What do you think about little girls playing soccer on the same team as little boys?

Coed teams are actually quite common in youth soccer. I remember playing on a team that was both boys and girls when I was in grade school, which was 20 years ago. However, as a mother, I had the same kind of concerns when my son started to play soccer as well.

He has played on a youth soccer team for two years now, and I can tell you that when it comes to your friend's fears about the boys being too rough, it is almost always the other way around. For some reason, the girls are much more aggressive at this age when it comes to team sports. Also, another thing that you will notice already at this age is that many of the girls are also slightly taller than the boys.

When my son started playing soccer last year, what I saw was that many of the girls at this age adjusted a lot faster to the team environment and were ready to jump right in there. They seemed to pick up the game much faster, but by the end of the season, there were a lot of boys that had not only learned a lot, but also became much faster. Speed is an important advantage when it comes to playing soccer at this age, but many of the girls could still kick much harder than the boys.

Even in adult team soccer, I still think it is very common for the girls to be much more competitive and aggressive. (Have you watched professional women's soccer lately? ) Even on my son's team, there was one girl that I thought may be in need of some anger management or something at the age of 6!

If she was trying to practice and someone else's ball came towards her, this girl would kick it to the other side of the parking lot just to watch someone go after it! Also, for the first couple of years of soccer, there is very little risk of severe injury. Most of the kids this age cannot really kick all that hard and many of them are just learning coordination and the mechanics of the game.

They are all required to wear shin guards, and from what I have seen, this is very strictly enforced. Now, when they get into high school and junior high soccer, this is a different matter entirely, but the kids who have learned to play early on are better equipped to deal with these kinds of things. (I have seen blood spatter at high school soccer games.) When they get older, many soccer leagues will divide the boys and girls up at that point.

I feel that having them play together at this age is not only good for building social skills and learning to work together as a team, but it also helps many of them to develop skills and better learn the game. One article that I read on this topic says that coed teams also teach boys about respecting girls. That may be true as well.

On one of our teams, we had a little boy who was apparently struggling with this concept, and after one of the girls on the team scored a goal, he slapped her on the rear end (much like older guys would do in the locker room). You should have seen this little girl's face and her response. I guarantee you that little boy will not ever try that move again :) This video is a worst case example of how aggressive women can be on the soccer field.

This is Elizabeth Lambert of the New Mexico Lobos who was suspended shortly after this game with Brigham Young.

I ask any parent to tell me that little girls become injured easier than little boys, because frankly this is not the case. In youth, just like in adulthood personality reins supreme. Some little girls play rougher than some little boys.As a result, I see no problem with co-ed sports.

If it were a sport more focused on violence where size can have an effect such as american football or hockey I may worry a bit and would prefer my little girl play on a girl's team but soccer is not supposed to be a contact sport, it's more about agility, coordination and speed so mix the teams, the more the merrier. I of course would never force my child male or female to do anything he or she doesn’t want to do though.

In the rural area where I live we don't have enough children to have single sex teams. It's kind of a non-issue, if the girls want to play they have to play with boys. When I was a kid and I played on co-ed teams I found the boys did not do the same teamwork with us as they did with each other.

They tended to ignore us on the field which I did not like. I think when girls have a chance to get educated in single sex environments they tend to do better.

I know you said she is in grade school, but the ages vary in grade school from 6 to about 11. I think for real young children, perhaps up to age 8, it's fine for the boys and girls to play together.As boys get a little older and stronger then maybe there can be cause for concern, but once again this is on a case by case basis. Some girls are quite big and bigger than boys especially in the 10 and 11 year old age group.

I know in sports such as tee ball and little league baseball, girls play on the same teams as the boys. Granted baseball isn't as rough of a sport as soccer. I think parents should just use their best judgment as to how well their daughter can handle playing with the boys.

I wouldn't discourage the girl from playing. I would let her try it and if it's found that she gets physically pushed around too much by the boys, then perhaps she needs to try another sport or just play on a girls team. Good luck to her!

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