Indoor Football For Female Players
When Johannes e-mailed me on 14 June 2010, he added:
“I need to mention that I will be travelling with a girl who would also like to play indoor football …. She is Belgian. Is it ok if girls play too?
…. She has been selected to play in the first team indoor football of the university (women division).”
Last Saturday, I received the following e-mail from a woman:
I am interested to join a Lady Soccer Team but I am 41 years old, medium fit and a beginner.
Do you have Ladies’ sessions?
We’ve had 3 mixed sessions to date:
- On Wednesday, 14 January 2009, at The Cage, with 8 males and 1 female player.
- On Tuesday, 15 September 2009, at The Cage, with 6 male and 4 female players.
- On Tuesday, 27 October 2009, at The Cage, with 6 male and 4 female players.
When last Saturday’s game looked like it was going to be cancelled, Poh Keng asked if he could have the booking for a mixed game. Unfortunately, he was not able to get enough players.
I’ve had other queries from time to time as to whether women can play in our games.
The position on mixed games was summarized in the OPSAGE posts of 18 and 25 September 2009:
- As views about a mixed game vary, if we are to have such games, I would prefer to designate a particular session as a mixed game, rather than having it arise ad hoc by having female players in a regular game.
- For it to work, we need the right balance of male and female players. What is more sustainable longer term may be to use the pooling effect of the blog to develop a regular women’s session.
I’d consider booking a regular slot on Saturdays, from 5 to 6 pm, on a small pitch at the Premier Pitch, Turf City, for mixed games, immediately after the regular game from 4 to 5 pm. Any male players who want to continue beyond 5 pm can join the mixed game.
If there are insufficient players for any particular booking, the game will be cancelled, as is presently the case for the regular games.
It may take a few weeks to get started. I thinking of putting the mixed games up on the “Other Games” board on the GIFFA Message Board.
Ferment: Indefatigable Fun For Adults 
Kimberly played yesterday at Turf City due to extraneous circumstances.
Kimberly is good, as are a few other female players who have joined us in the past.
Although I’m not sure our mixed games will be suitable for beginners (as is the case with our regular games), if the participant is good at other team games or ball games, she should be able to adapt.
I now have a booking for next Saturday, 10 July 2010, 5 to 6 pm, at the Premier Pitch (Turf City), immediately after our regular game from 4 to 5 pm, for a mixed game. Anyone who wants to continue playing can join the mixed game.
I have also converted this Tuesday’s game at Sports Planet to a mixed game. I have moved the thread to “Other Games” accordingly.
Mixed games will also be listed under “Current GIFFA Games” in the same way as our regular games.
We finally got another mixed game, yesterday (Sunday) from 6 to 7 pm on the small pitch at the Premier Pitch. We had three female players – Kimberly, Magdalene and Huir Yuin. They have all played before, in one or more of the mixed games last year.
Kimberly has also played in 3 regular games recently – on Saturday, 3 July 2010, and the last two Tuesdays (6 and 13 July 2010).
Penel (pakosins) is the first female player to register as a member. She is a friend of Joel’s who was interested in playing at the end of 2008.
Joel’s other female friend who was available on Saturday, 10 July 2010, is Yuet Chia.
I’ll develop a separate list for female players over the next few months.
We managed a mixed game on Sunday from 6 to 7 pm, at the Premier Pitch, after the regular game.
The mixed game this weekend is on Saturday, from 5 to 6 pm, also at the Premier Pitch, after the regular game.
This will be the regular slot for the mixed game for now.
We had another mixed game from 5 to 6 pm last Saturday at the Premier Pitch, after the regular game from 4 to 5 pm.
This weekend’s mixed game has been switched from Saturday, 5 to 6 pm, to Sunday, 6 to 7 pm (after the regular game from 5 to 6 pm at the Premier Pitch), to see if we can get enough players.
I’ve scheduled mixed games three weeks in a row. We had at least two female players for the first two games on 18 July 2010 and 24 July 2010, but we only had one female player for the game today. All the mixed games are scheduled on the small pitch at the Premier Pitch.
I will schedule the mixed game fortnightly, on Sundays, 6 to 7 pm, on the small pitch at the Premier Pitch, until we have a bigger pool of female players.
We had another mixed game yesterday.
We had our first ever women’s session yesterday.