5 ms·

Side note, but why are water polo and volleyball considered upper-class sports in the USA? I understand regular polo, rowing, etc, because of the cost of equipm

Side note, but why are water polo and volleyball considered upper-class sports in the USA? I understand regular polo, rowing, etc, because of the cost of equipment. But at my school (on the other side of the world), volleyball was for the islanders, and water polo was for the misfits who couldn't make it in a more popular sport. What sports in the USA are for the plebs? Baseball?

edmundsauto 6y ago
Water polo requires a pool, which is expensive. Baseball requires a large field, also expensive. I believe basketball is so popular in part because of the (relatively) low equipment/space cost.
renewiltord 6y ago
Basketball and football are for the plebs. You can usually detect which sports by taking Census race-income measures then comparing them against the visible racial demographic of participants in the sport. This works well as a heuristic because visible racial characteristics are visible and the rich don't usually want to play with the poor.
Rebelgecko 6y ago
>Side note, but why are water polo and volleyball considered upper-class sports in the USA? Beach volleyball is more common in areas close to the beach. Beach and indoor players are also significantly taller than the average person-- in the league that my college was a part of, the shortest woman playing middle blocker was still 185cm. Height and beach access both have correlations to socioeconomic factors. For various reasons, the US has huge racial disparities when it comes to swimming ability. Most African American and Hispanic children don't know how to swim. As others have mentioned, football, basketball and to a lesser extent soccer/baseball tend to be the "pleb" sports. But even within a sport, you'll see class and racial distinctions when you compare different positions. When you look at pros and college, the majority of quarterbacks and centers are white. QBs also tend to come from wealthier families. Meanwhile, wide receivers and running backs are mostly black. The defense is mostly black, and I don't think there's a single non-black cornerback in the NFL (unless you miscount Tre'Davious White)
- DaiPlusPlus 6y ago
  > Most African American and Hispanic children don't know how to swim. Out of curiosity, how common is it for public elementary, middle and high-schools to include swimming lessons in (mandatory) PE class in general? How often do schools without their own swimming pools take their PE class at a nearby public pool?
  - garmaine 6y ago
    Fwiw, I have never heard of this. Swimming wasn’t a part of PE where I grew up.
  - unishark 6y ago
    A club might go elsewhere for a pool or track, but I don't think it's at all common for a plain old PE class to go off campus except perhaps to use a gym if the school lacks one. And I don't think having your own pool is very common for a high school or below.
protomyth 6y ago
Water polo requires a pool which is an expense that doesn't make sense for non-rich schools. Volleyball doesn't have a major professional league nor one of the big college sports in the USA, so its not in the interest of poor students to take part in because they probably could also be playing Basketball which has a very high profile league and is a major college sport.

edmundsauto 6y ago

Water polo requires a pool, which is expensive. Baseball requires a large field, also expensive. I believe basketball is so popular in part because of the (relatively) low equipment/space cost.

renewiltord 6y ago

Basketball and football are for the plebs. You can usually detect which sports by taking Census race-income measures then comparing them against the visible racial demographic of participants in the sport. This works well as a heuristic because visible racial characteristics are visible and the rich don't usually want to play with the poor.

Rebelgecko 6y ago

>Side note, but why are water polo and volleyball considered upper-class sports in the USA? Beach volleyball is more common in areas close to the beach. Beach and indoor players are also significantly taller than the average person-- in the league that my college was a part of, the shortest woman playing middle blocker was still 185cm. Height and beach access both have correlations to socioeconomic factors. For various reasons, the US has huge racial disparities when it comes to swimming ability. Most African American and Hispanic children don't know how to swim. As others have mentioned, football, basketball and to a lesser extent soccer/baseball tend to be the "pleb" sports. But even within a sport, you'll see class and racial distinctions when you compare different positions. When you look at pros and college, the majority of quarterbacks and centers are white. QBs also tend to come from wealthier families. Meanwhile, wide receivers and running backs are mostly black. The defense is mostly black, and I don't think there's a single non-black cornerback in the NFL (unless you miscount Tre'Davious White)

DaiPlusPlus 6y ago
> Most African American and Hispanic children don't know how to swim. Out of curiosity, how common is it for public elementary, middle and high-schools to include swimming lessons in (mandatory) PE class in general? How often do schools without their own swimming pools take their PE class at a nearby public pool?
- garmaine 6y ago
  Fwiw, I have never heard of this. Swimming wasn’t a part of PE where I grew up.
- unishark 6y ago
  A club might go elsewhere for a pool or track, but I don't think it's at all common for a plain old PE class to go off campus except perhaps to use a gym if the school lacks one. And I don't think having your own pool is very common for a high school or below.

protomyth 6y ago

Water polo requires a pool which is an expense that doesn't make sense for non-rich schools. Volleyball doesn't have a major professional league nor one of the big college sports in the USA, so its not in the interest of poor students to take part in because they probably could also be playing Basketball which has a very high profile league and is a major college sport.