Hello coaches!
We hope everyone is keeping safe and well. How exciting was the recent news about netball’s return to Stage 4a on our community roadmap!? This vital milestone for the sport means it will move to stage 4a of our revised Return to Community Netball Roadmap, allowing modified training to take place for groups of up to 30 people per court, subject to netball organisations following the guidance in place and having the required risk mitigations in place.
As members of England Netball, coaches can access ideas for netball fitness activity and training content on demand as part of our member exclusive offer – the Virtual Netball Club! Access a wealth of assets including skill sessions, fitness, strength and conditioning, recovery, and much more! This is a great opportunity for coaches to watch and learn from others, and take away some ideas and think about what adaptations and changes you can make to apply the ideas to your sessions and training.
The sessions have been designed to provide you with ideas to consider what you might do in your sessions with your players. This is an exciting opportunity for coaches to encourage their players to think, develop curiosity, and for coaches to develop their questioning skills to enhance players decision making. Some key considerations to take away into your sessions:
- Consider what space is available for when you return to training, and how this might affect the activities you plan
- Consider the intensity of the sessions, slowly building up over the weeks
- What numbers do you have attending your sessions? How can you ensure even with odd numbers, everybody is integrated?
- How could this activities and ideas work in your coaching environment?
Take a look below at some of the benefits available to help provide you with tips and inspiration for your sessions and return to court:
- Always wanted to develop your coaching skills by observing others? This opportunity is now available from the comfort of your own home! Take a look at some of the recorded sessions available through the VNC to note our coaching tips and tricks which could add value to your own sessions
- Throughout August, you will find weekly skills sessions for adults and a modified version for juniors, as well as weekly U11 ball handling sessions. Take a look at the recorded sessions to pick up coaching points appropriate for your age group for this type of skill focus – vital for your club’s return to netball
- Included in the sessions are key questions carefully designed during the session planning process by the coaches to help develop and enhance your players’ learning, understanding, problem-solving, decision-making and anticipation. By taking note of the nature of these questions and the timing with which they are delivered, you will be able to learn from and instigate discussions in your own sessions which will enhance the decision-making skills of your players and develop teamwork – making your job on the team bench much easier!
- Strength and conditioning sessions are also included within the VNC, providing a unique way for members to train like – and WITH – a Rose! Encourage your members to renew and purchase their England Netball membership as part of our #RiseAgain campaign to gain immediate exclusive access to these sessions
- Keep your coaching brains active with match analysis sessions with Vitality Roses’ Head Coach Jess Thirlby and special guests! Have your notepad and pen at the ready!
- Coach Corner not only includes match analysis sessions, but also includes member exclusive access to interviews with Jess Thirlby, British Canoeing, the British Army and others being frequently added
- NEW FOR AUGUST – Injury Reduction sessions with Vitality Roses physiotherapist, Julie Snow! Julie shares some top tips and takes you through some exercises that can help your players to keep those injuries at bay as you transition back into netball training.
- Ten weeks of junior training with Sasha Corbin are also available for all of our U11s straight from her living room! Sessions are designed are tactical game based scenarios, and are aimed to develop U11s skills in line with the Bee Netball framework
- Back by popular demand – netball fitness sessions! Help to get your players ready to return to play with our weekly fitness sessions. Your members can choose to either access them live, or catch up on a recording at a later date. You could even take a group of your members to coach them through these sessions together as they are designed with social distancing in mind!
- There are 10 weeks of tactical skill sessions available as recorded sessions as part of the Virtual Netball Club which took place throughout June and July. The sessions are carefully designed with you and your members in mind – your players can complete the session on their own at home, or you can gather your teams to train and lead them through it in a group whilst observing the England Netball and Government guidelines!
As always, make sure to check your Member Monday emails for weekly updates and session links, and as you tour the VNC members will have access to the pre-recorded sessions.
We hope the sessions available as part of the VNC will go some way to help support our members with their safe return to court! Don’t forget to tag us on Facebook (@EnglandNetballCoaching) and Twitter (@ENCoaching_) and let us know how you get on! :)
Team Coaching x
