About ILoveNetball

The name “I Love Netball” wasn’t hard to think up. Who doesn’t love the game?

When I started playing it was called “women’s basketball” and not too much has changed, except in those days we didn’t wear bibs and only had one umpire.

Netball is unique being restricted by thirds, the non-stepping and 3 second rules and only two players can shoot goals. This alone makes it a thinking game, much like chess.

Of course as with any sport, umpires can make or break a game. And poor umpiring was a bugbear right from my early years as a defender and later a goal shooter. I always figured defenders weren’t getting a fair deal and shooters were getting too many opportunities that they weren’t entitled to in the rules. 

When I became a shooter this confirmed my suspicions. Nothing has changed, umpires are still giving shooters a second chance at goals. Why? They took their shot - there's no second chance or there shouldn't be.

It is still the same today even at national level. Players have to learn to craft their skills to perform well. This also includes umpires.

A different view of the game:
In the early seventies I was asked to try out for a divisional team, as a goal shooter, during a netball carnival in Perth, Western Australia. I think they were chasing height rather than skill.

But my mindset was fixed on becoming a good umpire, which I pursued for the next 40 years. It was umpiring, not playing, that set up my role as a coach now.

Umpire’s have a completely different view of the game and can see player’s mistakes so much more easily than the players and onlookers themselves.

Players watch the ball and umpires watch the players.

Speed coaching:
This form of coaching started, out of the blue, when asked to coach an ANZ team for a couple of hours, prior to a match against a rival team.

From this 2 hour training session stemmed a professional coaching career for many years, which extended into coaching teams during final matches. 

As I didn't belong to and specific club, a member of the Victorian Netball Association, lead to coaching the district's netball association rep teams, for weekend and one-day carnivals.

We only had a four to six week training period to prepare two teams. From the time restraint, developed what I term, 'speed coaching' and later 360 degrees training ebooks. 

20 years in a sag wagon:
Much of my coaching experience has also came from 20 years sitting in sag wagons and race Commissaire vehicles. A great opportunity to speak with Australian and International cycling coaches at Open & National road bike races.

My husband, a road racer and runner also has a website showing endurance athletes how to become race fit and fast on minimal training.

Drill work is superfluous training for netball
That is because drills are a precise movement and netball is anything but that. Best to leave the drills to soccer players who do benefit from gymnastic type drill work.

Netball is an entirely different game to all other court based sports, because of the 'no stepping & three second' rules. Unless you train the way the game is played, mediocre results can only be expected.

I learned the folly of drill and gym work when training a team of 13 and 14 year olds for a senior carnival. While agile and having quick reflexes they were slow to react when put under pressure.

Traditional training had to change and it did, with the girls drawing a grand final win against a senior team, who won their association's grand final two months earlier.

As a result I have had to rewrite all my training ebooks. The coaching results, with all age groups, over the next decade was phenomenal.

The information in these ebooks will train all players young and old, to a very high standard in a very short time.

It is truly smart training not slogging it out, with so-so results from traditional training.