Women's hoops needs to lower the rim

[Caliknight]

The announcers were just bragging about a girl getting a rebound and her hand possibly being over the rim. The difference in skill and ability between the men is just so dramatic, that the women's game is unwatchable. I think lowering the rim would make shots easier, they wouldn't miss so many lay-ups with no one on them and maybe see more dunking.

The game is sort of funny though. I don't mean the game, but everything surrounding it. From the announcers, to the coaches, to even the fans. Anyone see Syracuse's alums? And their coach looks like a pimp. It's all sort of comical.

 

[e5fdny]

Forget lowering it, how about using the same size rim to match the ball.

The little ball thing at this stage/level of play is silly.

 

[SirPerceval]

Is that CeeLo Green coaching Syracuse?

 

[Caliknight]

Forget lowering it, how about using the same size rim to match the ball.

The little ball thing at this stage/level of play is silly.

It's commensurate with the level of play. That's why the rim should be lowered.

 

[RUonBrain]

You guys are a bunch of yahoos.
Nice job

 

[e5fdny]

You guys are a bunch of yahoos.
Nice job

While I don't agree with the OP I do think the idea of making the ratio between rim size and ball diameter the same for the women's should be considered.

 

[BeKnighted]

If it's not obvious, you can't lower the rim because the infrastructure for basketball all around the country is built around the current height, and it's unlikely to change. It would be very expensive to adapt to have lower rims for one group of players than another, and never mind all of the playgrounds around the country that never would change.

 

[Caliknight]

I am pretty sure those things can be changed fairly easily. I have seen professional grade rims that can be lowered.

This person agrees. She sounds like someone who would know what they are talking about.

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2016/03/elena-delle-donne-wnba-rims-lower-chicago-sky-mvp

 

[BeKnighted]

I'm pretty sure that a large percentage of the rims in the country (I actually would guess most of the rims in the country) are on playgrounds on fixed-height poles and can't be lowered or raised without construction equipment. I'm equally sure that a good number of rims are in high school gyms where they're also effectively at fixed heights. (By the way, this is in contrast to volleyball, where the net is easily moved because it's not permanent infrastructure.)

While it's true that the rims used in games often are on movable stanchions that presumably could be set to different heights, that simply doesn't account for where people play basketball most.

And this matters because playing some games with higher rims and some games with lower rims would reduce the quality of play, not improve it.

 

[Caliknight]

I disagree. Take lacrosse for instance. It is common to practice on indoor goals which are much smaller. They would be the equivalent of 10 foot rims.

When those kids see the outdoor goals (lower rims) they look massive.

LA Sparks women used to play at my gym all of the time. No offense to the ladies, but even at the pro level against desk jockey's in pick-up games, it wasn't competitive. Even so, we used a men's ball. They use women's balls when they play, no?

 

[BeKnighted]

It's not the same at all. If you were saying the rims should be wider for women, that would be equivalent to moving from smaller to larger goals - shots that aren't as good would go in. But the mechanics of shooting at a lower rim are different than the mechanics of shooting at a higher rim, so you wouldn't develop the same muscle memory and moving from one to the other would require adjustment.

 

[Caliknight]

I think it's easier. I have played on 9 foot rims. I find everything easier, including shooting. The mechanics of your shot should never change, regardless of height.

 

[BeKnighted]

It's physics. Getting a ball up 10 feet requires a different arc, more energy, etc. than 9 feet. You have to do something different or the ball will not go where you want it to go.

 

[Caliknight]

Obviously. Any athlete should be able to change the trajectory fairly easily with any practice at all, especially when the rim is lower. Changing the ball would have been more of an effort and that worked fine. It only makes sense to change the rim height too.

There is a reason a number of women basketball players are behind it. It would definitely make the game more exciting for them. Scoring would go up, basic plays would be made consistently, and you would see more dunks.

Any time you have an announcer bragging that someone's hand might have been over the rim on a rebound, something needs to change.

 

[BeKnighted]

I'm not sure I've explained my point well enough. The problem is not that women and girls couldn't adapt if the rim were lowered consistently; it's that *most* rims wouldn't be lowered and so girls would be moving back and forth between the lower and higher rims, which would make it hard to learn a consistent way to play.

 

[e5fdny]

If it's not obvious, you can't lower the rim because the infrastructure for basketball all around the country is built around the current height, and it's unlikely to change. It would be very expensive to adapt to have lower rims for one group of players than another, and never mind all of the playgrounds around the country that never would change.

Any school/institution less than 50yrs old usually has this built in.

The other places (including outside rims) just put something on top....like when you learned the game as a kid. I don't think many if us started on the 10ft rim.

But I still say leave the rim height alone and either use the same size ball or a rim that has the same size opening as the regular ball.

 

[dmd78]

Obviously. Any athlete should be able to change the trajectory fairly easily with any practice at all, especially when the rim is lower. Changing the ball would have been more of an effort and that worked fine. It only makes sense to change the rim height too.

There is a reason a number of women basketball players are behind it. It would definitely make the game more exciting for them. Scoring would go up, basic plays would be made consistently, and you would see more dunks.

Any time you have an announcer bragging that someone's hand might have been over the rim on a rebound, something needs to change.

Count me among those who do *not* want to see more dunks. IMHO, this would diminish the women's game, not improve it. If I wanted to see a dunkfest, I'd watch a men's game. And I have no doubt that, if the rims were lowered, we'd have guys coming to this board complaining that the women's game isn't worth watching because they use a lower rim. LOL

 

[AreYouNUTS]

The "smaller ball" thing is absurd. You're shooting into the same sized hoop, right? So do women use smaller soccer balls then men while shooting into the same sized net? Lacrosse? Tennis? Golf? I kinda understand why it was done, at the time, but com'on now it's just not right. Either, as E5FDNY states above, you make the rims smaller (which would be a pain in the ass), or you start using the same damn ball again.

 

[Caliknight]

I didn't realize this until recently, but women pro tour players on the WTA use different balls then the men. They are lighter and have less felt.

Dunking would definitely help the game. A lot more than missed lay ups with no one on them, which we see every game.

 

[RC66]

The "smaller ball" thing is absurd. You're shooting into the same sized hoop, right? ... Either, as E5FDNY states above, you make the rims smaller (which would be a pain in the ass), or you start using the same damn ball again.

Nuts, I almost always find you comments on all boards reasonable, but you're off on this comment...


Women's hands are smaller than men's hands.

The women's ball circumference is 28.5"
The men's ball circumference is 29.5"

Unless my memory of 10th grade geometry is wrong: Pi x D = C, so...

The diameter of the women's ball is 9.0718"
The diameter of the men's ball is 9.3901"

The hoop size is 18"; so the balls are BOTH about half the size of the hoop.

The difference in the ratio of the ball size to the hoop size is less than 1.8%!

1.8% ... less than two one-hundredths of a difference in the relative size for going through the hoop.

In other words, the difference of sizes has to do with ball handling, not so much with swishing.

 

[FELONIOUSMONK]

At 9 feet I could have been the original Dr Dunkenstein. At 10 I was just another sweet shooting ball of blubber. At this point in my life I couldn't jam a Nerf at 4 feet..With a trampoline....:mad:

 

[e5fdny]

Nuts, I almost always find you comments on all boards reasonable, but you're off on this comment...


Women's hands are smaller than men's hands.

The women's ball circumference is 28.5"
The men's ball circumference is 29.5"

Unless my memory of 10th grade geometry is wrong: Pi x D = C, so...

The diameter of the women's ball is 9.0718"
The diameter of the men's ball is 9.3901"

The hoop size is 18"; so the balls are BOTH about half the size of the hoop.

The difference in the ratio of the ball size to the hoop size is less than 1.8%!

1.8% ... less than two one-hundredths of a difference in the relative size for going through the hoop.

In other words, the difference of sizes has to do with ball handling, not so much with swishing.

So are women's feet yet they still use the same ball and same sized goal as the men in soccer.

At the top level of sport that 1.8% might make a difference.

 

[BeKnighted]

So are women's feet yet they still use the same ball and same sized goal as the men in soccer.

At the top level of sport that 1.8% might make a difference.

Of course, the goalies in women's soccerare smaller than the goalies in men's soccer.

 

[AreYouNUTS]

Nuts, I almost always find you comments on all boards reasonable, but you're off on this comment...


Women's hands are smaller than men's hands.
.

Women's feet are smaller than men's feet but you don't see a different sized soccer ball. It's just weird. Use the same damn ball. [cheers]

 

[2bornot2b]

Just give all the little girls growth hormones and call it even.