22/07/2025
"They'd lose to a bunch of school boys"
The Lionesses take on Italy in the semi-final of the UEFA European Women's Championship this evening.
And I'm pretty confident that, whatever happens in the match, if I go on social media afterwards they'll be people (largely middle-aged men) making derogatory comments about women's football and drawing parallels to the men's game.
Saying stuff like the title to this blog - "They'd lose to a bunch of school boys".
Now that is slightly misleading as the examples that people quote of women's teams losing are against professional football clubs youth development squads not, for example, Macc Academy's Year 10 team.
But that's a different point to the one I'm going to make here.
It's about a reframe in making comparisons that I came up with the other day whilst talking to my niece.
She was saying that the men's and women's games are "completely different games".
I couldn't fully buy into that as they are, of course, the same game played by different groups of people.
Instead I came up with a comparison you could make to Boxers or MMA fighters.
I think most people would agree that, says, Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao are two of the greatest boxers of all time.
But, what would happen if you put prime Manny Pacquiao in a boxing match against prime Hafþór Björnsson (strongman, The Mountain in Game Of Thrones and occasional celebrity boxer)?
While I'm sure some boxing purists would argue the point, Thor's 16 inch height, 13 inch reach, 20 stone weight and exponential strength advantage would surely see him win?
Great as Pacquiao is / was I don't think he could even reach Thor's head.
Does this mean Thor is a better boxer than Manny Pacquiao?
I mean, he would probably win in a boxing match..........
You could ask the same question of all time great MMA fighter Conor McGregor and, say, Mariusz Pudzianowski or Bob Sapp.
Extreme examples, sure.
But I think quite a good way to help us reframe the pointlessness of comparing athletes in different categories and pointing out that you might expect one to win if they were pitted against each other.
And there are plenty of other pointless comparisons that we could reframe in other areas.
"I used to be able to eat what I wanted and not gain weight"
Like expecting your 2001 Nokia to still hold battery for a week in 2025.
Things change.
We just need to find the right approach for us for now (cough *** comment below or send me a DM to find out more *** cough)
"I think I'll be the weakest / slowest / largest one there"
We all just need to do what's right for us to help improve our strength / speed / weight (or whatever else is relevant to us).
"My friend can eat whatever they want and not gain weight, I only need to look at a biscuit"
We probably only see 10%, at most, of what our friend is eating and we all have out own energy requirements and anyone else's is irrelevant to us.
"That person is losing weight / getting fitter much faster than me"
Like thinking a book isn't worth reading because someone else is getting through it quicker - slower forward progress still adds up over time.
"I've heard ABC workout burns XYZ more calories"
It's probably not true (many FitPros massively and magically exaggerate the calorie burning benefit of their workouts) but, either way, exercise isn't all that great at calorie burning at the best of time.
Find a form or exercise you're happy to do that progresses / helps with things like energy levels, fitness, stamina, mood, mental health, strength, endurance, aches and pains, general health, longevity, etc...........
And make some tactical changes to your eating to much more easily create a calorie deficit.
I'm sure there's more.
But it's worth remembering that some comparisons don't benefit anyone.
Let's all just 'play our own game'.
Much love,
Jon 'Myong-hwa' Hall
