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?

I used to play quite seriously in my youth. Eventually moved up a level that really stretched me and I hated it. It was a step beyond my capabilities and took all the fun out. I wasn't up to it, the defence was all over me. I can imagine that's how I'd feel in a mixed game, but worse - totally out of my league! Fine if you want the challenge and are aware of the risks, but hard to tell and I'd quite like the choice!

What benefit do they think this will have for the teenage girls? Or is it the men who are keen?

A million years ago, I used to play a lot of netball. Even as a wing defense, if I was marked by my 6 foot 3 husband, I would stand little chance. Height isn't just relevant for a few positions. It absolutely wasn't a non contact game at the level I played.

Why would anyone be thinking about the teenage girls?

I imagine there are few physical sports which are a level playing field in terms of sex. Horse riding is perhaps one, although female race jockeys seem few and far between. It's weird the UK horse sports industry is higher in female participation, yet I believe in countries like Spain and Portugal, it is male dominated.

There must be benefits to both sexes in playing some evenly matched sports. I can see it being considered good for girls to have some opportunities to excel against the opposite sex, where they are so often deemed weaker, for no good reason! I'm not anti sports being looked at with fresh eyes in this respect, but it needs to be thought through as far as safety is concerned and an element of choice about it.

But Korfball rules are written with the explicit purpose of limiting and mitigating male advantage in mixed games. Netball rules are not

And the fact that 14 year old girls are often taller than 14 year old boys is completely irrelevant to the OPs question about 25-40 year old men.

There are rules for mixed netball teams though. As I have said previously there should be the choice of a women's only team in every club, but mixed teams have been a thing for a while and there's plenty of guidance etc about how many men can be on the pitch and in what positions. It's only a shame imo if the club then only offers a mixed team and the womens only team and training ceases to exist (which is against England netball guidelines).