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Here is the WBCA Positioning Paper on Male Practice Players.


Below is the position paper written by WBCA Chief Operating Officer Shannon Reynolds and WBCA Committee on Basketball Issues Chair Carolyn Campbell-McGovern in an effort to educate administrators and coaches on the proper and effective use of male practice players in the sport of women’s basketball.

Male Practice Players. Where did it begin? Who was the first male to wander into the gym and post up against a women’s basketball player? The history is undocumented but the benefits are obvious. The use of male practice players in the sport of women’s basketball is common practice and has certainly benefited the growth and betterment of the sport and the female student-athletes who have participated by challenging the females to become bigger, faster and stronger; by providing formidable opposition in practice; and by bringing members of the student body who are not team members closer to the game of women’s basketball.

Recently the use of male practice players has come under scrutiny for the purpose of assuring equitable practice and competitive opportunities for female student-athletes. We believe that while review of this issue is warranted in order to answer these questions and ensure the proper role of males participating in practice with female players, the overwhelming majority of the WBCA membership strongly believes that when used properly, male practice players enhance participation opportunities for women’s basketball student-athletes. We thus offer the following suggestions as “best practices” for the use of male practice players as they apply to basketball, and might be applied to other team sports.

1. SCOUT TEAM PLAYERS

Male practice players should be used primarily as a scout team. The male players are therefore the ones who are responsible for learning the offense and defense of the upcoming opponents to prepare the starting team for competition. This allows the women’s basketball student-athletes to concentrate on learning and executing their own team’s offense and defense at practice. It is to the team’s advantage to make sure the non-starters get experience, and to make sure that the starters are not over-used and have time to rest. The non-starters therefore also should be provided with ample opportunity to practice against the male practice players on the scout team.

2. BIGGER, STRONGER, FASTER

Because males are often bigger, stronger and faster than female players, women student-athletes should practice skills against them in order to improve their skills. Drills should be constructed so that the men are used to challenge the women student-athletes, but not in such a way that results in female student-athletes waiting longer between participation opportunities. For example, in a shooting drill taller male practice players might stand in front of the shooter as the defender, requiring her to learn how to alter her shot. This results in improved skill development opportunities for the women student-athletes, as well as allowing all of the women student-athletes to participate in shooting drills as active shooters, not as static defenders.

3. SAFETY FIRST

The strength of male players’ physical abilities can also be a detriment when used incorrectly. It is important that male practice players use their strength and speed only to the extent warranted in order to avoid injuries to themselves and to the women student-athletes. Because of males’ strength and speed, they can often perform the skill faster at less than full speed than the women student-athletes can at full speed. The males thus are better able to maintain control of the level of contact making it safer for the women student-athletes to practice at top speed. In addition, there is often a wide disparity in the skill and strength levels among the women within the team, so that organizing certain drills such that the bigger players work with the men and the smaller players work with each other makes it a safer environment for the smaller players. The women’s basketball community also supports guidelines to ensure that male practice players are afforded safety precautions and opportunities for treatment of injuries.

4. TEAM BUILDING

The participation of male practice players should be competitive and challenging but the intrinsic value should be a boost in team morale and confidence. Using male practice players eliminates teammates competing against each other day in and day out, typically the same person who is also competing for the same position, and allows the team as a whole to compete against the males. In a nurtured environment, this competition promotes good team harmony and better chemistry, resulting in a positive experience for all participants.

On behalf of the overwhelmingly majority of the WBCA membership we ask the members of all NCAA athletic departments and NCAA committees, at all NCAA divisions, to evaluate the use of male practice players based on the premise that while there may be some coaches who need to be educated on the most appropriate and effective ways to use male practice players, all coaches have as their primary concern the women student-athletes’ interests and development as players.

We appreciate your support for the continued appropriate use of male practice players in women’s basketball. We ask that you allow coaches to continue to conduct their practices in a manner that is best suited for their team, and hold them accountable for ensuring that male practice players are used to enhance opportunities for women student-athletes. The WBCA also supports the surveying of student-athletes’ position on this subject matter and encourages committees to evaluate the results on a sport specific basis.
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[GlennMacGrady]

Rubbertroll and Accommodatingly are unflappably on point: This is merely a partisan recommendation of one of the NCAA's innumerable bureaucratic committees--and just a policy committee, at that.

To become NCAA "law", the recommendation would have to be embodied in proposed legislation, pass through other committees, get voted on by all the appropriate committees and members, and pass the vote.

That will never happen. Virtually all D1 coaches who have been quoted in googleable news articles (with the unsourced exception of Jim Foster, in the
2/23/05 Womenshoopsblog) are strongly in favor of male practice players. Here is a preemptive salvo fired by Doug Bruno a few weeks ago in anticipation of the committee's recommendation:

http://www.nhregister.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17385729&BRD=1281&PAG=461&dept_id=576789&rfi=6&xb=penis

I personally have some sympathy for the "participation is more important than competitive success" philosophy of the committee, but not so much because of gender equity concerns. I just have an anachronistic apathy towards “winning is the only thing” in college sports, a strong antipathy towards the influence of money in WCBB and all college sports, and empathy for student participation as a primary educational goal of college athletics.

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[eyevolley4]

Perhaps since I am a male practice player, I am biased, well of course I am, but I would love to see a survey of the girls I played with, especially the subs, and find out what their opinion is on what impact I had on the team.

I can tell you that the subs loved having me on the court with them because I created a more competitive team on the "sub" side. My ability to imitate various players and show a diversified array of skills helped the "starting side" understand what they would be facing.

Two years ago, because of inuries, the girls could not scrimmage unless I was there due to numbers. I doubt anyone would have been too thrilled about that - starters, backups, or coaches. This wasn't due to lack of recruiting, but lack of physically capable players.

I don't know, there is really so much I could say on this topic I don't really know where to begin or end. Essentially, if this passes, I know that many programs would suffer in multiple sports.

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[GlennMacGrady]

Re D3, the recommendation may be embodied in proposed legislation. But in my experience, the vast majority of legislative proposals in all governmental organizations wither, die, or get pruned or compromised away. Plus, who knows the strength of the opposition in D3. Maybe they, like me, are not so Lombardi-centric.

Surely many operational committees would have to approve such a sweeping proposal ... it applies to all women's sports ... and it may have to be voted on in the end by the member schools. Most business and governmental organizations require direct voting on important matters. I just envision a huge majority of opposition by the coaches and AD's of D1 schools.

I'm not sure anyone has commented on what I think the silliest argument of the committee is. As evidence that women's teams don't need male practice players to improve, they cite the fact that men's teams don't use male practice players other than the males already on the team. They blink not only at logic, but at evolutionary biology. Of course, that's nothing new.