The Universal Dependencies (UD) and Surface-Syntactic Universal Dependencies (SUD) annotation schemes view coordinate structures as head-initial. This contribution argues that a more flexible approach to coordinate structures is linguistically motivated, one that sees coordinate structures as head-initial in greater head-initial structures and as head-final in greater head-final structures. Support for this flexible approach comes from two areas: dependency distance and a nearness effect. In addition, two arguments that have been produced supporting the strictly head-initial approach are examined and refuted.