Netball club to introduce men

[Startingover2019]

A netball club would like adult men to join in with the training sessions with girls and women age 14+. A good or bad idea?

If they are playing in a mixed team they have no real reason to move.

You are a single sex team, and training, does your team have any desire to join a mixed league?

25-40 year olds playing with 14 years olds seriously no, just about old enough to be the parent of the young girls.

It's asking for trouble to allow it.
I can't think of a genuine reason for men, grown men, to want to play in a team or even train with a team of wee girls.

You might think nothing untoward can happen, surrounded by adult females but How do you stop them getting a 'thrill' seeing young girls in short skirts?

How do you stop them getting girls numbers, and grooming?

It's happened far too many times that men have been getting kicks out of coaching girls sports.

My friend had a pervy PE teacher in school. Recently he was convicted of assault in another school.

At the absolute least I'd ask them to have a PVG check before allowing it. The same as you would if they wanted to coach.

My main concern would be the risk of injury. Having played netball in a mixed team, there are men who just can’t help themselves from going full tilt at a woman half their size.

My 15yo niece had her finger broken by a grown man who deliberately knocked her over in a game of mixed touch football.

My DD is obsessed with netball, would play every day if she could, plays for several teams.

Her school played lots of softball matches in PE - mixed sex including pupils in the year above. She’s very tall and obviously is used to having balls chucked around her from all the netball. She absolutely hated the mixed sex softball and was delighted when she got to the point at school where she wasn’t obliged to do PE any more.

Including men in training sessions would be massively off putting for her. If this happened at her clubs I know she would first try to switch to find clubs where there were no men included in the training. I think her enjoyment of the sport would be significantly damaged if she couldn’t find such alternative teams.

No, they can train with their own team. If someone or their daughter has chosen a female only team that needs to be respected. Some women won’t be fussed but some will. There will be always be a man that throws too hard, manspains everything or takes over. You will probably find some of the players stop coming to training. There are so few female only spaces, don’t let them take this. I wouldn’t be concerned that a man would do something untoward, but there is always one who acts like a jerk.

And not just the tackling. I haven’t played netball since school but I remember practising passes. I wouldn’t want to be on a court where men were throwing the ball.

My DS & DD play basketball for local clubs and often train together in mixed groups. It is technically a non-contact sport - but in reality a lot of contact is made with each other. The same will be true with netball.

In training, members of the same team are not going to try and taker each other out, cause injuries or throw the ball really hard at each other - or they shouldn't do. They all should respect each other, so I would have no issues in both men & women training together.

I think netball is a fantastic sport and more people (men & women) should be encouraged to play it.

I suspect the average teenage girl might feel uncomfortable playing alongside adult men. It's a time when everyone feels self-conscious.

I think mixed teams would put a lot of young women off, OP, yes.

Netball is a non contact sport and a ball in the face thrown by a man is no different than that thrown by a woman. 😂

As my granny used to say Aye Right!!!!

Most men don't have their own teams as not a lot of men want to play. As said earlier in the thread I've only ever seen mixed teams offered separately to womens only teams and this is in line with guidance. Seems to work well- mixed teams aren't an issue as long as women have a choice and it isn't just a case of all of their teams having to accept men.

Mixed teams are fine. If you choose a mixed team that’s different to suddenly having to train with men if you didn’t choose it. The teams don’t need to train together.

This is the reason I stopped playing in my local friendly social league. Men became allowed to play in the teams. It became rough and far too competitive and didn't want to play with men.

In answer to your question OP, it's a very bad idea. Please don't foist grown men on young girls who are trying to enjoy a game of netball with their peers. What could possibly go wrong?

My thoughts exactly

Given that there's a big drop-off of women playing team sports beyond school years this isn't going to help.

In the Netherlands we play a form of Netball (Korfball) which is mixed and always has been for a hundred years. My sons both play in a mixed team.

At 14 the girls will have had their growth-spurt , while the boys often stay behind. The girls are all taller than the boys!
The real macho testosterone-filled boys will never choose for this sport, they will most certainly go for soccer.

Local basketball clubs have mixed training, but the players are similar ages. Similarly, you get adult only tennis sessions which are mixed.

i don’t see a problem with adult only, but wouldn’t wants adult men with teens.

Yes exactly....that's what I have said in my posts!

God, we can’t have anything, can we?

Netball is not a non-contact sport?! Contact happens ALL the time.

On top of that, men are taller, faster, have longer anrms, and can jump higher. Jumping is something that happens at pretty much every point in the game.

In my DD’s year 7-8 games, max 3 boys (per team) are allowed on the court at any one time - and only 1 per third.

Why have this rule, unless even 11-13YO boys have a distinct advantage?

Women’s sports is being ruined by cheating men (and, increasingly, boys).

Sports is segregated by sex - not feelings.

This makes me so, so angry.

I have literally just asked my teenage niece she said she already plays netball on a mixed team and enjoys it

Mixed netball isn't new. But it should be clear it's a mixed team, not just putting men in what was previously always been a womens team/session.

The 14 thing is because girls move into adult teams at 14 in netball, which I've always personally felt was a bit young anyway even for women only teams

The adult thing is a bit weird. Where else do you line up teen girls and adult men for what is pretty much a contact activity together? Apart from on pornhub? I can’t think of any activities much less the contact of a netball game (yes I know it’s ‘non contact’, anyone who wants to argue that has clearly never played) Why is this suggestion being made?

Anonymous poll of all the female players. If even one objects, there's your answer.

BTW I did mixed martial arts, because I chose to. I also did women's only at points, because I chose to. What the men wanted didn't feature in my choices.