These days you would probably get in trouble or cancelled on Twitter for even suggesting that something like this would be at all embarrassing because of the PC nature of the internet police but back in the day when I was a teenager, one of the worst things that could happen to you in a sport would be to get beaten by a girl in almost any sport.
I'm not trying to make some sort of argument about the battle of the sexes here but instead just pointing out a piece of my own history and how at that time, in the late 80's and early 90's it was perfectly acceptable to be a bit ashamed by this. I think it would still be today as well but people just aren't allowed to talk about it.
I don't know who those people are in the pic, it's just a photo. Digital cameras didn't exist at the time and neither did mobile phones. I certainly wouldn't have wanted any photo evidence of this event that took place regularly.
I was about 13 years old and was still growing but this didn't change the fact that I was probably 6-8 inches taller than this girl in question. I was also related to her as she was (and still is) my older sister.
We would laugh about it when the competitions would happen but I was actually getting very frustrated by inability to shut down her offense and how she was able to shut mine down even though I was substantially taller than she was.
This was actually good for both of us, especially her. Basketball was her sport of choice and she spent almost all of her time honing her skills at it. While I was playing videogames she was out doing dribbling drills in the driveway. I would receive board games or some sort of Nintendo something or other for Xmas and she would get a new pair of Nikes or admission to a rather elite training camp.
There was one time in high school that my family moved to a new part of the country. Me and my siblings were put into the regular closest school to our house, my older sister traveled quite some distance every day in order to attend a private school that had a wonderful women's basketball program.
My sister would defeat me at 1-on-1 simply because she had practiced a LOT and one of the main things that she would practice is how to get shots around and over people taller than her. She is around 5 foot 3 so the deck was seriously stacked against her in a sport where being tall is one of the main factors in how someone is going to do.
She was extremely fast, could dribble without losing the ball in nearly any situation, and did these head fakes that would get people up in the air and then simply slowly dribble around you for an easy layup.
I think part of the reason why she was able to defeat so many people taller than her and even some of the boys/men is because taller people really want to swat a shot out of the air even though, until you get to the pros, this isn't actually a very big part of the game. A better defense is to set up a perimeter and keep constant close pressure on whoever you are guarding without letting them past you. Being fast and also being able to keep the ball away from you, was something that my sister needed to be very good at just to have a chance at excellence.
While it really bothered me at the time, basketball was not my main sport. Had we been playing almost anything else I would have destroyed her and even though there was a sibling rivalry at the time, I think we did one another a lot of good with this practice in the driveway.
She needed to practice against people taller than her and I kind of needed some coaxing to realize that I maybe should give up on playing basketball competitively. I would later do so the following year at the urging of the coaches of the football (soccer) and American football teams as well as the basketball coach. I had spread myself too thin and they thought it would be best if I focused on sports that I was more "built" for.
Later on my sister would end up getting multiple offers from Division-1 colleges to go and play basketball and attend university for free. She would then graduate and go on to play professional basketball in 4 different countries and even had a brief stint with the Phoenix Mercury WNBA team. She was already kind of old and injury prone at that point so she didn't seem much playtime with the Mercury and was cut after just 1 season.
There was a funny little incident where Russia tried to get her citizenship so she could play for their Olympic team. That didn't pan out and I am pretty glad that it didn't.
But here i am now and this memory of mine is more than 30 years old but I can still feel the heat of the asphalt drive, I can still see the net and hoop and hear and see my sister's head fakes that worked on me over and over and over and over.
I like to believe that I did her some good because even though I was only 13 and not really the best bball player, I was much larger and stronger than most of the other girls that she was going to be playing against on her high school team.
I also now realize that she wasn't nearly as supportive of me in my soccer dominance during that time. How selfish of her! Just kidding of course. We both did really well because we were dedicated. I regret nothing.
