Tuesday, August 22, 2006

netball coaching tips, coaching ideas to keeping it fresh

Netball coaching tips to keep things fresh, fun, and fantastic times. These are some things that came up with coaching younger netball teams. These are young netball players that sometimes have a hard time focusing and working hard for long period of times. So here are some coaching tips of getting the most of your players.

1. Make training short and sharp - 1 hour max. but they work hard for that
time...and I mean hard!
2. Vary each session so that sometimes ball work is at the end and tactics
at the start etc.
3. Sometimes just organise a practice match or round robin.
4. Sometimes play a game but I find setting very specific goals for 5 min
segments works well. Set a goal, play for 5 mins - 1min only break to assess
and set the next goal - play another 5mins etc. This can keep players really
focused especially if you set a goal that can be kept score.
5. Try to make all drills into a game of some sort so players don't know
they are learning. Some coaches teach totally through games and structure it
so players are discovering things themselves. This can work very well.

Remember if something has worked very well one week it's unlikely to work
well the next.....keep coming up with different ideas. Coaching certainly
is challenging....but rewarding too.

Monday, August 21, 2006

netball defensive drill, netball zone, netball court

Zone Out

Defensive Drill

Resources: 2 thirds of a netball court

Drill description:
Split your players into groups of two. One to attack – one to defend.
Defenders will line up along the middle transverse line between the 2 thirds.
Attackers will line up along the base line, matched up as a pair with 1 defender.
Attackers will run at defenders 2 at a time, from varied positions along the base line. It is up to the coach to select and call on 2 attackers.
The other players will wait to the side of the court until they are called upon.
The Defenders are to Zone the Attackers from getting into the area behind them.
Repeat the steps until all persons have had a turn, and change roles.

Coaching Points:
Ensure contact is monitored from both Attackers and Defenders.
If there are more courts, more players can go at once.
Be careful of too many people working this drill in a small place.

Variations:
Players can all be Attackers and one person is the Defender. After zoning several people, they join the end of the line of Attackers and someone else becomes the Defender. So on until everyone has had a substantial try at Zoning, perhaps giving the Defenders longer.
This can be utilised around the goal ring between Goal Attacking players and Goal Defending players.
As opposed to a one-on-one scenario, players can adopt a complete zone along the line and take on the Attacking player whom ever is closer at the time.

Progression:
This drill should help players develop Zoning skills. The focus of having 2 persons moving in the same area helps give more of a game feel. By this it’s more realistic that only having one on one as 2 defenders or more may be zoning in an actual game.
The idea is to get the basic skill perfected and then move on to the full complete zone, where a player will zone another and then if need be stay in their area and zone a different player who may come their way.