Are we all getting less girls playing?

[LEsoftballdad]

Anna used to take hitting lessons from the coach at Belmont Abbey college, she had a lesson one weekday afternoon and the hitting facility is outside behind left center field.

There’s a huge open field where they practice a lot of different sports, the men’s Lacrosse team just happened to be practicing there that day so I was watching Anna hit and that team practice. About that time a Lacrosse ball practically rolled right to my feet, a kid that looked like he was a 1/4 mile away was headed towards me. I picked up that ball and was shocked at how heavy and dense it was, as in something to inflict a lot of pain!

I realized that day I’d much rather be hit with a baseball or softball! I bet Lacrosse players have a lot of nasty bruises!

It's funny that you mention how heavy the balls are and how they can bruise you.

So, it's 1989, and I am fresh out of HS. My best friend and I liked to hit buckets of balls at the local field with my old Easton Green baseball bat. Mind you, we did this without an L Screen, but we were young, so what did we care? In my bucket of beat-up baseballs was one lacrosse ball we'd hit with the bat and watch fly off the bat like a super ball.

One evening, as the sun went down, we were at our last turn at bat before we ran out of daylight. I let him take the last bucket as I took the mound. I would lob the balls in so he could get his best hacks in, so this evening was no different. I get to the bottom of the bucket, and what's the last ball in there? The lacrosse ball. I said to my friend "Lay into this one, Chris. Give it a ride." I lob the ball in there, and he gave it a ride. It traveled about 57 feet before it hit my left arm about 6" above my wrist. Because of my follow-through on the pitch, my arm was right in front of two other balls. The ball hit my arm and immediately died on impact. I clenched my hand instinctively and amazingly caught the ball on its trip to the ground. I looked at him and said, "Chris, I think you broke my arm."

Amazingly, my arm wasn't broken, but the bone was dented for months. Had my arm not been there, I wouldn't be on this forum because I would not have been able to have kids. Had the ball hit my head or heart, I'd be dead.

Maybe that's another reason I hate lacrosse so much...

 

[ANNASDAD]

It's funny that you mention how heavy the balls are and how they can bruise you.

So, it's 1989, and I am fresh out of HS. My best friend and I liked to hit buckets of balls at the local field with my old Easton Green baseball bat. Mind you, we did this without an L Screen, but we were young, so what did we care? In my bucket of beat-up baseballs was one lacrosse ball we'd hit with the bat and watch fly off the bat like a super ball.

One evening, as the sun went down, we were at our last turn at bat before we ran out of daylight. I let him take the last bucket as I took the mound. I would lob the balls in so he could get his best hacks in, so this evening was no different. I get to the bottom of the bucket, and what's the last ball in there? The lacrosse ball. I said to my friend "Lay into this one, Chris. Give it a ride." I lob the ball in there, and he gave it a ride. It traveled about 57 feet before it hit my left arm about 6" above my wrist. Because of my follow-through on the pitch, my arm was right in front of two other balls. The ball hit my arm and immediately died on impact. I clenched my hand instinctively and amazingly caught the ball on its trip to the ground. I looked at him and said, "Chris, I think you broke my arm."

Amazingly, my arm wasn't broken, but the bone was dented for months. Had my arm not been there, I wouldn't be on this forum because I would not have been able to have kids. Had the ball hit my head or heart, I'd be dead.

Maybe that's another reason I hate lacrosse so much...

Yeah my very first thought when I picked it up was "man, this would hurt!"

 

[uncdrew]

Anna used to take hitting lessons from the coach at Belmont Abbey college, she had a lesson one weekday afternoon and the hitting facility is outside behind left center field.

There’s a huge open field where they practice a lot of different sports, the men’s Lacrosse team just happened to be practicing there that day so I was watching Anna hit and that team practice. About that time a Lacrosse ball practically rolled right to my feet, a kid that looked like he was a 1/4 mile away was headed towards me. I picked up that ball and was shocked at how heavy and dense it was, as in something to inflict a lot of pain!

I realized that day I’d much rather be hit with a baseball or softball! I bet Lacrosse players have a lot of nasty bruises!

Yeah, those balls are crazy dense. But fun to bounce off the concrete.

I wonder if anyone is dense enough to do BP with one without an L-screen.

 

[LEsoftballdad]

Yeah, those balls are crazy dense. But fun to bounce off the concrete.

I wonder if anyone is dense enough to do BP with one without an L-screen.

Nope, never met anyone that dumb before...

 

[ANNASDAD]

Nope, never met anyone that dumb before...

Seems like I may have heard a story.....

 

[_MIA_]

Baseball/softball and basketball are the two sports which are the most difficult to be good at IMO (I guess golf too but I am talking about sports sane people play..) and playing a sport you are good at is a lot more fun .. I didn’t play football growing up outside of with my friends but I am pretty sure I could have tried out for my HS team and been the starting wide receiver..

The difference between the two is it is lot easier to develop your skills to become good in basketball without parental involvement. Yeah you can do tee work, wall ball, throw into a net etc. in softball but in terms of development they are not equal to what you can do in basketball by yourself.

Kids don’t play baseball/softball with their friends anymore so the onus is placed on parents to play catch, throw front toss, hit grounders, take the kid to lessons (they do have skill lessons in basketball which I think is a crock..) etc and in 2022 people have a lot going on ..it’s tough. In the summer I probably spend 10 hours a week playing/working with my kids. Most of the time I enjoy it but my job is such that I can pretty much come and go as I please as long as I am in my class to lecture when I am supposed to. Many people don’t have that luxury.

 

[ANNASDAD]

Baseball/softball and basketball are the two sports which are the most difficult to be good at IMO

Don’t quote me word for word, I believe it was ESPN when they used to do the Sports Science Specials, they said hitting a 95/100mph(?) pitch in baseball was absolutely the hardest thing to do in sports, period.

 

[LEsoftballdad]

Don’t quote me word for word, I believe it was ESPN when they used to do the Sports Science Specials, they said hitting a 95/100mph(?) pitch in baseball was absolutely the hardest thing to do in sports, period.

It amazes me that hitting a golf ball is as hard as it is. It just sits there and doesn't move, yet my drives normally go 300 yards. Sometimes it's 300 yards down the fairway, and other times it's 150 yards from the tee box and 150 yards to the left. Sadly, the latter was always more common.

 

[CoachJD]

Baseball/softball and basketball are the two sports which are the most difficult to be good at IMO

I think being good at baseball/softball is harder from a skill development standpoint, but being really good at competitive basketball is impossible for a lot of people because you can't teach height.

 

[_MIA_]

I think being good at baseball/softball is harder from a skill development standpoint, but being really good at competitive basketball is impossible for a lot of people because you can't teach height.

I would agree. The way I look at it is you rarely see high level baseball/softball players pick up the sport in HS. CF for the Royals a few years back (cannot remember his name) being a rare example. Same with basketball unless you are tall (Olajuwon for example). Show me a college guard (at any level) who started playing in HS.

Plenty of examples of this happening in other sports.