Basketball Star Age 12 and "Going on LeBron"

Two of my favorite blogs (see here and here) have already posted about Elizabeth Weil's profile in the New York Times of the 12-year-old basketball phenom, Jaime Nared. You may recall Nared from the controversy that erupted last spring after she was excluded from a private boys' league in Oregon because she always beat them (another of my favorite blogs covered that story, here). Today Nared is playing against high school-age girls in an elite private program. But that too is controversial. Those players want to play college ball in the near future. They, and their parents, resent having to share valuable court time with a 12-year-old, even one who's clearly poised to take the basketball world by a storm.

How do we accommodate athletes like Nared? As Weil points out, athletic talent is not the product of biology alone. "According to sports scientists, the most significant predictor of an athlete’s skill is the time spent in practice," the article states. Kinesiologist Jean Côté attributes athletic ability to "about 10,000 hours" of practice. Nared, the article points out, started playing basketball at a very young age -- so young that when she was tossed in with other 9-year-olds, who were just learning the game, it was already clear that she could never fairly compete against girls her age.

Because the unusual talent of Nared and her fellow phenom, 14-year-old, 6-2 Kailee Johnson, is not a simply the product of a statistically aberrant genetics, but training, we will see an increase in the number of phenomenal female athletes as early-age training becomes more popular and accessible to girls. As these athletes challenge the assumption of female inferiority that justifies segregation of athletics based on sex, we will be forced to grapple with a difficult question: What measure of equality will we use as the separate-but-equal framework, a measure of nondiscrimination that has been satisfactory in the wake of Title IX, becomes increasingly obsolete?

More on New Cheerleading Book

Following up on our post last week on the new book, "Cheer!" that follows three college teams vying for cheerleading's national championship, here's an interview by Salon.com with author Kate Torgovnick, where she discusses her views on cheerleading as a competitive sport and the gender stereotypes that are often attached to male and female cheerleaders. The bottom line: Torgovnick sees competitive cheerleading (as distinguished from sideline cheerleading) as akin to any other college sport, and supports its growing legitimacy in athletic circles.

Movie Review: Kick Like a Girl

We received our copy of the new documentary, Kick Like a Girl, last week and popped in the DVD player right away. It was quite good. The star was definitely the daughter of filmmaker Jenny Mackenzie. She was quite precocious and very informed about issues of gender, as were many of the other girls on the team. Though she did admit she had to be convinced that her team, the Mighty Cheetahs, joining the boys' soccer league in Salt Lake City was actually a good idea.
The 24-minute film contains many interviews with members of the Cheetahs, their parents, boys they played against, and I believe one mother of a boy who lost to the Cheetahs. Many of the interviewees recounted stories of parents yelling at their sons "You're losing to girls!"but none of those parents seemed to want to be interviewed.
It was a very positive film. The girls knew exactly what was going on regarding the gender stereotypes they were breaking and most of the boys in the film got it too. There was no explicit message which actually became part of the problem I had with the film.
It did not seem to want to say outright that mixed gender competition is the direction we should be headed in. But by not making some statement about either (or both) the positives and negatives of mixed gender competition the message left open for viewers to take was that these girls are unique. That most girls do not desire the level of competition these girls sought and that most girls are not competitive and not as skilled. Though the movie did a good job debunking the stereotypes that have been placed on these girls--that they can't kick, for example--it fails to address how desire for competition and level of aggression or even the desire to play a sport like soccer are all affected by social norms placed on both girls and boys.
In the end it's a great story about a soccer team that changed some minds about the abilities of (some) girls. It's perfect for showing in classes because it's short, compelling and can inspire some good discussions about youth sports, mixed gender competition, and the ability of sport to alter gender stereotypes.

New documentary on mixed gender competition

A Utah woman who began coaching her daughter's soccer team several year ago has made a movie about her experiences. Kick Like a Girl was done by Jenny Mackenzie who, when her young daughter's team went unbeaten in her first season as coach, sought out teams that would provide a greater challenge: boys' teams. The 24-minute movie highlights the reaction of the girls on the Mighty Cheetahs as well as the boys they played against when the team joined the boys' league. Parents also weighed in on the girls playing boys issue--mixed reactions as you might expect.

You can find out more about the movie, where it is playing (it has been at film festivals across the country), and watch a trailer at this website.

You can also buy your own copy of the DVD for just $19.99 which includes S&H. Once we get our copy we'll do a little review.