Commonwealth Bank Trophy

Wow, a big congratulations goes to the Sydney Swifts. They have achieved what no other team has achieved in the history of the competition, go through all the rounds undefeated. Hopefully this will not hamper them in the finals, I doubt it will as they have had some close games this year and have been able to fight through and get the win.

Also, congratulations to the Queensland Firebirds. This team has come from what seemed like a region that was going to be dropped from the competition last year, to a finals team. Vicki Wilson has dragged this team through the hard times and showed them what true hard work can achieve. Not a bad effort, especially when you think that she only made minor changes to the Firebirds squad. They have come in fourth on the ladder and will take part in the finals series for the first time.

So this is what the ladder looks like at the end of the Commonwealth Bank Trophy Series

Sydney TAB Swifts 28
Medibank Adelaide Thunderbirds 22
Melbourne First National Phoenix 20
Queensland Firebirds 14
Allied Pickfords Melbourne Kestrels 12
Perth Orioles 10
McDonald's Hunter Jaegers 6
AIS Canberra Darters 0

Using Hooler hoops.

2 hooler hoops
2 lines of players
Bean bags.

1. Have the players line up behind each other. Place hoop about 5 metres away from the starting player. One player at a time is to run to the hoop and land with one foot inside the hooler hoop. The landing foot in the hoop is the pivoting foot. The other foot is not allowed inside the hooler hoop. Pivot around to face the line then run back to the end of the line.

2. Set up as above.
Have the player run to the hoop and land with both feet in the hoop. They are to choose a pivoting foot and then pivot (as above) to face the line and then run back to the end of the line.

3. Set up as above
Each line has 1 been bag.
First player is to run to the hooler hoop and bend down and place the been bag in the hoop. Next player is to run to the hooler hoop and pick up the bean bag and run back to the line and give to the next player.

Notes:
Players are to alternate the direction that they pivot.
Players are to alternate the pivot foot.
Players need to have their eyes up at all times
Add a ball to the drill. – As the player lands in the hoop they are to catch a ball.

Pippies are doing so well

Ok I havent updated about the Pippies.........

for a little while so for everyone wanting to know how they are doing, here it is!
The team has continued to improve thanks to all the work that their coach has put in. She hasnt made the error of trying to get them to learn to much to quickly and only adds one or two new skills each training. All the girls then get to work hard on the skill and actually learn and understand it. We consentrated on the stepping rule this week, and the girls have done really well with it. They look like little netball players when they catch the ball now!

Stepping is a hard rule for netta players to understand and actually use in a game. As you can imagine, you don't get taught to stop when you catch a ball! They have also been working very hard on defending from infront of the player. Another words keeping the player behind you (still facing the forward) and shadowing their moves so it is hard for the attacking player to get free. Once again this is hard for Netta players to pick up, and use consistantly as they need to use their parifial vision. Also young Netta players tend to raise there arms when defending from the front so that they can stop the attacking player from driving forward. As we know you are not aloud to have your arms up, so that is also another skill that needs to be learnt and mastered when defending from infront of your player. They have done very well at keeping their arms down.

We are still working at letting the ball go quicker when attacking, I think that when they have mastered that skill we will look like a completely different team out there on the court. We got a glimpse of this on saturday when the girls put an excellent passage of attacking play together and then finished it off with a goal. All the attacking moves were quick and sharp and all players actually let the ball go quickly so that the other teams defence didnt get time to set up and intercept the passes.

We even scored 2 goals in one of our games! That is the first time so a big congats to the Pippies. As I have said they continue to improve and they are really enjoying playing the game of Netta.
Our fastest improver at the moment would be Katie. I can see a real little defender in her already. She was such a gentle timid little thing at the start (she is still very gentle thankfully!) but she is really starting to show her true potential. Like I was telling her mum she is technically aggressive not physically, which is what you are looking for at this stage of development. Great work Katie!

Test one, New Zealand 52 to Australia 40

I think I should start by saying congratulations to the New Zealand team on their win last night. I thought that that was the best game of netball from the New Zealanders that I have seen in a long time. I have thought over the last 5-6 times we have played them they have basically just bullied us out of the game. Due to some good tough umpiring this part of their game was kept to a minimum and that allowed the New Zealand players to play and excellent game of netball.
Although van Dyk top scored as usual she was well teamed up with the young Goal Attack, Maria Tutaia. This made for a tough time for both Liz Ellis and Bianca Chatfield. Maria moves well and created lots of opportunities for both of the shooters.
Australia had our chance to stay in touch with some great turn overs in the defence end of the court but couldn’t capitalise on these until the 3rd Quarter. I thought that when we crossed over into the attacking third Australia panicked and then gave the ball straight back to the Silver Ferns with either a bad choice of pass or an ill executed one.
Australia lost the game in the 2nd quarter but to their credit they took control of the game in the 2nd half of the game. Australia worked really hard in the third quarter to peg back the lead to 7 goals but unfortunately was unable to keep up the momentum in the 4th quarter. There are many positives that Australia can take from last nights game and one of them would be the performance of Susan Pratley. After a nervous start, she came into the game and made her presence felt.
Game two of the Holden Test series will be played at the Acer Arena in Sydney from 8.15pm on Tuesday night and I'm sure that we will be working on our over all performance and if they can play a solid 60 minutes we will see a better result.
You can purchase tickets to the test from Ticketek.

Australia vs New Zealand

THURSDAY JULY 20:
Australian 21U vs New Zealand 21U
When: 7.30pm (curtain raiser commences at 5.30pm)
Where: Insports Cornubia Park Sports Centre146 Bryants Road, Shailer Park(07) 3806 4340
Tickets: Available from Netball Queensland on 07 3848 6330Adults - $15.00Junior (14 and under) - $8.00Family (2A and 2J) - $40.00
SATURDAY JULY 22:
HOLDEN NETBALL TEST SERIES - TEST ONE
Curtain Raiser:6.00pm - Australian 21U vs New Zealand 21U
8.10pm - Australia vs New Zealand
Where: Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Boondall QLD
Tickets: Ticketek - call 132 849 or visit www.ticketek.com.au Bring along all your friends. Discounts for groups apply!Netball in style? Corporate tickets available.
Email infonet@netball.asn.au for more information or to purchase tickets.
TV Time: Saturday July 22 nationally at 10.35pm on ABC TV

TUESDAY JULY 25:
HOLDEN NETBALL TEST SERIES - TEST TWO
8.15pm - Australia vs New Zealand
Where: Acer Arena (formerly Sydney SuperDome), Sydney Olympic Park
Tickets: Ticketek - call 132 849 or visit www.ticketek.com.au Bring along all your friends. Discounts for groups apply!Netball in style? Corporate tickets available.
Email infonet@netball.asn.au for more information or to purchase tickets.
TV Time: Tuesday July 25 nationally at 11.10pm on ABC TV
Radio: Live from 8.05-9.30pm (AEST)on local ABC Radio stations in:
Tasmania (8.05-10.00pm)
South Australia (7.35-9.30pm)
Queensland (8.05-10.00pm)
Victoria (8.05-10.00pm)
Newcastle (8.05-10.00pm)
Northern Territory (7.35-9.30pm)
(information brought to you from www.netball.asn.au)

Netball Training Schedule

The following training schedule is based on a 1 hour training session. Times for each section of the schedule are estimates. The following should be used as a guideline and can be adapted to longer training sessions. It is important to put the time into planning your training schedule prior to any training session.

Organisation – 5 minutes
This is the time to get everyone together and ready to start training. You may like to discuss the last game at this time and also your expectations for the training session. This time also allows stragglers to show up and get ready to go.

Warm Up – 10 minutes
Getting the body ready for the physical work that it is about to do. This stage is important as it helps to stop injuries occurring and also gets the players ‘mentally’ prepared for training.

Your warm up should include a physical warm up – slow jog stretching and or an appropriate warm up game, and also a skill based warm up – ball games, sprints, reflexes etc

Skill Development - 20 minutes
It is important to spend time developing and practicing the skills needed to play the game of netball. This is the main part of any training session.
Skills to practice – Movement, attack, defence, footwork, catching and throwing.

You will want to use drills and activities that the players can do as individuals and also in groups.
Start with basic drills and move onto more challenging activities, both physically and technically.

Match play / Court work – 15 mins
Match play - This is the part of the training session that your players will be able to put the skills that they have just learnt and practiced into play.
Court work- Is a time that a coach can place the players on the court and talk through positional plays on the court, who is around them, were to move to/from and also to practice throw ins. It is important to remember as a coach that there is a lot of stationary time for the players and to try not to spend large amounts of time this.

Cool Down - 10 minutes
The cool down is so that the muscles can relax and get rid of built up lactic acid. The cool down should take about the same time as the warm up. Players should go for a slow jog to walk and stretching of all major muscle groups that have been used in the training session. Whilst players are cooling down this is also a good time to talk to the players about the training session, highlighting the main points and giving feed back to the players.

Julie Fitzgerald Appointed Assistant Coach

By Netball Australia

Sydney TAB Swifts coach Julie Fitzgerald has been appointed as the National 21 and Under Assistant Coach for the July test series in Brisbane.
Julie Fitzgerald is a Level 3 Accredited Coach and has an impressive coaching résumé that includes over 26 years experience. She has coached the NSW 19U, 21U and Opens teams and was Apprentice Coach to the Australian Netball Team in 1997.

Fitzgerald has coached the Sydney TAB Swifts for the past 10 years, winning two premierships in 2001 and 2004. Her expertise in netball has ensured the Sydney TAB Swifts have never missed a place in the Commonwealth Bank Trophy Finals Series in the 10 years of competition. Julie Fitzgerald was also named Netball Australia’s Coach of the Year in 2004.

“This is a wonderful opportunity and I am delighted to have some involvement in netball at an international level,” said Fitzgerald. “I am excited about the depth of talent we have in this area and look forward to being able to contribute to the players’ development.” For more click HERE

Looking for sporting goods?

I know this is a little off the subject of Netball, but I realise that most of us have more sporting interests other than the great sport of netball!! So I have found a site that will link you up to most sporting goods stores - from running to fishing and everything (well losts anyways!) in between. Just click HERE and you will be taken straight there. It is called AUSPlaza and all the sports stores are australian.

Pippies Netta Team Update

We got our second Goal!

Congratulations to all the girls in Pippies team. What a great effort for such a young team. The girls have been working hard on their basic netball skills and have scored another goal. The reaction from all the girls was great! They were all so excited. All the netta girls are having a great time playing and they are all doing their best. Great work.

Ball and Movement skills. Netta to Advanced

The following drills can be used from netta right through to the advance players.

1 worker
1 passer
Start facing each other about 2 metres apart. Worker moves to the left, passer passes the ball to the player. The passer is to pass the ball infront of the worker. Worker lands on the outside foot ( left foot) and then passes the ball back. Worker moves back to the start position. Repeat the drill to the right side. Repeat 5 times.











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1 Passer
Rest of team in a line
Passer stands about 2 metres in front of the line. The first player in the line will drive out to the left or right and the passer will pass them the ball. Worker passes back to the passer and moves to the end of the line. Repeat till all players have had at least 3 turns.

Variation - have the workers lead to the right and then drive to the left and receive the ball, and vice versa.
- first player in the line is the defender, second player is the attacker.









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1 worker
1 passer
Have the worker on transverse line and the passer on the opposite transverse line. Worker runs towards the passer and receives a shoulder pass from the passer. Worker needs to catch the ball whilst still moving onto the ball. Worker passes the ball back to the passer and then runs backwards to the transverse line. Repeat 5 times.

Variation - Passer throws a lob
- Passer varies the passes eg shoulder pass, lob, bounce pass.