injury.
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What difference does it make whether a girl grabs the ball in her arms versus a boy who grabs the ball with his hands?
It's disappointing when people expect a quicker whistle in girls games because they're scraed the "little girls are going to get hurt." People complain all the time about girls games being called differently than boys, yet you advocate that so they won 't get hurt. Well, if they're concerned about their little girl getting hurt, then they should keep her at home and let her play with Barbies.
I call a girls game the same way I do boys. If there's the possibility of a held ball. I'll wait an extra second or two to see if someone will pull it away before it's an actual held ball. If I don't, sure enough, someone will pull it away just as the whistle blows.
If the players are on the floor, I'll blow it a little quicker simply because it's less likely that someone is going to come away with it and because I don't want players diving on the pile.
But those standards are for boys AND girls. One gender deserves no more protection than the other.
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I've noticed that when I officiate with people I don't know that they usually are the ones who get to the held ball first. It's especially embarassing when the ball is, essentially loose.
As far as the differences between girls and boys ball, I recognize that disadvantage from contact may come at different levels of contact between a boys game and a girls game. That doesn't mean that I call the game differently. Differences exist between individual players, after all.
I think it is insulting to girls and womens teams to try to "protect" them by discouraging aggressive play and hustle. Last week I had a classic held ball situation (well, had I been working with a quick whistle person) where a player reached in and momentarily shared possession with her opponent, then pulled the ball right out of her hands. Her coach was livid that I didn't blow it dead. I told him that if it came out that easy IT WASN'T held.
The reason why there seem to be a dozen held balls in girls games is probably because some of them shouldn't be called held balls.