*INJURIES*

[Bobcat1]

What team out there has no one hurt right now...Seemed this weeks tournaments hurt a lot of players...What's the deal?

[Guest HFGirlsSportsFan]

Could it be inconsistent officiating, lack of player skill/conditioning and coaching strategies that encourage rough play?  We were lucky at the Kelly Tournament this weekend.  In every game we had one out of the two officials being good at what they were there for.  How can a player understand where they cross the line when on one end they get hammered with no foul called and then get called for a hand check next trip down the court.  The defensive skill level of the players in the games I have seen is in general bad leading to a lot of rough fouls and injuries.  Are the girls putting in the time in the weight room to get conditioned for this sport?  And finally, coaches are not correcting rough play (if not directly encouraging it).  No wonder more are not hurt.

[hjhawks]

The girls game has been like this for a while....  I think it boils down to several things....

1st... body control.  Most girls cannot control their bodies while in motion to avoid contact.. due to lack of core muscles... this leads to alot of collisions..

2nd... girls are mean... watch a jump ball... there has not been a girl who will concede that it is just a "jump ball"  they will fight tooth and nail to rip the ball away from the other girl rather than settle for a jump ball. This leads to girls laying on the floor.

3rd... officials... normally... not always... girls tend to get less experienced officials.. especially at the lower levels.  An official will miss a call, then let one go to "make up" for it.  This always seems to lead to some pretty rough games.

To me, these are what cause the roughness... especially #1...

[Guest bleed orange]

I have been saying this for years. The game of basketball has changed and not for the good.  Way too rough. Why play defense anymore and most teams don't. It is really sad and I don't see it getting better, like society. :'(  Hawk you are correct about #2. How is the family doing?

[luvdgame07]

Yea, girls play is very rough! Girls seem to take things way to personal. I agree that teaching players to play proper is very important. Officiating leads to a lot of the rough play, girls want calls and when they don't get the calls and the opposing team gets the calls there are going to be problems in the girls games. Most of the times I saw some games this past week that pads needed to be worn. I also believe that most of the times, we are seeing a lot of teams playing with girls who are not ready for the varsity level both mentally and physically. It is the coaches responsibility to teach the team proper defensive skills, how to play man, and how to play the game and a not to tackle nor play out of control. I believe that if a team is trained in such a way to hurt other player and play outside of the established rules of the game, then the coach needs to step aside.