Two's company, four's a crowd!

Did you get a chance to watch any of the World Cup football matches in South Africa? It was a spectacular event, but I hope those vevezualas don’t make it to the netball courts!
While watching the World Cup football matches, I was sympathising for the reserve goal-keepers in each squad who would never get the chance to run on the field. These guys train as hard as the starting keeper, dedicate their lives to their sport (and may be equally as good as the first-string keeper), but unfortunately only one goal-keeper is allowed on the field at a time.

Its similar in all team sports with designated positions and none more so than netball! Fortunately, I think all junior coaches do attempt to give each player fair game time in order to develop their talents. However in later years (especially at a semi-professional level upward) no one is ever promised court time – and the cold hard facts are that you have four shooters in a team. Two will take the court and two will miss out. So how do the reserve shooters cope?

I’ve been on both sides of the court and personally think you have to have to weigh up a few options. If you’re sitting on the bench throughout the season, are you benefitting from the training? Are you gaining skills by playing with shooters who have more experience? Are you developing as a shooter, even without getting the court time? The most important thing is that you should be constantly developing and moving forward, regardless of the amount of time you get on the court.

One of my mates used to play at a high level in NSW and spoke to Susan Pratley when she was an up-and-coming 18- year old playing for the Sydney Swifts. Susan was the third shooter in the team, with Australian Diamond netballers Catherine Cox and Megan Dehn getting the bulk of court-time. However, Susan would openly object to not being in the starting lineup – even though she was a much younger and inexperienced player. You have to admire that level of self-confidence and it’s no surprise Susan has been a stalwart for the Australian Diamonds for the last four years.

During the ANZ Championship Grand Final last month, Erin Bell played a stellar game as GA for the victorious Adelaide Thunderbirds. Erin started the season playing a sprinkling of games as WA and it was only during the end of the season that she cemented her spot as GA (the starting GA was Australian Diamond Kate Beveridge). Prior to her standout performance this season Erin spent five years on the sideline for the Sydney Swifts as the third shooter behind Catherine Cox and Susan Pratley. She gained valuable experience training with the Swifts but made the smart decision to move cities and teams to gain more court-time. The Thunderbirds were the champions of the 2010 ANZ Championship and last week Bell was named in the Australian Diamonds squad for the Commonwealth Games later this year. All the best to her – a great role model with fantastic dedication and persistence!

Netball shooting tips from Queensland Firebird, Alyssa Castrisos

Up and In caught up with Queensland Firebirds goal-attack Alissa Castrisos who shed some insightful advice about goal-shooting. Liss has represented the Queensland Firebirds from 2004-2010 and has represented Queensland from U17 - Open levels.

Up and In: How do you get your eye in on match-day? What's your pre-match routine?
Liss: On match day I normally head down to my local court to put up a few shots early in the morning. I always start shooting fairly close to the post and once I'm feeling comfortable at that range, then start to move further and further out once my shots are going in nicely. Once I've worked my way out towards the edge of the circle, I will start to mix up the type of shots that I am shooting, eg step in shots, turn and shoot, falling out of court, lines of 5 consecutive shots etc. I would normally shoot for about 15-20 minutes. When I arrive at the court before the game, I repeat this process again.

Up and In: If you've missed a couple shots and not feeling confident during a game, how do you recover?
Liss: Try not to worry about it, and go back to the basics with your shooting technique the next time you have an opportunity to shoot - remember to use your legs on the shot to give you power, take your time to line up the shot and get that flick of the wrist as you release the ball.

Up and In: What do you think, personally, has been the biggest factor into getting you playing at national level?
Liss: I've always kept persisting at it because I love the sport - I didn't always make every representative team when I was younger but I didn't let that discourage me and I kept training hard and trying out and eventually was rewarded with selection.

Up and In: What's the best advice you could give to an up-and-coming shooter?
Liss: Keep training hard and enjoying your netball - in my experience you play your best when you are having fun so make sure you remember the reason you play netball! Also, if you experience any disappointments or aren't selected in a particular team, don't be discouraged - learn from it, work harder and keep trying!

Glory Hunters

Playing netball at a high level requires a lot of dedication – but playing a shooting position at a high level requires mega levels of dedication! Shooter’s are often referred by other members of the team as the ‘glory hunters’. The truth is, we may be – but we deserve that title (and the glory)! Shooter sspend hours outside of regular team training practising and refining their technique.

There’s a few key things I learnt through years of training, things to really focus on during your shooting practise sessions:

• Always follow your shots on; fight for your own rebounds. When you practise shooting, constantly run to the post to rebound your own shot. Don’t be caught admiring your shot, you really must get into the rhythm of chasing in your goals. By practising this in training you learn how to read the rebound of your shot which gives you the advantage over any defender – honestly how fantastic is it when shooter’s get their own rebound? It can really lift your team!
• Mix up your shots and time between shots. Rarely do you shoot goals from the same spot during a game, so mix up the shot location. Also try to take a decent time break between shots. In some matches, there may be a 2, 3, 5, 10 minute break between each shot you take. In between shooting incorporate some fitness into your shooting sessions.
• Only count the shots that go in the hoop. If you plan to shoot 150 goals; make sure that’s 150 goals that go ‘up and in’ –not attempts!

Til my next posting, practise hard!

You can find the Up and In e-book at http://www.upandin.com.au