Ben Shapiro solves the gender pay gap

[HTRN]

I think one of the big issues with Soccer vs Baseball, Football, Basketball and Hockey is that They were invented here, and Soccer.. wasn't. America has had a long history of suspicion of anything "foreign", especially when it's competing with distinctly american sports...

[blackeagle603]

...Once kids get bigger the find out they are better at other sports and take on those. Most don't stay with soccer.

IMHO, many of those move on to other sports because metric football is just plain _hard_work. Unrelenting. No whistle to reset every few seconds of play. No back and forth to a dug out. No catching a breath while waiting for a shot from the foul line or the ball to be brought back in bounds after a shot.

It's hard physical work, both in intensity and duration. And it demands non stop headwork, unrelenting movement and playing off of others movement, The sum of it's duration and intensity is why it's been said to be only 2nd in total physical demand to traditional motocross.

It is demanding both in body and mind. As we say in Naval Air, there's no slack in fast attack.
Nor is there any slack in soccer as you progress from hive ball to playing the actual beautiful game.

[Vonz90]

...Once kids get bigger the find out they are better at other sports and take on those. Most don't stay with soccer.

IMHO, many of those move on to other sports because metric football is just plain _hard_work. Unrelenting. No whistle to reset every few seconds of play. No back and forth to a dug out. No catching a breath while waiting for a shot from the foul line or the ball to be brought back in bounds after a shot.

It's hard physical work, both in intensity and duration. And it demands non stop headwork, unrelenting movement and playing off of others movement, The sum of it's duration and intensity is why it's been said to be only 2nd in total physical demand to traditional motocross.

It is demanding both in body and mind. As we say in Naval Air, there's no slack in fast attack.
Nor is there any slack in soccer as you progress from hive ball to playing the actual beautiful game.

Relative to my sons, they both switched out of soccer when the choice came to that or American football in HS since you cannot do both. Neither of them had a great soccer build anyway (one very fast and the other reasonably fast but both really too big). Had they been able to do both they probably would have.

I know a lot of the more serious players just play on club teams and whatnot, and I did that some but my parents did not have the funds to support it. So I imagine the economics go into it a bit.

The body type is a real question too, by the time some of the kids grow up enough to know where things are going it is to late to change tracks. They want the kids to pick one sport so early these days, I don't think it serves most of them well.

[blackeagle603]

High school football coach came hard after my son and his club soccer mates. They were seen as a hot ticket for football coaches to put into the secondary or as wide outs. Son&Heir tried it and bailed on it and spent more time surfing -- too slow a game for his metric football sensibilities.

[Langenator]

IMHO, many of those move on to other sports because metric football is just plain _hard_work. Unrelenting. No whistle to reset every few seconds of play. No back and forth to a dug out. No catching a breath while waiting for a shot from the foul line or the ball to be brought back in bounds after a shot.

It's hard physical work, both in intensity and duration. And it demands non stop headwork, unrelenting movement and playing off of others movement, The sum of it's duration and intensity is why it's been said to be only 2nd in total physical demand to traditional motocross.

It is demanding both in body and mind. As we say in Naval Air, there's no slack in fast attack.
Nor is there any slack in soccer as you progress from hive ball to playing the actual beautiful game.

Relative to my sons, they both switched out of soccer when the choice came to that or American football in HS since you cannot do both. Neither of them had a great soccer build anyway (one very fast and the other reasonably fast but both really too big). Had they been able to do both they probably would have.

I know a lot of the more serious players just play on club teams and whatnot, and I did that some but my parents did not have the funds to support it. So I imagine the economics go into it a bit.

The body type is a real question too, by the time some of the kids grow up enough to know where things are going it is to late to change tracks. They want the kids to pick one sport so early these days, I don't think it serves most of them well.

In some states, you can do both. The league that my HS growing up in CA played in, football was a fall sport and soccer a winter one. Our P/PK was the starting goalie, and our star striker (also on the junior national soccer team) was convinced to play WR senior year. (Dude was silly quick, not that it mattered hugely, since we ran the wishbone.)

I'll agree with you in believing that sports specialization isn't a good thing for the majority of kids. We had three kids from my HS get athletic scholarships. The only one that was a 'specialist' was a swimmer.

[BDK]

A&M has the equestrian program, in large part (at least for polo), because there are some large donors who bankroll it, and they dominate it in a way Alabama wishes it could dominate football.

Soccer is also unsuited to the typical "American" physique, and mindset. I am surprised lacrosse doesn't have more penetration - it offers a sport for the same build as soccer, but with an opportunity for violence, and a low injury rate... Bit of a high death rate, but that might have changed.

[Vonz90]

Soccer is also unsuited to the typical "American" physique, and mindset.

I am not sure I agree with this because body type is less important in soccer than most sports (certainly football and basketball). The primary premium is on speed and endurance so you don't see many 300 pounds guys but height is not really a problem.

It is the mix of sprint speed and endurance that is the biggest divider between the top guys and those below. This is especially true for midfielders but the top teams expect forwards to get back and help on D too and backs to press forward. It wears you down and the pure sprinters run out of steam too quickly, but if you don't have the speed anyway you will not be able to keep up, no breaks and nowhere to hide.

As someone mentioned similarly, I've talked to football guys who like to look for soccer guys for WR and DB since they tend to have the speed and footwork. I guess if they don't have hands make them DBs.

[randy]

We had an exchange student from Brazil in High School (late 70's). Soccer was not a thing in our corner of the mid-West at that time, at any level.

Gym teacher had us do a few periods of soccer. He put all the jocks (i.e. the guys on the foot ball team) on one team and put Edmar on the team with us non-jocks. I found it hilarious, the jocks were mortified, everyone was educated.

We basically kept out of Edmar's way. He'd let the jocks have the ball and even let them kick for score, at which time he'd intercept and take the ball back to the other goal (being ever so casual about it and obviously not exerting himself), score, and then let the Jocks have the ball again. Repeat until the end of the gym period.

The jocks offered him a spot as place kicker on the football team. Never missed a shot. He also refused to be out on the field when those "brutes" were out there trying to grind each other under. "Not dignified".