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By admin, December 23, 2009 11:10 pm

Traditional mince pies. Photo courtesy of Nick J Webb at Flickr.com

It’s that time of year again when most of us go on the “seefood” diet – you see food and eat it (an old joke I know). There seems to be food on offer everywhere you go and you can easily end up eating and drinking to excess.

There’s usually no netball training or matches during the Christmas holidays, so your body gets dealt a double blow – you’re exercising less and eating a lot more. End result: you lose some fitness and gain unwanted pounds that you’ll be keen to shift come January 1st.

But when you do resume your regular exercise programme after a break, the first session back can seem a lot more effort than usual and you can end up with sore and aching muscles the next day. How to avoid this? Whilst, I don’t expect anyone to wake up on Christmas morning and bash out a few hundred sit-ups, try to do a little something over the festive period. Why not go for a swim or a run with a friend (weather permitting – we have snow in the UK right now) or try to attend fitness classes at your local sports centre.

Alternatively, there are lots of things you can do at home: knock out a few of those aforementioned sit-ups and add in some press-ups, dig out those hand-held weights that have been gathering dust under your bed or maybe even practise some gentle yoga to keep those muscles toned and supple. And, don’t forget to keep up those exercises I mentioned in last week’s blog post too.

Will I be practising what I preach? I will certainly try but I’m not promising anything! I do plan to keep going to my regular Boxercise class which will certainly help to burn off some of those mince pies but I shall be happy when netball training starts again too.

What do you do to maintain your fitness level during the holidays? Leave a comment on the blog to let everyone know your plans and how you get on.

Thanks for reading and Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Hope to hear from you in 2010.

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By admin, December 16, 2009 5:17 pm

Picture courtesy of Perfecto Insecto on Flickr.com

Netball is a high-impact sport and can be very physical at times so playing it regularly, whilst good for your fitness, is not so kind on the joints. The knees and ankles bear the brunt of all that running and jumping about and stiff, aching or swollen joints after a match are common among netball players. Does this sound familiar? Do you have trouble getting out of bed, never mind walking, the day after a match? The following is a quick list of some useful exercises for helping to keep things in working order. Please feel free to share any exercises you find beneficial.

The best exercises in the world will be of no use if you don’t actually do them so to get the most benefit try to

* practise the above exercises on a regular basis, ideally every day or every weekday

* do the exercises first thing in the morning so you get the benefit for the whole day

* do these exercise when your joints are feeling good, not just when they ache or feel stiff after a game

There are many alternatives to the above but I picked these as they can be done easily at home or at training – some of them can even be done whilst lying in bed! You may want to use versions that don’t involve lying down if you want to use some of these exercises as part of a pre-match warm-up, especially if you play outdoors. If you can’t manage to do 30 rotations or hold any position for 30 seconds, do what you can manage at first and build up slowly over time.

Try the exercises for awhile and let me know if you notice any difference in how your joints feel. Notice also if there is any improvement in your performance on court or post-match recovery. Do you have any exercises that you want to add to the above list?

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By admin, November 9, 2009 11:00 pm

Photo courtesy of ChuckAitch on Flickr.com

Coaching netball can be immensely rewarding for many reasons. You are helping players to reach their full potential, whether you coach elite players or primary school kids, and at the same time giving something back to netball. Also, if your playing career has taken a back seat you still get to stay involved with the sport you love.

Coaching requires plenty of enthusiasm and dedication but you also need to be organised, willing to keep learning and to be a good communicator so it’s not going to appeal to everyone. This week, we feature an exclusive interview with one such individual who found coaching a natural fit. Emma Blackmore is the Regional Talent Coach for England Netball’s London & South East region. Her role includes mentoring other coaches and further developing the skills of the region’s most talented athletes. Continue reading 'Elite netball coach gives insight into mentoring talented athletes'»

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By admin, November 1, 2009 11:48 pm

Samoa sub with WD paddle. Photo courtesy of Steve from www.playnetball.com

The inaugural World Netball Series featured a modified version of netball, or Fast Net as IFNA calls it. There are hopes that this version of netball will help the bid for netball to be included in the Olympics, although it won’t make the cut for 2012.

IFNA promised a ‘fast, ferocious and vibrant competition’ and it probably delivered on that score, but isn’t netball already fast and dynamic?  For all its innovations, can the Fast Net style of netball compete with the thrilling encounters provided by international tests, the ANZ Championships or the Co-operative Superleague?  There were many drastic rule changes, but will any of them be adopted into the traditional form of netball? Some of the main differences between both forms of the game were:

• shorter quarters – instead of the usual 15 minutes, quarters were only 6 minutes long so each team had to play their best netball from the outset, conditions similar to playing in a regular 0ne-day tournament. This can lead to rather frantic, error-strewn play as teams try to quickly find their rhythm. However, a regular netball match is only one hour long so is there any real need to shorten the game?
• double points for shots scored from outside the circle – this change certainly got the crowd excited as every time anyone got the ball on the circle edge, whether they were a shooter or not, the crowd was shouting “shoot, shoot!” A fun concept but would it be taking netball back too close to its basketball roots?
  
• Power Play quarter – the idea of doubling any points scored in this quarter also livened up the game but if both team use this option at the same time, the potential bonuses for either team could be negated.
• rolling subs – this rule change will probably find its way into the regular form of netball, at least at the top levels. Some elite coaches already feel the current rules on substitutions are too restrictive. Continue reading 'World Netball Series: Did it deliver the “wow” factor?'»

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By admin, October 20, 2009 6:24 pm

Picture courtesy of Lochnagarth

This post was going to be about the recent Co-Operative World Netball Series tournament but after reading some rather ill-advised comments about netball we felt the need to post a response. A keen-eyed netball fan spotted the article in last Friday’s edition of the London Evening Standard, written by respected journalist and BBC TV presenter, John Inverdale. The online version can be found here, just after the piece about Wasps Rugby Club.

Credit where credit’s due; Mr Inverdale is at least writing about netball, and in an established newspaper. However, his comments have landed him in hot water with netball fans around the globe. Judging by his comments, he’s never actually played netball before and he’s all but branded it as being dull. Apparently, it just too easy to score in netball and this makes the game ‘repetitious and unfulfilling’. These comments followed an afternoon spent watching the top 6 teams in the world play a drastically modified version of the game at the World Netball Series in Manchester.

Continue reading 'Is it too easy to score in netball?'»

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By admin, October 12, 2009 8:37 pm

Have you ever wondered what it takes to be an elite player? In this video interview with TeachPE.com, England Coach Sue Hawkins gives a few tips and pointers on what it takes to be the best at netball, how to keep yourself fit and dealing with common injuries.

Sue’s natural competitiveness and passion for the game really shine through. Will her influence be enough to help England win gold at the next Commonwealth Games in Delhi in 2010?

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By admin, October 5, 2009 8:06 pm

Australia v England Netball Test - Adelaide, October 2008. Photo courtesy of paddynapper

The Co-operative World Netball Series will debut at the M.E.N Arena in Manchester from the 9 -11th October. The new format will challenge the fitness, technical ability and tactical awareness of the best players in the world according to IFNA, netball’s governing body. IFNA has invested a great deal of time over the last 12 months developing their Fast Net format which they consider innovative, with the hope of attracting new participants and broadening netball’s international fan base.

IFNA promises a ‘fast, ferocious and vibrant competition’ that will feature some of the world’s best players from the top six netball nations – currently Australia, England, Jamaica, Malawi, New Zealand and Samoa – and are treating this as an opportunity to showcase netball to the world.

Continue reading 'World Netball Series: What’s it all about?'»

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By admin, September 14, 2009 5:37 pm

Who’d be a netball umpire? It takes a certain type of person to want to be an umpire. A pretty brave person we think because mostly umpiring is a thankless task.  No-one’s happy when a decision goes against them but next time you feel like venting your frustrations on the umpires, remember that without them we wouldn’t be able to play netball.

English umpiring was given a boost at the recent World Youth Netball Championships in the Cook Islands. Although England’s U21 team missed out on the medals, the event was a huge success for English umpiring as three England umpires were invited by IFNA to participate and Gary Burgess passed the award to become an International Umpire. Also, Bill Alexander was appointed as a member of the Umpire Appointments Panel.

Hoping to follow in their footsteps in the not too distant future is Lucy Mitchell, who at the age of 21 became one of England Netball’s youngest ‘A’ Award umpires.

Continue reading 'Netball Umpires – We love them really'»

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By admin, August 25, 2009 4:12 pm

Australia v England Netball Test - Adelaide, October 2008

Why isn’t there more netball on TV in the UK? If netball was a male dominated sport, it would be on prime time TV on the major channels.It’s great that you can now catch Superleague games on Sky but what about those of us who don’t have Sky?

Compare this with the situation in NZ. I lived there in 2006 and there was live coverage of games from their premier domestic competition, (the National Bank Cup now replaced by the ANZ Championships), on prime time TV every Saturday and Sunday throughout the whole competition. Women make up 51% of the population in the UK – why not try and engage our attention? To have more netball on TV would be encouraging to netball players at all levels and especially to young girls who tend to drop out of sport sooner than their male counterparts.

Continue reading 'More Netball on TV please'»

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By admin, June 26, 2009 4:42 pm

Netball tournament, Rotorua, New Zealand

Hello and welcome to Netball Match.

This blog is going to be about all things netball-related and maybe a few things that aren’t.

The main aim is to spread the word that Netball is really the beautiful game.

For those of you that know me, you’ll know that I run a business designing and selling T-shirts aimed at netball fans. I’ve been playing around with it for a few years now, but I’m finally getting my act together! Hence, the new website and new name – it was formerly Curli Sportswear but obviously that wasn’t very netball related.

I want to post on a regular basis and would really appreciate your comments and feedback. Let me know what you think about netball, this blog and my T-shirt design ideas shown on the Products page.

Please join our mailing list if you would like to receive newsletters and product updates.

That’s it for now. Talk to you soon

Alison