Should Girls Fight Boys

The IBF meeting of Coaches in January should be very interesting; one of the main subjects will be Junior Judo. Do we have smaller age bands i.e. 7/8 year old with weights cats and grade bands, do we change the rules of Judo, etc. Plus do we allow Girls to compete with Boys in competition? A Mini Mon competition was held in Dartford which done this and it attracted 100 players and according to Trevor Davies 6th Dan was very successful. I personally have my doubts, although in this PC dominated society Men and Women are supposedly equal, I still feel if a boy loses to a girl they were be ridiculed by their friends and this would be a loss to Judo. "Yes you say but they all train together in the club" that may be true but in my case when I taught youngsters it was due to necessity not choice. There may have only been a couple of boys in the class so they would have to fight each and it is the contesting that I feel is the problem Kata and techniques demonstration is OK. Boys and Girls are not only physically different but emotionally different and that will be always the case until the Human race changes where one human being has female plus male genitals and can reproduce themselves like an amoeba, no matter what the PC Brigade say.

My other concern is the way we award medals, I refer to the fact if there is only two Judoka in a weight class both win a medal, it is a fact that there are youngsters who have a hatful of medals and never won a match, this may be good for the club as it looks good in the papers that the club has won lots of medals but is good for the child or good for Judo? I think not.
Firstly it is unfair on other children in weight groups, what of the youngsters who wins 3 out 5 fights and get nothing is that fair.
Secondly Young people should learn that in life you have to work for something once again modern society has produced a whole generation believing it is there right to have anything they want regardless if they have earned it, do we in Judo have to help that attitude?
Thirdly, one of my senior grades suggested that should everything be about winning, well sorry if you enter a competition the idea is to win. You may enter at first to gain experience but ultimately the idea is to win, life is about competing.
Fourthly because I have these views does not mean a child should not be rewarded, every child should get a participation medal or certificate, I realise that for some children it quite a courageous act to enter a competition, not all are suited to be competitive but that should not be an excuse not to compete. Judo is as much about a person conquering his own fears this can only make them a stronger individual.

One I tried some years ago was to have a JUDO MEET we invited children who never entered a competition to come along to fight other children like themselves. They were matched on the day, they then fought under competition conditions but at the end of the day there was no big medal presentation, there was no pools etc every child had three matches and every child was presented with a medal. None of them including their parents went away the idea they were champions yet everyone enjoyed themselves. I doubt if this would work at all levels.

I would welcome a reply of what people think, I will publish all sensible replies