England Netball - Mixed Netball

[BryantVibes]

Our local Intermediate Netball League has recently said boys can be in the netball team, reportedly encouraged by England Netball.

As a result, our girls’ team faced a team that included a 6ft 3in male player acting as goal keeper. Given that our players range from 5ft to 5ft 5in, this created a significant and unfair physical mismatch.

Despite employing various tactics, it was extremely difficult for our team to overcome this physical disparity. It was disheartening to see the effect on the girls’ morale and competitiveness.

A conversation with the league organiser confirmed that this mixed approach is being promoted by England Netball.

While our club could choose not to participate, I as a parent am deeply concerned that initiatives like this undermine opportunities for girls to compete fairly and safely, particularly during critical stages of their development. O feel compelled to raise this with England Netball, especially in light of recent decisions

Can anyone suggest where I might go for advice? This was U15 btw.

I can’t help with details - but I played mixed netball many years ago and there were all sorts of rules about limits on number of males on the court and also what positions they could play.

I enjoyed it - but there def need to be very strict rules!

I hate mixed netball, it’s a completely different game to women only. Definitely complain to England netball. If they want to start an u15 mixed league then fine but girls need to have a single sex alternative.

My DH plays mixed netball, and I'm very involved in recreational mixed netball (for adults; I haven't done teenagers so much). Mixed netball for adults is well-established, and the rules generally are:

• Max of three males per team.
• For each team, only one male is allowed in each third of the court, ie: one male GS or GA, one male in WA, C or WD, one male in GD or GK.

Mixed netball is certainly more boisterous than ladies, and some ladies say they like it this way, as long as the teams are "balanced", in that both teams have male players. Usually, once the male players have some experience, the dynamic works well. Sometimes the males who are beginners to netball have to be told to wind their neck in a bit, but they're usually fine after a couple of games.

Not the same sport but England Hockey have researched and evidenced that males can’t be in female teams. So they have Female and Open. A fair and reasonable approach. Netball should do the same. Hopefully this helps. It’s so unfair otherwise. 💐

’Based on the current available evidence, and that hockey requires the physical capabilities of strength, endurance, speed and acceleration as key factors for success, hockey is considered a gender-affected sport.

Based on this evidence (which can be found in the policy), we have determined that the Trans and Non-Binary Participation Policy should restrict trans participation in order to secure fair competition. We are committed to supporting all affected players to ensure they find the right path for them to continue to participate in hockey.’

‘The new Trans and Non-Binary Participation Policy has been developed to ensure everyone can participate in the playing of hockey in a fair way. To enable this, England Hockey has created two categories of competition within hockey – a Female category and an Open category.’

https://www.englandhockey.co.uk/media/news/update-on-trans-and-non-binary-participation-policy

Thanks for this - we were an all girls team as the majority are as this is recent. So so frustrating. Our club have said they were not aware of this. Sounds like nothing I can do.

It’s a great league too a nice intermediate level of play.

What if it’s one boy on one team but all girls on the other?

Is this a survival strategy on the part of the League and England Netball? I'm involved in 2 minority sports and we're really struggling for participants and sponsors in both. I wonder if this is simply an attempt to widen the appeal and keep the sport alive.
I know this will probably be an unpopular opinion, but I think the massive increase in women's football has had an unintended negative effect on other sports, especially those traditionally played by women.
I'm not convinced it's been the expected huge boost for women's sport in general.I don't think that there are a lot of extra girls and women playing sport, rather there's a similar number but they're playing different sports to previously. Certainly where I live, football, and to a lesser degree rugby, are the cool sports for girls to be playing now, and they're also the sports that local businesses seem to want to associate themselves with. So minority sports are struggling to find participants and the increasing difficulty attracting sponsors and wider interest accentuates the problems. Our local hockey club was forced to close a couple of years ago as the council replaced the only hockey pitch with the 32nd football pitch in the borough.
I completely agree that mixed sports are fraught with difficulty and should always be optional. Women only sport is really important. But I am also acutely aware of just how difficult it is to run grassroots women's sport. We'd love to be able to run girls only session at the sports clubs I belong to but we just don't have the money. I don't know anything about Netball really, but I can imagine they're struggling. It's never been a massively popular sport in this country, and not being an Olympic sport it doesn't even benefit from the boost that a lot of less popular sports get after they've been seen on tv every 4 years. It's easy to be critical of the national governing body but I'd be interested to know what the motivation for the move is before condemning it. It may not be anything to do with trans/non binary issues at all, just a desperate attempt to increase participant numbers and keep clubs open.

Netball isn’t a minority sport @AgeingDocits a huge sport that fills arenas nationally and has a super league.

Apologies. I've only met one person in my entire life who plays Netball other than at school and she's always trying to persuade other people to go as their club is so short of players. I, obviously unreasonably, assumed this was reflective of the sport as a whole. That said, I just had a quick Google and there are more clubs for both of my sports in our county than there are Netball clubs and I consider them minority sports.

Are you sure that there are not girls only teams, as well as mixed? I’m involved with lots of different netball leagues, and the girls/women teams and mixed are very separate. The mixed teams are still very much in the minority.

Your first point of call to establish what has actually been agreed and by whom would be the NDO (netball development officer) for your region.
England Netball is split into a number of geographical regions - eg London & South Easr, South West etc.
Each region should have an NDO who would know what is going on with any leagues that are affiliated to England Netball.

Hers the link to the various regions and contacts
www.englandnetball.co.uk/support/regions/

This would be ok if it's a proper mixed netball league (as there's no restriction on the number of female players but males are limited to three on the court). You need to find a girls' netball league.

I thought England Netball were maintaining a biological women only policy (except for actual mixed netball). Certainly that's what my county rules say.
Can you check on the website for your county which should state the eligibility rules.
I just looked up the England netball rules and this seems to suggest that it's against the rules https://www.englandnetball.co.uk/document/trans-inclusion-guidance/

https://www.englandnetball.co.uk/play-netball/mens-mixed-netball/ England Netball remain committed to female sport. Your area should be offering a womens only league first and mixed as an additional option.

https://www.uksport.gov.uk/news/2021/09/30/transgender-inclusion-in-domestic-sport.

This is the guidance on sex affected sport. While this is pitched as trans inclusion, there is much in here about the justification for the existence of sex categories in sport. Worth reading the guiding principles for quotes to use to build your argument as to why your club and your league should be providing single sex categories.

As noted above, England Hockey have mixed rules too.. and it is clear from this and the Men's and Mixed Netball that the teams should have similar structures... ie the same number of each sex on each team.

Push back.. female sport is important. U fortunately, in the last 10 years, it has become less popular to promote female sport because in many cases these efforts run into dead ends while stumbling over what words to use so momentum and enthusiasm is lost for fear of being challenged.

That said... there are still efforts being made... yes, Football gets a lot of focus and support but I believe this benefits all women's sports.

See this: www.gov.uk/government/speeches/westminster-insight-women-and-girls-in-sport-conference

And Google using search term.. 'womens and girls sport uk' and you will see lots of other resources to browse.

In short... push back! Speak to other parents, speak to your club, attend the AGM, raise the question there, contact the League, attend their AGM.. push the point that Men's and Mixed provision should be additional to Womens only and should not be replacing the Female category. The wishes of a handful of men to play does not override the right of women to have a female only category.

Has this recently changed? It now looks like they have gone for three clear categories now. Female / male and mixed.

Have they just dropped the ‘open’ category approach?

help.centre.englandnetball.co.uk/wiki/spaces/EKC/pages/370802697/Gender+Eligibility+and+Participation+Policy+and+Documents

I think this has just been changed. I've just this morning had an email from England Netball confirming 3 categories. Female / Male and Mixed.

Thank you. That is good to know that they have made it clear.

I completely agree, mixed sex should be an extra option and certainly not get rid of the girls team altogether they should have added this for girls to decide if they want to play alongside the boys.

Surely both teams need to be equally mixed?

I think this is now down as a mixed league encouraged by Netball England? But it’s historically a girls only league hence only the odd boy in a team.

As a former netballer I’d be very uncomfortable playing with men for a variety of reasons. Although it’s technically a non contact sport it’s in reality anything but. You’re up close and personal, body to body, with your opponent counterpart. It’s very intimate and actually quite violent sometimes! I’d have concerns for dignity and physical safety not to mention unfair physical advantage.

Then I think you have grounds to approach the club and ask if they agreed that the league would be changed to mixed and if they asked their players if they wanted to play mixed instead of female, if there is a female team / league that those who want female sport could play in... and if all of that fails.. find another club.