On Saturday, October 19, Netball Northern held its annual Development Day, gathering 45 talented players along with some of the zone’s up-and-coming umpires and community coaches. This day was packed with skill-building sessions, learning about fitness testing, NetballSmart workshops, specialised coaching sessions, and game time.
Netball Northern’s Athlete Lead, Pete McInnes, says the day was a testament to the many hours put in by the Netball Northern Scouting Group.
“They were at centre competitions, local and national tournaments during the season, where they scouted over 100 players from 40 different schools to invite to Development Day,” he says.
“We couldn’t have done it without them.”
Focus of Development Day
Development Day focusses on giving players an insight into what training looks like when it comes to performance netball and is the start of our Performance Pathway explains Pete.
“We take them through the national testing guidelines, teaching them why and how we test, so they can see what the future of performance looks like.”
Thanks to Yvette McCausland-Durie, Ripeka Pirie, Cory Nicholls, Leah Lazarus and Zak Middleton, as well as our Netball Northern team, it was an excellent day of learning from a great level of experience.
Fantastic opportunity
The day offered an excellent platform for players, coaches and umpires, with one of the community coaches, Madeline Moulds, Otamatea High School and the Northland Cluster U18’s coach, saying she was really pleased with the experience.
“It’s a fantastic opportunity for the girls to find out what testing looks like and how it feels,” she said.
“It was also great for me to spend time with Yvette and the other coaches, we face similar challenges, so working together to learn from each other is really important.”
Netball North Harbour umpire Niamh Galligan, who says it’s her dream to umpire internationally says she valued the opportunity to learn new skills and make connections.
“It’s always cool getting invited to the Northern zone events where you get to experience new things that we wouldn’t normally get at our centres and you get to meet new people as well.” she shared.
About the Netball Northern Performance Pathway
Visit our website for more information about the Netball Northern Performance Pathway
