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RE: Girls playing in boys teams

marc futsal lanzarote — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 12:37:44 GMT

Hi to all. I have quite a bit of experience in coaching girls (we have over a 100 girls playing in our futsal club, from ages 6 to 19 and 100+ boys), we have recently formed an open age ladies 7´s team and my daughter has just completed a year playing with a boys under 14 team. Girls football has advanced so much in the last 10/15 years, the key is to get them involved at an early age. There really is no difference in the level of skill anymore, IF they start at the same time as boys. We have a lot of girls aged around 14 that are equal if not better than a lot of the boys. ( I played football at county level and they have more skill than I did at the same age) My daughter, Chaz, is a good futsal player. She was the 1st, girl or boy, from this island (lanzarote) to be chosen to play in the spanish futsal national championships, so she can play a bit. I wanted her to start playing 11 a side as well cos if she wants to take her football further then 11 a side is the place to be.
Last year she joined the local boys team, she was the only non spanish player and the 1st girl ever in the club. She was a bit scared at 1st ! The coach was great. he let basically get on with it. after the novelty had worn off, most of her new team mates were fine as kids here play most sports together anyway. some of those who didn´t know her were sexist (which is the main hurdle to overcome) and had the mentality that " girls can´t play football". you do not need to mollycoddle girls, for them to succeed playing with boys they have to be mentally tougher and prove that they are equal. Girls will usually pay more attention in training and try harder to learn new things. we all know what boys are like, they all think they know it all and that no matter how bad they are, think they are going to be the next ronaldo. In my experience this is the main difference between boys and girls - self confidence/self belief. the worst male player in a team BELIEVES he is the next Beckham. Girls on the other hand do need their self confidence bolstering. from the coach, the parent etc. they NEED to be told that they can play a bit.
It takes a great deal of guts for a girl to join and play in a boys team. there is the sexism of the other players and often some of the officials of the club, BUT the hardest part for them is playing in matches - spectators. Can you imagine the courage it takes to play when there are yobs (often adults) on the touch line laughing, yelling "show us your bits" - and much worse and the "lets swap shirts at the end". Chaz is 5'4 and weighs 8 stone so she is no giant. In her 1st and unfortunately last year playing with the boys (due to her age) -she played every match, the team came second in the league out of 14 teams and she was voted " player of the year". next year 3 girls have already signed up to play with the boys. It can be done.

RE: Girls playing in boys teams

soccerj1971 — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 20:51:36 GMT

We just recently moved up in age group, and my sons team will consist of 6 to 8 girls. It has yet to be determined if I will be an assistant coach or not, and I am curious to find how talented the girls are, and if the boys will be hesitant against them or not. Any advice, as to how to coach a truely mixed team would be greatly appreciated. The coach, my best friend, was contemplating backing out of his trust fall technique, since it would be a mixed team. I encouraged to go with the technique, seeing as how the boys will be holding each others arms, and the girls would have their arms across their chest. He would not have to worry about boys grabbing the girls inappropriately.

RE: Girls playing in boys teams

soccerj1971 — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 20:42:37 GMT

I agree sometimes the girls are the best players. I also agree that girls get greater competition, at times, against boys, rather than playing all girls. As a U-10 coach of a mixed team, the girls coach would ask me to scrimmage his girls. My boys would at times be hesitant, but the girls were not hesitant. The next sign up session, I spoke with this coach, and he informed me his girls went undefeated during their season. He said it was due to them scrimmaging the boys, and then playing against the lesser aggresive girls.

I would also like to state, that at this same time period, my son was practicing with a high school girls varsity soccer team. They too were a little hesitant at first against him. Then once they got beat a few times, they were no longer hesitant against him. I feel this experience helped him further his game as well. So is it that the players are boys/girls or is it that the competition is greater, no matter what the gender.

RE: Girls playing in boys teams

phillymc — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 18:39:39 GMT

I have been involved coaching mixed groups for about the last 3 years and have found that the girls who really want to play football are invariably the best trainers. For me , they want to learn more than the boysand are more responsive. There are always a few girls that go because their footy mad girlfriends have dragged them along but they soon start to really enjoy themselves. So long as sessions are fun and there's plenty of encouragment there's no reason why they'll give up. This year I've managed to keep 4 , 6 year old girls for the full season which I'm really pleased with, as thats the age for me that gets bored easily and is often pushed into giving football a try by their parents.

With regards to using girls as a surprise danger weapon , I think the skillful, quick girls always take the boys by surprise. I took a team of under 13s to play a Spanish side (I coach expats in Spain) who had a tiny little waif of a girl playing centre midfield. I'm no Arsene Wenger but as soon as she took her first couple of passes and started spraying it about you could see how good she was. I mentioned this to our subs who laughed and said she's only a little girl at which point, bang on queue, she pinged it into the top corner. At least I looked like I knew what I was talking about a we went 1 nil down!! Surprise danger weapons? Without a doubt....

RE: Girls playing in boys teams

emmaslam63 — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 11:36:35 GMT

I think it is quite alright to coach the girls the same way as the boys, that is, if you want the same results you get from the boys. Yet to try it though.

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RE: Girls playing in boys teams

SargeHB — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 08:39:13 GMT

Hi, I have been coaching junior teams for the last few years and have had a number of girls in mixed teams that comprise mainly boys. As others have mentioned the girls are often quite skilled and there have been no issues until about the 11yr age group where some of the boys are hesitant to pass to the girls, unfortunately they are often the more highly skilled boys. I am now coaching a year 12/13 age group and similar things are happening a little but I think the better girls are getting a higher level of competition than the girls playing in a solely girls league.

RE: Girls playing in boys teams

Marcus — Thu, 31 May 2007 13:57:11 GMT

In my under 8's team i have a girl in the team, when she joined i asked the boys to be nice to her, that was the only different thing i did in coaching her, they all play football together, so there all equal, i don't think it would help to treat anyone differently. she is one of the best players on the team, each game she has been getting more and more confident playing against boys. was quite amusing when i got a couple of new boys and they got iffy because there was a girl on the team, when she had nut megged them a couple of times they got used to her playing, personally i wish the genders didn't get segregated at under 11's as she is a quality player who will improve as she gets older but i can understand why the rule is there.

RE: Girls playing in boys teams

Dwyer — Thu, 31 May 2007 13:43:11 GMT

Dave

I can't help you with advice. However, there have have been a couple of girls in our under 6s every year for the last 5-6 years and each year when the group moves up to under 7s all the girls have dropped out. This year there is a little girl who is easily the best tackler in the team but no doubt she will drop out next season. No idea why.

Girls playing in boys teams

David Clarke — Thu, 31 May 2007 11:57:58 GMT

I'd be interested to know how many of you are coaching girls playing in a boys team.

Never having experienced coaching it myself my teams have played against a number of boys teams that have had a girl playing, usually one of the best players on the team. My boys have been kind of easy on the girls at first until they realise how good they are. If youth football is to develop for girls would it be better to have girls in boys teams right up to senior level or as it is now in the UK where Under 11 and above have to have separate boys and girls teams.

Is there a secret to coaching boys teams with a girl? Do any of you have special tactics to use her in surprise roles?