Slide-Tackling Girls

S

soccerdad05

SILVER
Maybe it's just because I have never seen it.. but is slide-tacking allowed? If so at what age for SCDSL or Coast.
 
It's not unheard of but rare before U14. It starts to show in some of the higher level games around then. I saw 4-5 really great slide tackles this weekend in some u16 games.
 
I think it's partly a mental thing. in my observations, girls aren't generally wired to throw their bodies around with total abandon. Most have to really work up to a level of confidence with something like that before it is natural. It's actually better because when they do get around to executing it in a game situation, they know what the heck they are doing. My 9 year old son would do it on concrete without thinking about the consequences until afterwards.
 
I think boys do it sooner because they learned it playing baseball (even at t-ball ages, kids are sliding).
On the goat farms / dirt patches / hot turf that we play on around here- It takes a special player to give up a few layers of skin on a slide tackle.
 
soccerdad05 said:
Maybe it's just because I have never seen it.. but is slide-tacking allowed? If so at what age for SCDSL or Coast.
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To my knowledge, in my capacity as a referee (and former coach), there is no prohibition against slide tackling in any "competitive" league. The recreational leagues will prohibit, especially with coed play or spring soccer. On the post-puberty girls side, slide tackling is a little more dangerous for a variety of reasons: (1) weight distribution tends to be lower on the body (hips and legs) and the collisions tend to be mass to mass; (2) post-puberty girls have a larger Q-angle and knees that that turn slightly inward making ACL injuries much more likely; and (3) athletic 13-14 year old Boys have an average vertical jump of 18 to 20 inches (girls are 12 to 16 inches), which makes it much easier for the offensive player to jump out of the way and clear the slide tackler reducing contact.

As a result of the above, boys tend to slide tackle during practices much more frequently because it rarely results in injury. Girls don't and reserve the move for game time, but use it far less frequently because they don't practice it often.

But there is always that one girl who is the slide tackling demon.
 
My 2007 DD plays left/right back and she’ll slide tackle every now and then. Parents of the forwards always go ballistic when it happens, but I don’t think I’ve seen it result in a foul call yet.
 
Surf Zombie said:
My 2007 DD plays left/right back and she’ll slide tackle every now and then. Parents of the forwards always go ballistic when it happens, but I don’t think I’ve seen it result in a foul call yet.
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Plenty of fouls to go around. Especially when they make a clean takeaway, but then completely take out the offensive player with "spikes" up. Of course, the parents and the defenders go ballistic and yell "He got the ball first!"
 
My DD was taught the right way to slide tackle at U11. She typically slides 1-2 times max in a game. Cleat down, ball first. If you do it right, you shouldn't get hurt and you shouldn't hurt others. But it really has a time and place.
 
coachrefparent said:
Plenty of fouls to go around. Especially when they make a clean takeaway, but then completely take out the offensive player with "spikes" up. Of course, the parents and the defenders go ballistic and yell "He got the ball first!"
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I hate that when I am a Referee and make a call that resulted from a bad slide tackle and the players, coach or parents yell, “They got the ball first.” Like it doesn’t matter if they break a player’s leg as long as they got the ball first. Most of the time the player gets the ball then takes down the player with the trailing leg or scissors the player. Usually when the player cleats the player they do not get the ball first or at all. Those are easy calls and usually result in at least a Caution (yellow card). Referees get trained to recognize bad slide tackles, but it takes experience to recognize the subtleties between a good tackle and a not so good or bad tackle. Some of the not so good tackles may look good to the untrained eye, but are actually fouls.
 
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