Why are women not rated 1000+ rated?

[mcrow24]

Serena is the Barry Bonds of women's tennis.

In more than one way probably.:thmbdown:

 

[Lewis]

Serena is gifted physically, however, she doesn't stand a chance against any man in the top 100 and probably not even 200

No, she isn't going to beat any of the top men but she is a clear cut above physically compared to the other women.

To this point I don't see any woman that is physically that much more gifted than the rest.

If you're using Serena Williams as the analogous example, and put her out of the top 200 if she competed against men, maybe around 300th in the world if you include both sexes, I think that's a fair assessment, and Serena would probably agree. To continue the analogy, I count only about 75 PDGA members who are rated over 1000. Is it at all reasonable to expect that there would be a female disc golfer in the top 100 of a sport that has a much smaller fraction of female athletes competing than men, compared to tennis?

I'd also like to make the point that women compete much better in certain sports versus men than in others, and tennis is one of the sports where women compete the best. There are plenty of women on the pro tennis tour that can whip your average D1 college varsity male tennis player, but I'd bet an average D1 college male basketball team would have no trouble beating the WNBA champs, because basketball is a sport where women don't match up as well in relevant physical talent. You could spend a career of research figuring out what factors make the competitive difference between the genders greater or smaller in different sports, but in almost any athletic competition, the very top men are going to do better than the very top women, and to expect otherwise in disc golf isn't reasonable.

 

[reposado]

If you're using Serena Williams as the analogous example, and put her out of the top 200 if she competed against men, maybe around 300th in the world if you include both sexes, I think that's a fair assessment, and Serena would probably agree. To continue the analogy, I count only about 75 PDGA members who are rated over 1000. Is it at all reasonable to expect that there would be a female disc golfer in the top 100 of a sport that has a much smaller fraction of female athletes competing than men, compared to tennis?

I'd also like to make the point that women compete much better in certain sports versus men than in others, and tennis is one of the sports where women compete the best. There are plenty of women on the pro tennis tour that can whip your average D1 college varsity male tennis player, but I'd bet an average D1 college male basketball team would have no trouble beating the WNBA champs, because basketball is a sport where women don't match up as well in relevant physical talent. You could spend a career of research figuring out what factors make the competitive difference between the genders greater or smaller in different sports, but in almost any athletic competition, the very top men are going to do better than the very top women, and to expect otherwise in disc golf isn't reasonable.

i'm not sure that women compare more favorably to men in tennis than in other sports. part of the reason that women's tennis is comparatively popular to other women's sports is because women hit the ball so much slower than men that it leads to games that are more easily followed and feature far fewer aces, which are boring from a spectator viewpoint. it just so happens that in tennis, a slightly lesser physical strength combined with maximized skill make for a better viewing experience.

thus the popularity of women's tennis and the encouragement of our best female athletes into tennis. counterintuitively, the massive gap between tennis ability between men and women has caused the popularity of women's tennis and thus the shrinking of that gap

 

[mcrow24]

If you're using Serena Williams as the analogous example, and put her out of the top 200 if she competed against men, maybe around 300th in the world if you include both sexes, I think that's a fair assessment, and Serena would probably agree. To continue the analogy, I count only about 75 PDGA members who are rated over 1000. Is it at all reasonable to expect that there would be a female disc golfer in the top 100 of a sport that has a much smaller fraction of female athletes competing than men, compared to tennis?

I'd also like to make the point that women compete much better in certain sports versus men than in others, and tennis is one of the sports where women compete the best. There are plenty of women on the pro tennis tour that can whip your average D1 college varsity male tennis player, but I'd bet an average D1 college male basketball team would have no trouble beating the WNBA champs, because basketball is a sport where women don't match up as well in relevant physical talent. You could spend a career of research figuring out what factors make the competitive difference between the genders greater or smaller in different sports, but in almost any athletic competition, the very top men are going to do better than the very top women, and to expect otherwise in disc golf isn't reasonable.

I'm not using Serena as a means to compare men and women but women vs women. Serena is exceptionally gifted for a female from a physical POV. She is easily the most athletic and powerful woman in tennis. My point is that we don't have that yet in DG. We certainly have several very skilled women, some more physically gifted than others but nobody who is a clear cut above the rest.

 

[@iDiscGolf]

I dunno. Jennifer Allen could definitely kick most of the guys asses in disc golf.

Like in a fight I mean.

 

[BlazedOrangeHat]

If you're using Serena Williams as the analogous example, and put her out of the top 200 if she competed against men, maybe around 300th in the world if you include both sexes, I think that's a fair assessment, and Serena would probably agree. To continue the analogy, I count only about 75 PDGA members who are rated over 1000. Is it at all reasonable to expect that there would be a female disc golfer in the top 100 of a sport that has a much smaller fraction of female athletes competing than men, compared to tennis?

There were 137 active members that finished the 2015 season with a rating of 1000 or higher. There were 288 that finished 990 or higher. There were 594 that finished 980 or higher.

 

[mcrow24]

I dunno. Jennifer Allen could definitely kick most of the guys asses in disc golf.

Like in a fight I mean.

No doubt about that.

The best male player that is regular locally is rated 940ish.

So the top 4-5 women are better than him and another 10 or so could hang with him. So, yeah, these pro ladies could show up to most local leagues and either win or be right there near the top.