Male Practice Players: what's their status?

[JellyBean]

How many MPP does UConn have? Are there tryouts?

Depends. I was a MPP back in the day. There is a posting for MPPs. Once you show up, you kind of go through a tryout. Coaches are looking for male players that have some game ability and not a headache on the floor. UConn has at least 8-12 MPP players that I have seen at some practice sessions.

 

[SVCBeercats]

Just in case you need a bit more to laugh at.

She was speaking of her older sisters who like the MPPs were bigger, faster, and stronger than her.

Going her own way

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

Another sport where male and female athletes compete in practice is HS wrestling. Girls HS wrestling has been around for a number of years, and women's wrestling was added to the Olympics in 2004. When it started out, most HS's could not field a full girls teams, so it is not uncommon for the girls to practice with the boys. Obviously, coaches need to insure that everyone conducts themselves properly.

Beyond practice, it is not uncommon for girls to actually wrestle boys in competitions, where there are a limited number of girls who compete. This is a Catch-22 if you're a boy wrestling a girl. You're expected to beat her and if you lose, you're marked for life as the guy who lost to a girl.

Years ago, my son wrestled, and while he never had to wrestle a girl, one of his teammates did. I remember that his teammate was pretty upset before the match, expressing his concern about wrestling a girl to his mother. His mother's advice to him was, "Kick her ass!"

You can always count on your mom to say the right thing.....

OK - I hate to admit it. I was not an athlete, but back in the '70's we had wrestling for a couple weeks in gym class. Our school had one girl who worked out with the wrestling team (and wanted to wrestle for real, but was a bit ahead of her time, I think). She joined my class for the wrestling weeks. In any case, after we had our weeks of "practice", it came to the "competition". Granted I never won - but, I had to go against her, and, um, set a gym class record for speed of being pinned. Less than 10 seconds, IIRC. A huge eye-opener about females, and strength and desire and all of that.

 

[CL82]

OK - I hate to admit it. I was not an athlete, but back in the '70's we had wrestling for a couple weeks in gym class. Our school had one girl who worked out with the wrestling team (and wanted to wrestle for real, but was a bit ahead of her time, I think). She joined my class for the wrestling weeks. In any case, after we had our weeks of "practice", it came to the "competition". Granted I never won - but, I had to go against her, and, um, set a gym class record for speed of being pinned. Less than 10 seconds, IIRC. A huge eye-opener about females, and strength and desire and all of that.

I never expected this to happen to me but....

 

[cockhrnleghrn]

After they've completed their degree/eligibility I would imagine they could be given some mementoes from the coaches/school, couldn't they? I would imagine the same for regular scholarship athletes; right?

 

[MJL243]

Geno talks about the practice players. He said they get rings when UConn wins a championship, which is a very nice gesture. He talks about how many there are, how they are chosen, and more:

 

[Charliebball]

CL82, I know bigger, stronger and faster (as in point a to point b) is true, but is a male quicker, as in reaction or reflex time? I am not sure about that, that would seem to be a matter of neurological superiority an area where women generally outshine men.

Just watch a WBB game followed by a MBB game back to back..............the difference in every physical area is overwhelming.............this coming from the Dad of a WBB player who prefers to watch WBB games these days before there are any complaints..................

 

[HoopsFan21]

Just watch a WBB game followed by a MBB game back to back....the difference in every physical area is overwhelming...this coming from the Dad of a WBB player who prefers to watch WBB games these days before there are any complaints...

The thing that immediately stands out to me is the speed. If ESPN has a men's game and ESPN2 has a women's game, flip back and forth between the two games.

 

[DallasBUFan]

You see it in Texas High Schools. The boy's Freshman or JV squads will scrimmage Varsity girls. BU uses them also and they all usually have some basketball experience and tend to match up well with the girls. Most are taller than them, but that helps when they play teams with taller people than they are. I think it's a great tool that the women are utilizing.

 

[SVCBeercats]

CL82, I know bigger, stronger and faster (as in point a to point b) is true, but is a male quicker, as in reaction or reflex time? I am not sure about that, that would seem to be a matter of neurological superiority an area where women generally outshine men.

Are you expressing an opinion or referencing some study? A quick scan of studies appears to show studies having males with faster reaction times. Also studies show men have more quick twitch muscle fibers for power and speed. Women have more slow twitch muscle fibers and thus their endurance is superior. One study on the NCBI website says: "studies have identified over 3,000 genes that are differentially expressed in male and female skeletal muscle." Male muscle fibers contract faster than female muscle fibers. According to a 2004 study published in American Physiology Society, the skeletal muscles of men are faster and render higher maximum output compared to women’s skeletal muscles. Estrogen-B seems to have an effect in muscle contractile speed.

 

[bags27]

Watching the UConn practice, I noticed that the practice player beat Gabby to the baseline every time. I thought: wow, the coaches have to teach Gabby to overplay the baseline even more (one of the first things you learn on defense is to stop the baseline drive), but, clearly, the guy was just a lot, lot quicker (more fast twitch) than anyone Gabby has faced or will face.

 

[dogged1]

Are you expressing an opinion or referencing some study? A quick scan of studies appears to show studies having males with faster reaction times. Also studies show men have more quick twitch muscle fibers for power and speed. Women have more slow twitch muscle fibers and thus their endurance is superior. One study on the NCBI website says: "studies have identified over 3,000 genes that are differentially expressed in male and female skeletal muscle." Male muscle fibers contract faster than female muscle fibers. According to a 2004 study published in American Physiology Society, the skeletal muscles of men are faster and render higher maximum output compared to women’s skeletal muscles. Estrogen-B seems to have an effect in muscle contractile speed.

I was essentially asking a question.

 

[RSHERMVIKES]

Another sport where male and female athletes compete in practice is HS wrestling. Girls HS wrestling has been around for a number of years, and women's wrestling was added to the Olympics in 2004. When it started out, most HS's could not field a full girls teams, so it is not uncommon for the girls to practice with the boys. Obviously, coaches need to insure that everyone conducts themselves properly.

Beyond practice, it is not uncommon for girls to actually wrestle boys in competitions, where there are a limited number of girls who compete. This is a Catch-22 if you're a boy wrestling a girl. You're expected to beat her and if you lose, you're marked for life as the guy who lost to a girl.

Years ago, my son wrestled, and while he never had to wrestle a girl, one of his teammates did. I remember that his teammate was pretty upset before the match, expressing his concern about wrestling a girl to his mother. His mother's advice to him was, "Kick her ass!"

You can always count on your mom to say the right thing.....

oldude- - - In my 32 years of coaching Wrestling, the last 29 at East Lyme HS, I had at the end several years where 1 or 2 girls that wanted to join the Wrestling team.
Personally, I was and am now against girls wrestling boys! I see nothing wrong with a girls team wrestling another girls team but in CT there was never enough girls at 1 school to field a team. I believe that a boy can't win when wrestling a girl! As you mention above. If he bloody's her up and destroys her, his class-mates will razz him how he beat up a girl and if he ever was to lose to a girl those class-mates would razz him unmercifully! I worried about what was a wrestling move or copping a feel?
I don't have any hesitations in a girl that loves wrestling and wants to wrestle in college in a girl's program but a lot of time it was as an attention grabber!
I usually left it up to the wrestler and his parents if they were ok with him wrestling a girl on JV & Varsity.
Two stories of a girl in boys wrestling. The 1st girl in CT was Rhonda L., she was a sophomore at Fitch HS in Groton and her 2 brothers had wrestled previously and she wound up on GMA in NY and had an article on her in the NY TIMES! She was 16 and beautiful and a Playboy Magazine body beyond her years and she knew she was beautiful!
In one of her 1st matches she wrestled in a tournament in RI and her 1st match of the day was vs a senior, the returning RI State Champ at 98 lbs. He took her down in the 1st 5 seconds and pulled one arm through the crotch, what is called a ball and chain, an proceeded to pull the arm back and forth till Rhonda started to groan and then turned her over and pinned her! After having his arm raised he asked her out on a date!
The 2nd tale was 3 weeks later my team was scheduled to wrestle Windham HS at Fitch HS in a tri-meet. Rhonda was supposed to weight-in with the school nurse earlier in the day and have paperwork proving her weight. When we gathered the guys together to weight-in the coaches were told that Rhonda couldn't weight-in with the nurse and would weight-in alone with the coaches after the boys were done. After the boys left, Rhonda came in wearing sweats and we set the scale at 98lbs. and she started to take off her sweatshirt slowly and was wearing the smallest bikini top you can find and held the top out looking at the 6 adult male coaches in front of her then dropped it then took off her sweat pants slowly and held them out looking at each of the 6 male coaches then dropped them them stepping onto the scale where she made the 98 lb. weight class! After she left the 4 coaches at Windham and EL HS's admonished the Fitch coach for allowing that scene to occur! Both Windham and EL forfeited to her so she didn't wrestle that night.
We've seen some talented, serious girls and some Rhonda types over the years.
There are certain sports where the 2 sexes shouldn't meet in practice or competition!

 

[oldude]

oldude- - - In my 32 years of coaching Wrestling, the last 29 at East Lyme HS, I had at the end several years where 1 or 2 girls that wanted to join the Wrestling team.
Personally, I was and am now against girls wrestling boys! I see nothing wrong with a girls team wrestling another girls team but in CT there was never enough girls at 1 school to field a team. I believe that a boy can't win when wrestling a girl! As you mention above. If he bloody's her up and destroys her, his class-mates will razz him how he beat up a girl and if he ever was to lose to a girl those class-mates would razz him unmercifully! I worried about what was a wrestling move or copping a feel?
I don't have any hesitations in a girl that loves wrestling and wants to wrestle in college in a girl's program but a lot of time it was as an attention grabber!
I usually left it up to the wrestler and his parents if they were ok with him wrestling a girl on JV & Varsity.
Two stories of a girl in boys wrestling. The 1st girl in CT was Rhonda L., she was a sophomore at Fitch HS in Groton and her 2 brothers had wrestled previously and she wound up on GMA in NY and had an article on her in the NY TIMES! She was 16 and beautiful and a Playboy Magazine body beyond her years and she knew she was beautiful!
In one of her 1st matches she wrestled in a tournament in RI and her 1st match of the day was vs a senior, the returning RI State Champ at 98 lbs. He took her down in the 1st 5 seconds and pulled one arm through the crotch, what is called a ball and chain, an proceeded to pull the arm back and forth till Rhonda started to groan and then turned her over and pinned her! After having his arm raised he asked her out on a date!
The 2nd tale was 3 weeks later my team was scheduled to wrestle Windham HS at Fitch HS in a tri-meet. Rhonda was supposed to weight-in with the school nurse earlier in the day and have paperwork proving her weight. When we gathered the guys together to weight-in the coaches were told that Rhonda couldn't weight-in with the nurse and would weight-in alone with the coaches after the boys were done. After the boys left, Rhonda came in wearing sweats and we set the scale at 98lbs. and she started to take off her sweatshirt slowly and was wearing the smallest bikini top you can find and held the top out looking at the 6 adult male coaches in front of her then dropped it then took off her sweat pants slowly and held them out looking at each of the 6 male coaches then dropped them them stepping onto the scale where she made the 98 lb. weight class! After she left the 4 coaches at Windham and EL HS's admonished the Fitch coach for allowing that scene to occur! Both Windham and EL forfeited to her so she didn't wrestle that night.
We've seen some talented, serious girls and some Rhonda types over the years.
There are certain sports where the 2 sexes shouldn't meet in practice or competition!

I don’t disagree, but Title IX legislation requires equal opportunity for boys and girls athletics. My experience with girls wrestling was in FL. If you can’t field a full girls squad with their own facilities and coaches, the only other option is to let them practice with the boys.

If you have 2 or more girls of relatively the same size and skill level, they can just match up with each other every day in practice. The problem comes when you have one girl that’s far better than any of the other girls on a team, better even than some of the boys. For that girl to get better, she needs to wrestle someone better than herself.

The good news is with women’s wrestling now part of the Olympics, there are more and more all girl teams with their own coaching staffs and facilities popping up around the country.