Just in time for Torino comes this highly engaging blog posting from Joe Clark in which he makes the seemingly sound argument that women are certainly big enough to play hockey with men. (Size, of course, does not necessarily connote power and aggression and skill, but I’ll leave that question to Joe Clark, and Michelle Wie, and others more qualified to answer.)
The Freakonomics of Women's Hockey
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Equal size most emphatically does NOT mean equal strength, when it comes to men and women.
Here are the records of the USA Powerlifting Federation (the leading steroid-tested organization in that sport) for men in the 165.25 pound/75 kg. class, chosen as one representing more or less ordinary-sized people:
Squat – 749 pounds
Deadlift – 710.75 pounds
Bench Press – 512.50 pounds
For women in the same weight class:
Squat – 479.50 pounds
Deadlift – 507 pounds
Bench Press – 314 pounds
You get the point.
I’ll also mention that women’s hockey does not permit checking.
Equal size most emphatically does NOT mean equal strength, when it comes to men and women.
Here are the records of the USA Powerlifting Federation (the leading steroid-tested organization in that sport) for men in the 165.25 pound/75 kg. class, chosen as one representing more or less ordinary-sized people:
Squat – 749 pounds
Deadlift – 710.75 pounds
Bench Press – 512.50 pounds
For women in the same weight class:
Squat – 479.50 pounds
Deadlift – 507 pounds
Bench Press – 314 pounds
You get the point.
I’ll also mention that women’s hockey does not permit checking.
I think women value their teeth more.
I think women value their teeth more.
Of course, hockey isn’t all about strength. Speed, and agility is as important. Powerlifting is almost unique in that it not only exclusively rewards strength over any other physical trait, but even only one subset of strength-related abilities.
Of course, hockey isn’t all about strength. Speed, and agility is as important. Powerlifting is almost unique in that it not only exclusively rewards strength over any other physical trait, but even only one subset of strength-related abilities.
At the risk of taking this more seriously than it is intended: So, where are they? The best female hockey players have a tremendous economic incentive to try to play in the NHL. A couple of goalies have indeed tried, with praiseworthy but negligible success (google Manon Rheaume). The same is true in professional baseball and basketball, where the comparable attempts have been even fewer and less successful (ditto Ila Borders). I am personally intrigued by the possibility that some day a female athlete will cross one of these boundaries; my thought is a singles-hitting second baseperson, for whom reaction time and co-ordination are overriding considerations. But documenting the obvious, that female athletes overlap in size with male athletes, gets us nowhere.
At the risk of taking this more seriously than it is intended: So, where are they? The best female hockey players have a tremendous economic incentive to try to play in the NHL. A couple of goalies have indeed tried, with praiseworthy but negligible success (google Manon Rheaume). The same is true in professional baseball and basketball, where the comparable attempts have been even fewer and less successful (ditto Ila Borders). I am personally intrigued by the possibility that some day a female athlete will cross one of these boundaries; my thought is a singles-hitting second baseperson, for whom reaction time and co-ordination are overriding considerations. But documenting the obvious, that female athletes overlap in size with male athletes, gets us nowhere.