I know in basketball and other sports, the men and women play under different rules (where the three-point lines are, how big the ball is, etc.). Are there any differences in soccer rules between the genders (not only FIFA rules, but also college and high school rules)?
Generally though they aren't put into place. I've never been to a field that was smaller because it was for women only nor have I had a smaller ball because it was a womens game.
All our leagues are officially classified as "coed" so they can have unlimited subs, even if they're older than 16. Sometimes you actually get a girl on a U19 "coed" team, especially in the rec leagues.
Thanks - that's what I thought from doing what research I could online. Good to see - one of my pet peeves about women's sports is that they oftentimes do not play the same rules as the men, such as basketball (three-point line, ball), college cross country (men run longer distances than women even though women naturally have more endurance than men; they are just unable to do it as fast) and ice hockey (no checking in women's games). It is great that soccer has men and women play the same rules, as it should be in my opinion. Gary V, I had seen that, which was the main reason I posted my question here. However, does anybody know of any instances of the Laws being modified for that reason in regards to women? As far as I could tell from watching U.S. and W-League games, it appears they play the same rules (ball size, goal size, no re-entry if you're substituted out of the game, etc.). ETA after reading your second post ... oh that makes sense. Then I'm guessing all W-League, WPSL and WPS games play the same rules as men, but rec leagues may use different rules for women's or co-ed games.
In Iowa, the boys and girls HS have several local differences - just like different tournaments and leagues have different substitution rules. The girls have a 10 goal mercy rule for the 2nd half. The girls varsity games go to overtime and KFTM in case of a tie score. No mercy rule for boys and overtime is optional. Some league games require a winner. Other leagues and inter-league play the coaches/ADs decide. We had one game where the AD and one coach agreed to play off ties, and the AD's coach didn't want to. At least we asked before hand. Unfortunately, the coach and AD hadn't agreed. We played off the draw, and I think the complaining coach won.
Lacrosse use of the stick, checking, positioning, etc. Girls has no relation to the boys game except for the ball.
I think WPS may allow 4 substitutions instead of 3, but other than that it's the exact same game. MLS allowed 4 subs in the U.S. Open Cup MLS Qualifiers this year, or at least last year, so that's not unprecedented for the men either.
LEAGUES may have different rules of competition (NOT the same as Laws of the game)...substitution, tie breakers, etc. That is based on the league, not gender. I have done co-ed leagues that had specific rules to how many men and women were required on the field at a time. I have seen Youth coed games that allowed girls to slide tackle girls and boys. Boys were allowed to slide tackle boys, NOT allowed to slide tackle girls. It works well due to 2 things, strength...the boys are stronger (and many times significantly bigger), and can do more damage to the girls. Second is, if you have the young boys with some testosterone going, they do not have the skill, they just want to hurt ANYthing...so it controls that. I did not make those rules, but I do agree with them for safety purposes.
Even if the rules are the same, you should be aware that men and women think and play differently, especially at the lower levels, and if you don't take that into account, you will have a problem. Prior threads have discussed the differences.
Makes 100 percent sense in co-ed games. In my opinion, the rules should be exactly the same for games where men play men as well as ones where women play women. Now co-ed games are a different animal altogether, but otherwise I think they should play by the same rules. They may think and play the game differently, but so do different nations, leagues, cultures, etc. That variety with how people go about playing the sport with the exact same rule base is one of the coolest things about soccer. Then again, I have not really been in this part of Big Soccer very much, so I may be missing some valid points. Essentially, if women are playing women between the ages of 16-35 and are not disabled, then in my opinion they should play the exact same rules as men. Not counting league differences like number of substitutions, etc.
Coeds are fun. Two guys can be going at it, and you can let them push it to the outside of the envelope, but when the ball gets passed to a woman, the guys can change their pace pretty quickly. Then again, it can take you by suprise when. at check in, what appears to be a sweet, frail-looking hotty gets on the field and goes toe to toe (and shoulder to shoulder) with the guys.
IIRC, in college, our intramural league gave 2 points for a goal for a woman . . . same in basketball, with 4 pts for a bucket - we won the league final in OT, after being down by 4 with seconds left, and the defender on the other team mysteriously decided to cover the guy [who could score a meaningless 2 pt bucket] instead of our star woman [who scored the tying layup right before the buzzer] - when you play with strange rules, you really need to understand them . . . .
Our local OTH requires 4 women on the field at a time... if a team has fewer than 4 women, they have to play short. I've had games with 8 players (against a full 11) because they had only one woman.
I don't think so. Calvinball differs in two major areas: The coed game HAS rules. Calvinball will NEVER go coed.