Hello Coaches, we hope you are having a lovely weekend!
The 10th November is here and this months top tips focus on Walking Netball! We caught up with some of our Walking Netball Experts Pauline Hardy, Debbie Spindlow, Karen Peaty and Ruth Pickthorn and picked their brains for their top 10 tips for delivering a first class Walking Netball experience. From your very first welcome through to socialising as a group, what are the magic ingredients to a fabulous Walking Netball session?
Grab a cuppa, sit back, pop your feet up on this Sunday afternoon and enjoy reading through our top tips and ideas below.
Happy Coaching! :)
- A warm and effective meet and greet is key, especially for first session. If possible, ask you Netball Development Officer to come along for your first session to support. Ask the ladies to come along 20 minutes prior to session start time – this allows for socialising, introductions and any paperwork to be completed rather than trying to rush all of these at the start of the session
- Make sure to check at the start everyone is fit and well to take part in the session. Provide demonstrations for each activity on how it should be done safely, and remind the ladies it is their session, so they can do as much or as little as they feel up to, with regular rest breaks encouraged!
- I tend to start every session with what I call a “Chuck and a Chat”; where the ladies pick up a ball/bean bag/balloon and chat about their week, what they’ve done, watched or read! I also normally get some good TV or book recommendations out of it too!
- Try to add a theme onto a session every now and again – for example, during Wimbledon why not play a game of “netball tennis”?
- Always be prepared to listen as some ladies might not have any other contact during the week – always ask them how their week has been
- Enjoy the ladies company as they all have different motivations for coming
- Once the session is established I’ll try and give roles out to some people; whether it be completing the register, being the “Welcome Committee” or deliver the Warm Up/Cool Down. This gives a sense of responsibility to the players and builds confidence for them to take the plunge and go on the Walking Netball Training
- Respect the ladies different ages and abilities – make adaptions if you need to and don’t get too overwhelmed with the nitty gritty rules!
- Identify abilities during warm up and drills so when you go into match play you can put like for like marking each other
- Cuppa time- sit down with the ladies and enjoy a cuppa you have deserved it! I love the random conversations we have and the ladies love it
