I wasn't taught how to throw a ball as a kid, but as an adult I worked in the U.S. for three years and my son went to Little League. I learnt by watching him learn. Now we're back in the UK and he's an adult, we still play catch in the field behind our house in the summer.
You left out a critical cause of throwing like a girl: the elbow carrying angle. In males, it is between 5 and 15 degrees while in females it is usually more than 15 degrees. This difference is present as early as age 5 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24899327/
Another difference is implicit in your summary but deserves to be pointed out: beginning in early adolescence, females have smaller shoulder girdles and less powerful muscles, meaning that with the same-sized projectile, girls and women will naturally gravitate towards a “push” mechanism because the weight is more likely to exceed their strength limit.
Interesting. I didn't think this showed up until puberty skeletall development.
The strength thing, of course, is a factor. The biomechanics of throwing, though, are still useful. I have used them to teach many a female friend to better swing an axe, a hammer, throw a knife, and throw a punch--always making sure the tool is of a weight appropriate to the subject's strength level.
Great article. Thanks
I wasn't taught how to throw a ball as a kid, but as an adult I worked in the U.S. for three years and my son went to Little League. I learnt by watching him learn. Now we're back in the UK and he's an adult, we still play catch in the field behind our house in the summer.
You left out a critical cause of throwing like a girl: the elbow carrying angle. In males, it is between 5 and 15 degrees while in females it is usually more than 15 degrees. This difference is present as early as age 5 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24899327/
Another difference is implicit in your summary but deserves to be pointed out: beginning in early adolescence, females have smaller shoulder girdles and less powerful muscles, meaning that with the same-sized projectile, girls and women will naturally gravitate towards a “push” mechanism because the weight is more likely to exceed their strength limit.
Interesting. I didn't think this showed up until puberty skeletall development.
The strength thing, of course, is a factor. The biomechanics of throwing, though, are still useful. I have used them to teach many a female friend to better swing an axe, a hammer, throw a knife, and throw a punch--always making sure the tool is of a weight appropriate to the subject's strength level.
Some of it is that women's arms hang at a different angle than men's' arms.
That doesn't really show up till puberty, though--and, even so, the biomechanics of throwing are the same.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24899327/
Thanks for the correction!