#16 Netball Glory

It still brings tears to my eyes! You know, that moment, Helen Housby shoots the winning goal in the Commonwealth Games Final and turns, hands covering her face, not quite realising how huge that moment was, or what to do next! It was euphoric and only a handful of  people will experience that kind of moment on that scale!

I’m sure readers will have experienced their own euphoric netball moments, not on quite the same level obviously: but that’s why we play isn’t it? The 1 goal victories against your arch rivals, the tournament final wins or the victories when your team is really up against it! That’s why we make sacrifices to train and play, why we get upset when we are benched - it’s for those moments when netball is euphoric and the glory is yours and your team mates!

I write about this today as I had my own euphoric netball moment recently!

To put it in some context it was touch and go whether I’d make the game at all. The youngest got chicken pox and the hubby was on a night shift and didn’t get home until 10mins before I was due to leave! If it wasn’t for him agreeing to stay up after working nearly 14 hours straight I would have missed my moment!

It was one of of those ‘backs against the walls’ games for my team mates and I. We only had one circle defender available, our regular Centre wasn’t fit through injury and we were against top of the league. We were second, on goal difference. So not the game preparation any of us wanted!

I didn’t start and during the second quarter we went 10 down. It didn’t look great but over the course of the last few weeks we have developed our team ethos and have improved our support and positivity for each other. By three quarter time we were one down and I was thrown into the deep end at WA

I’ve not had the season I have wanted to be fair. You only need to read my ‘netball mums’ blog to know that! There have been moments where I’ve wondered if the ACL reconstruction and later, arthroscopy, prehab and rehab had been worth it! It took me to some very dark netball places.

I can confirm, after just 15 mins of netball, those monotonous squats and lunges, often in isolation and bored out of my brain, were indeed worth every repetition! It wasn’t my best performance in a netball bib by any stretch of the imagination but I did the job i was brought on to do, keep ball safe, and thanks to some awesome interceptions from our makeshift defence, we won the game by 2!

It might not sound much but for me it was euphoric. I collapsed on the floor and allowed the tears to flow. ‘Sad bugger’ you may well think, but I can divulge I was not the only one in tears after that game!

Upon reflection, it is a personal disappointment that I haven’t had more  glory moments in my netball playing or coaching career! I realise that is also my responsibility. It was my decision to give up playing for coaching and consequently not being a ‘successful’ coach in terms of trophies and league wins! (Not the only measure of success, as a coach, in my opinion though!)

My first netball glory moment was  probably as an Under 18 County player and we came a very impressive 5th at the Alex Barless Intercounties tournament. East Hampshire have never been a threat to anyone but there we were mixing it with the ‘big girls’ of netball. Not only that we were competitive with them! We came out of nowhere to finish 5th, completely unexpected and probably not appreciated at the time, by myself and my team mates! I look back with euphoria, even if we were ignorant of it at the time!

My other euphoric netball moments came in 2012. I had been away for a number of weeks, unavoidably,  but knew my team I coached were doing exceptionally well in my absence and were on course to ‘play off’ to get into the regional league. It was an aim we’d been working towards for a long time.

Turns out we’d be against our local rivals for a place in the league, the pressure was on! Then we found out we’d be without our star GS too! By this point I was back home and practicing shooting like a woman possessed! I won’t lie it was a special evening winning that game. I needed it and was probably more euphoric about doing it with my mates, than the actual result.

Later that year we had our first regional game........... away v Guernsey! We had more or less the same team, thankfully with our shooter this time! It was a magical day out, the airplane ride, 100+ spectators (there hadn’t been a competitive netball match in Guernsey for a number of years. They were new to the league too!) as well as TV & radio interviews! Not to mention the one goal win to us! It was proper heart stopping, nail biting, fist clenching stuff!

Probably my best ever euphoric netball glory experience! Here’s to more!

#15 100-1 who wins really?

You see it quite a lot on social media ‘Well done Scarlett’s 79-3 win v Topaz Gems’ or ‘Shadows were on fire today, smashing it 101-7 in their U16 fixture this morning’

To be honest there is nothing that annoys me more!

Firstly if Scarlett’s had been on the 3 goal end of the scoreline they wouldn’t be so quick to publicise it and secondly, who actually wins in such a blow out result, similar to those above? Absolutely no one!

I talk about this, as I was saddened that a coach recently broadcast her teams’ 100 goal win, across all social media platforms, tagging in the opposition as well. My opinion is: there is just no need. I fail to see what her teenage players would have learnt from it, despite the almost boastful nature of ‘all players took to the court’

I believe in being humble in victory as well as defeat!

I doubt the opposition will forget such a drubbing: surely those girls would have had such a bad experience of netball they may never want to play again. And this is just the tip of the iceberg, how about considering confidence and mental health problems that effect so many female teens in the UK? I don’t think it’s going over the top to be considering such consequences.

I remember, as a teenager,  playing for the now defunct East Hampshire County U18  side, travelling up and back to Greater Manchester in one day for a 50odd goal defeat. It was soul destroying and you could literally hear a pin drop on the 8 hour coach trip on the way home.

It will take an extraordinary Coach / Team leader to find positives in such a huge loss and build momentum from it. I’m sure there are lots who try, but the impact, especially for impressionable young players is surely immeasurable?

Maybe I am wrong and my experiences as a player and a coach are isolated. Maybe lessons can be learnt by both the winners and losers in such ‘blow out’ games and positivity can be taken by those in defeat.

But, can anything be done about such results in the first place? Prevention better than cure, so to speak.

We have heaps of opportunities for netball players of all ages and abilities, to take to the court which can only be a good thing! There are so many competitions, tournaments, festivals up and down the country and the increased popularity of our fab sport does make it difficult to ‘manage’ expectations.

For example, when does a Back to Netball team stop being a Back to Netball team? I’ve run plenty of Back to Netball festivals in my time to know that even with the very best of intentions there can be ‘blow out’  score lines because you have ‘true’ B2N teams that are weeks old against original B2N sides who have gone on from their sessions to compete regularly in leagues.

Should common sense prevail? For example, when you have junior sides unknown to each other, can a conversation not take place between the coaches to make sure everyone gets a great experience of netball? How about a handicap system at friendly / back to Netball festivals?

Even if worst comes to worst and you have a huge deficit at quarter time in a match, surely it falls to the ‘winning’ Coach or organiser to swap players around or play those who don’t always get a full game for the maximum amount of time? Is such sportsmanship asking too much? Perhaps the Coach on the ‘losing’ end of the scoreline can suggest limiting time to reduce the impact on her players.

Even better, proper common sense prevails and all the players get to mix up on both teams, play positions they’ve never played before and everyone has a great time!

The focus is, of course, on the coaches. In a brave new world where the phrase ‘player centred’ is commonly used in coaching circles, are coaches really honest about the player- centred responsibilities of their role?

I know, first hand, that there are ‘outside’ pressures where you wouldn’t necessarily consider them to be, that can conflict a ‘player-centred’ approach.

For example, independent schools have fee paying parents who expect results. Fair play, sportsmanship and a participation ethos isn’t always their priority.

Then you get league placing or tournament medals that can be decided on goal difference. That blow out scoreline could prove pivotal to the medal placings.

At the end of the day if you are keeping score you are playing a competitive sport no matter how many times you emphasis the words ‘fun & friendly’ before, during and after the competition!

It doesn’t just happen at grass roots or junior leaves either. There are international matches that see scores blow out to disproportionate score lines. Australia beat Sri Lanka at the 2019 World Cup 99-24 for example.

I guess on reflection and with that international scoreline in mind, there is one good thing we should be grateful for when discussing ‘blow out’ scores on the global stage - we have definitely moved on from the regular 30 goal ‘tonkings’ England used to suffer at the hands of Australia & New Zealand!