Var

[anthonykay]

USA women's football team are apparently the best in the world; but the USA men's team is not. I can't help wondering who would win in a match between the USA men's and women' football teams.

[Stagger]

USA women win again.

[DrPatrickBarry]

I can't help wondering who would win in a match between the USA men's and women' football teams.

The men of course and probably pretty easily, the USA men's team, is not bad, and just their strength would make a massive difference.

[Wheeze]

I reckon the girls should challenge the boys!

[noel]

Mrs Noel used to play mixed hockey. I wonder if there's a case for mixed football. Would it help to get more women involved, or would it be inappropriate given that it's a contact sport?

I think I'd be in favour of it - certainly from a participation point of view. It might also making the watching more interesting as you'd get a range of abilities (size, speed, skills, etc) within each team. I'm talking local league here, not professional level.

[PeteS]

Football can be and quite often is mixed up to under 11s. I certainly advocate that as it certainly was the best grounding for my daughters onward progression in the game. Girls football after that was a backwards step for a couple of seasons but there are some good clubs and coaches out there - you just have to find them. Thankfully with women's football becoming more popular there are more clubs out there with a full range of age group teams. My daughter is now adult but even in a relatively well populated and football mad Midlands, a lot of local league sides struggle to field 11 players. Hopefully the increase in popularity of the game will address this in year's to come.

The problem with mixed football comes in the teen years as we all mature at different rates and obviously larger boys have a more physical approach and therefore a safety issue with generally smaller girls. There are also the safe guarding issues and practicalities of usually only having one dressing room to consider.

[Witton Park]

Mrs Noel used to play mixed hockey.

So did I Noel. Between around 1984 and 1987. It was a team of 6 blokes and 5 ladies.

I took up hockey at secondary school in Rossendale, and when I did in 1978 (3rd year) our school was one of only 2 in Lancashire playing, the other being Rossall.

So most weekends we were playing against teams from Cheshire and Merseyside with an occasional, but rare fixture against a Ben Rhydding from Ilkley. These schools were mostly private ones or state Grammars.

Meanwhile you would struggle to find a school that didn't have girls hockey.

We started the mixed hockey, as some of the blokes in Rossendale Hockey Club had girlfriends who were in Nelson ladies. So we put a team together.

So as a young adult playing mixed hockey, I was from a very small pool of men, and the ladies that were by then playing club hockey were from a large pool and tended to be at the top of their game.

[Wheeze]

I used to coach mini rugby. One of strongest, toughest players was a young lass who played hooker. Up to 11 she was able to wrestle the ball off most boys and outplayed most of the other forwards on a regular basis. Of course, the issues that Pete mentions meant that her playing career with us finished at 11....just as the boys got the double entendre of her position! All ended well as she had a stellar career representing her country.

[Travs]

I did the Warwickshire Open track meeting last week... interesting that all races were “seeded” based on your predicted times.... so my heat in the mile covered a range of predicted times from around 5:15 up to about 5:45, and therefore included both sexes, and a range of gender/ages from an under15 girl up to v50 male...

[Graham Breeze]

I've puzzled over several aspects of female sport over the years and if any of you have read Matthew Syed's "Bounce" I think it explains some of the issues.

Bounce

I bought this after reading your post and it is a very interesting book.

I was a Human Resources Manager, engaged in particular on management development, for many years and so, anecdotally, I was not surprised by most of the content but what Syed does do is provide illuminating hard data. I have written about chance and opportunity in terms of career development elsewhere and Syed’s back story was a wonderful example of the importance of chance in everyone's life.

So WP, thank you!