Netball study - P.E coursework

GCSE Physical Education (Sport & Coaching)

For my course work I will be coaching netball.

About Netball

Netball is a fast skilful team game based on running, jumping, throwing and catching. Teams may consist of up to 12 players but only seven players may be on the court at one time, the extra players will be used if one of the players on court are injured or to tired. The aim of the game is to get the ball in the opposing goal ting as many times as possible throughout a match. The court is split by two lines that divide the court into thirds. At both ends of the court there is a shooting semicircle and a 10ft goal post with no back board. Each player has a playing position determined by the areas of the court where they may move. The playing positions are; Goal shooter (GS), Goal Attack (GA), Wing Attack (WA), Centre (C), Wing defence (WD), Goal Defence (GD), Goal Keeper (GK)

Position responsibilities

A bit about the rules

Centre passes

Centre passes are taken alternately by the C, after a goal has been scored.

All players must start in the goal thirds in their starting positions, except for the two C’s who stay in the centre third. The Centre with the ball starts with either one or both feet in the Centre Circle. The opposing Centre stands anywhere within the Centre Third and is free to move and mark players form within. After the whistle is blown the footwork rule applies to the centre. Both feet should be in the circle, but if a player has only one foot in the circle, the other mustn’t be touching ground outside the circle.

The players outside the centre third must run into the centre to receive the ball. A Centre pass must be caught or touched by a player in or landing in the Centre third, if this does not happen then it is considered over a third and a free pass is awarded to the opposing team.

After receiving a pass

When a player receives a pass they are not allowed to run/dribble the ball. However they may only bounce or bat the ball once to gain control.

Players have to be standing before they throw the ball.

Players have three seconds to make a pass or shot after catching the ball.

Footwork

After receiving the ball, a player may land or stand on:

One foot – while the landing foot remains still, the second foot may be moved anywhere.
If a player lands with two feet (simultaneously), they can choose one foot to move, after it is moved the other is considered to be the landing foot, which can’t be moved until a pass is made.

Players cannot hop or drag their feet, as this will be considered as footwork.

Offside

Offside is when a player moves out of their own area. They can be pulled up for this whether they have the ball or not. A free pass is awarded to the opposing team.

Over a third

Balls may not be thrown over two third lines without being touched by at least one player; this will result in a free pass from the second third line the ball crossed.

Throw in

The ball is considered out of court when it hits anything outside the court area. The ball is returned into play by a Throw-In, this is taken by the opposite team to the one which touched the ball last before going out of play. It is taken from a point outside the line where the ball left the court. The player taking the throw in must have their feet up to but not over the line. The 3 second rule applies when the player is in position and holding the ball.

Obstruction

If a player has the ball the defenders foot must be 0.9m (3ft) feet from the landing foot of the player with the ball. The defender can jump and spread their arms, as long as they do not move in towards the attacking player. The defenders are not aloud to deliberately block the attackers view by placing their hands in front of their face or eyes.

If a player does not have the ball the defender may be as close as they want, but not touching. The defender must have her arms in a natural position. They can’t be outstretched.

Contact

No player may contact an opponent, in such a way that interferes with the play of that opponent. If this happens it will result in a penalty pass being awarded to the opposing team.

When these rules are broken

Penalty pass/shot

If a penalty pass/shot is awarded the offender must stand out of play beside the thrower until the pass or shot has been taken. A penalty pass/shot is awarded when the obstruction or contact rule is broken.

The penalty pass/shot may be taken by any player that is allowed in the area.

Free pass

If a free pass is awarded it may be taken by any player allowed in that area, as soon as they have taken up a stationary position. The pass may be taken by any player aloud in that area, but players in the shooting circle may not shoot.

A free pass is awarded for any other rule broken.

I may not need all of these rules/criteria in the sessions I plan, but I will be using them when I am watching the pre-test match to establish their weaknesses or areas to work on in my coaching.

I will be using 5 of the players from the school year 9 team, these will be the;

GS- Zoe

WA – Lianne

GA – Aimee

C – Kim

The year 9’s have played in the school team for about 2½ years and have experience of playing matches, but there is also still a lot they have to learn. The year 9’s should have a good understanding of all the rules as the majority of these rules will occur many times in their matches. I expect the year 9’s to be able to judge spacing and timing (3seconds). Off side shouldn’t be occurring within the game as the year 9’s should know exactly where they are allowed. The distance of which a person marking from is sometimes misjudged and they maybe pulled up for obstruction, but shouldn’t happen consistently at their level.

I have played Netball for around 7 years. I have played WA for my secondary school team since year 7 and in year 10 I played netball for North Cumbria U16’s. I have also played in a women’s league outside of school. This has helped improve my level of play and knowledge of the game. This will help my coursework and coaching as I have learnt a lot of different skills and tactics which I can use to help the year 9’s.

I am going to watch the team play a match. I will be assessing their individual weaknesses and the whole team’s weak points. This will help me establish their level of play. I will be able to identify the weaknesses as I have a good knowledge of the game and the rules.

After watching the team play I have gathered some important information on them;

Aimee seems to have trouble at getting away from her defender in the shooting area. She is quick, but doesn’t always use her speed when she needs to.

Zoe is a good shooter, however she is clumsy with the ball and finds it hard to find space to receive a ball in the shooting area, as she moves slowly when in the circle and is not always certain about her footwork.

Kim is not a fast player and she gives up too easily when she is trying to get free,

Lianne lacks confidence and like Kim she gives up too easily when it comes to getting free from her marker.

I have decided that I will be coaching a number of different methods that can be used for getting free from their marker. Being good at getting free from their marker is essential for maximising the chances of receiving passes down the court and winning a game. I thought that this was one of the players’ weaknesses and resulted in the passes being intercepted and possession of the ball lost. It is also very useful especially for the attacking players when it is their centre pass, they must be able to get away quick to receive the ball. I will also be coaching different centre pass tactics as I feel that they were losing the ball a lot even when it was their centre pass.

I noticed that Lianne and Aimee were not able to get away from their marker and therefore were not quick enough to receive the pass, because they weren’t fast enough, the centre passes were intercepted and possession was lost. The flaws that I have seen in their game will form the basis of my coaching and all of the skills I will coach will be based this.

I will be monitoring, assessing and evaluating the progress of each player during every session. I will be writing down the results, talking about which players have improved and why, which are not so good and why they are not improving.

I will see which players listen to what they are taught and which put it into practise and use the different methods of getting free and centre pass.

I will be planning 5 sessions for the year 9’s after school with the aim of improving the year 9 attacking players’ game.

I will be coaching the sessions inside on the netball court in the school gym. It would be better and we would have more room if we go outside, however the weather us cold and wet, which would not be pleasant for anybody. The courts would also be wet which would make them slippy. I feel by doing my coaching on the indoor court, I will get the most out of the players.

I will be using, 2 balls at a time. I will be using cones to mark out the areas and a stopwatch to time some of the drills.

Sessions

In each session I will be including a warm up and a cool down.

Warming up before any physical activity is very important. A proper warm-up helps raise the temperature in the muscles and makes them more flexible, this lowers the risk of injury. A warm up increases heart rate and blood flow around the body, warming synovial fluid making joints more mobile. A warm up should include some stretching of all the main joints to increase the range of movement and stops muscles, tendons, ligaments from getting strained. I will be doing a couple of different warm ups throughout my sessions as some are not as physically demanding as others. Doing upper body stretches as well as lower body ones before netball is important as playing netball is demanding on the player’s arms.

1st warm up

General warm-up:

To begin the warm-up they will be doing a few minutes of light jogging around the netball court.

Then running from one end of the court to the other bending down and touching every line they come to. After that they will do side steps and raising their arms above their heads while moving from one end to the other. The last one will be heel flicks- running kicking feet up at the back.

Also while stationary I will get them to move their arms in circular motions making bigger and smaller ...

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1st warm up

General warm-up:

To begin the warm-up they will be doing a few minutes of light jogging around the netball court.

Also while stationary I will get them to move their arms in circular motions making bigger and smaller circles, to loosen up their arms and shoulders.

This warm up stretches muscles and raises their temperature, increases heart rate and will get them ready for doing a lot of running around.

2nd warm up
Warm up Description: Cone Twist -20 cones are placed in the centre third (1/2 upside-down). Team A's challenge is to turn the cones the correct way up and team B vice versa. Time limit 30 seconds. This warm up is good for raising the heart rate, but does not have the same benefit to the muscles as the 1st warm up, because it does not include standard stretches. It does however warm all muscles as they use their legs for bending up and down and their arms for turning the cone, and of course increases the heart rate and blood flow around the body.

A cool down is important to help the body recover after vigorous exercise. A cool down should include a slow gentle jog, this keeps blood moving around the body so that more oxygen can reach the muscles and help clear away lactic acid faster which stops the players muscle’s being too sore the day after. Stretching should be included in a warm down, this will loosen muscles, prevent stiffness as muscles get tight after heavy exercise.

My cool downs will be the same in each session. The cool downs will include a slow jog or fast walk to loosen muscles for a few minutes. Also a few static stretches, hamstrings stretch; standing with legs straight with feet shoulder width apart, bend at the hips forwards and lean down with arms as far as possible, trying to touch their toes, holding it for 5seconds and returning to standing position. To stretch quadriceps, stand on one leg, bend the other behind and hold into the body while standing tall and keeping the knees together, hold for 5 seconds, repeat on both legs. To stretch arms, bring one arm across the top of your body straight and with the other arm hold and gently push the straight arm in towards the body (do not hold the arm at the elbow), repeat on both arms.

Session 1

In this 1st session I will start by telling the players what they are going to do and make sure they know when they are expected to come to the sessions.

This session I will be using the 1st warm-up that I described previously. Also I will be looking at how they perform this as an indication of how fit the players are and maybe reconsider certain parts of my other sessions, if I feel that they will be too physically demanding for the players.

The aim of this session is to improve the way and the effectiveness of getting free.

This session will be all about coaching the players how to get free and different methods of getting free. These are as follows:

A Straight Sprint– from their position, turn with both feet facing the direction of movement and sprint to the side of the opponent to give maximum space.

Starting on a line, I will shout go for them to sprint to the next line on the court.

How fast a player can sprint will determine whether or not they can get free. With practise players can become faster and maximise chances of getting away from opponents.

Change of Direction – Sprinting in one direction before turning on the balls of the feet to sprint in the opposite direction. On my command from the top line of the court they will sprint and when I shout turn, they will turn on the balls of their feet and sprint off again.

This method takes practise and is not always easy for everyone to do. Being able to change direction quickly is important, as not only do you lose the marker you can quickly adapt your direction to play, for example to receive a pass.

Change of Speed – vary the use of speed, finishing with a sprint. Don’t waste energy running fast all the time, jog then quickly change speed into a sprint to get away from a marker and receive a pass. When going through the change of speed method I will shout jog, then suddenly shout sprint and then walk. I will mix the speeds up to get them used to changing speed. This is a good method if your marker gives up easily or is not as fit as you, walking or jogging away when you see the direction of play change can give an advantage, putting a bigger gap between you then sprinting to receive a pass.

We will then finish of with a cool down that will take about 10minutes.

Session 2

The Warm up they will be doing in this session will be the general one as it is more physical.

Reverse Pivot or Rolling Off – step to one side to draw the defender, pivot on that foot, make quick half turn with back towards defender and sprint in the opposite direction and in a semi circle.

They will go through this skill in pairs, I will shout go and the attacker will go

through the skill trying to get away from the defender. Then the players will

switch places.

Sprint/stop/Sprint – This is used when an opponent is faster than you, or it could be a fake and go. By faking a run this will confuse the marker and the player can get away to receive a pass. I will shout go and they will sprint, each line they come to they will make a clear stop then sprint on again.

Running the gauntlet

In a designated area, using lines or cones, the white team must attempt to dodge past each defending player.
Defending players must only use sideways steps along the linein order to prevent them getting past. This makes the attackers improve their use of sharp and committed movements while practising their getting free techniques to lose the defenders. Changing round so everyone gets a few goes.

Play running the gauntlet, this helps them put into practise the techniques they have learnt in the last session. Hopefully they will improve and use what they know about getting free.

They will then do a good cool down as they will have been running a lot.

Session 3

The aim of this session will be to work with the year 9’s and give them some different Centre pass tactics to try out, they can then decide which will work best for them and then work on it.

In this session I will be including the 2nd warm up as the session isn’t very physically demanding and will not need a vigorous warm up.

I am going to coach centre pass tactics, I feel that knowing new tactics and knowing how to carry them out will be vital for the year 9 team, to help them improve further.

Centre pass tactics

There are different netball tactics, a lot depend on the strengths of the team and what the defenders are like. If the goal attack is good at sprinting then they will have a better chance of getting away from the defenders and receiving the ball quickly.

Getting free skills are very important in a centre pass, the quicker they get away the more chance they have of receiving the ball in the centre third and less chance of the ball being intercepted.

At a centre pass the attackers and C should be aware of who will most likely be able to receive the pass and know what will work best for them. If the GA is quicker and better at getting away than the WA therefore she should be the main person to receive a pass. Once the stronger attacker has been established then, the player needs to know where they are going to receive their pass.

The getting free tactics that I taught them in the previous session will help them greatly at a centre pass.

I will work with the WA, GA, GS and C in this session even though technically the GS cannot enter the centre third, Zoe occasionally swaps positions with Aimee (GA) so I thought that it would be just as useful to her as the other players. .

The 1st thing I am going to work on with them is where to receive the pass. The place I find is best to receive a pass is to the side of the centre.

Without using any defenders to start I will shout go and the WA will go first and sprint to the side of the C. She will be running forwards and outwards to give maximum space from the defender. The GA will then do the same on my command.

It is important that the centre is aware of where she is passing and that she doesn’t pass too soon. Timing is also essential for both the C and the receiver. The ball should be passed by the C before the WA/GA gets to the side of the centre, but not too soon that the player cannot reach it and the ball goes out of court. The WA and GA should sprint fast in order to get to the ball.

It is important on a centre pass like this one, that the players are able to read the pass, e.g. where it is going to be thrown to, how far it is from them and how fast they need to travel to get therer. They must not just run in a little and wait for the ball to come to them, they must move into the space where the ball is being thrown and receive it.

I noticed that when it was a centre pass, Aimee especially went to her starting position and stood right over near the side line. She does not have to stand there, she can stand wherever she likes along the line. I am going to tell the girls and suggest that they stand further into the middle of the court. On their centre pass the defenders stand inside of the person they mark, so if they move further towards the middle the defender are in the middle, so when the player sprints out to receive a pass the defender is further away and has less chance of catching up with the players.

Session 3 diagram.

Session 4

I will be including a lot of running and quick movements so they will be doing the general warm up.

This session includes games for the players that will help them learn more about getting free. Especially their second game it will make them incorporate and use the skills they have been doing in previous sessions.

Dodging

Using the four players they will pair up and decide a defender and an attacker.

In one third, a player pretends to move one way, and then sprints in the opposite direction to receive the ball from a feeder.
After the feeder has passed the ball, she then has to do the same and try to receive the ball. Try to get 3 out of 5 passes in a row before possession changes.

Aimee and Kim are on one team and Lianne and Zoe will be on the other team.

This requires fast and swift movements and the knowledge of getting free. This will reinforce and improve their ability to get free.

Sprint dodge

In 3s. One player is the feeder.

The other two stand behind a line - 1 attacker, 1 defender.

To start with the defender must stay static. The attacker should stand behind the defender and run out to receive a pass. After a few passes the defender can start to move along a line, trying to intercept passes.

Once it is working well and they are comfortable with what they are doing they will switch around so that they all get to do different positions.

If it is not working well, I will introduce a command. When the command is shouted the feeder must pass the ball and the attacker must push straight out from the line immediately following the command. This requires timing and skill.

Hopefully the girls should be able to use the skills they have been taught in other sessions to succeed in theses games.

They will then do a cool down.

Session 5

They will start with the general warm up.

The aim of this session is to enhance the player’s skills of getting free and then bringing in more players to make it harder and more realistic to a real game, so that when they play a game it is not a shock and they are used to having more players around.

Shadowing

In pairs, both players face each other. One player moves quickly from left to right, using small side steps and back steps. Their partner tries to keep up and shadow their movements. After repeating a few times and swapping positions, they will repeat it using a feeder as well and see if the player can get free and receive a ball when play is shouted. The feeder must throw the ball to a place where the player is sprinting to when play is started.

The shadowing game will help the players to get free. When the word play is shouted the players should get free quickly and take opportunities. This will show how quickly they respond to game, say if the ball started to come back up the court and they needed to get free they should be able to respond by reacting quickly (and first-before their marker reacts) and being in the right place to be available to receive a pass.

Odd mini-match

In 3 teams of 2 players.
Using two thirds of the courts, 2 teams of two combine to play against the 3rd team. The two players must keep the ball between them and make it from the top of one third to the end of the other third. They will swap the teams of two around so that they all get a go at attacking.

This game requires a lot of movement away from players and quick skilful play between the attacking two.

This game involves more players than usual and will hopefully test the girls and how they use the skills they have learnt, they should be getting free quickly and responding to where other players are on the court and where the ball is.

Warm ups

By doing a warm up at the start of each session it was easy for me to notice the fitness of each player and how she improved

The general warm up gave me a better indication to how fit the girls are as it contains jogging and quite a lot of running while stretching the muscles.

Aimee

Aimee has quite good fitness; however she did get out of breath too easily when she was jogging. This did get better over the weeks and in the last two sessions it was clear to me that her fitness had improved as she was significantly less out of breath. She did understand how to perform the stretches and performed the all correctly.

Zoe

Zoe had good fitness and obviously does a lot of sport. She was only out of breath a little after the whole warm up. However she was not good at the heel flicks as she went too fast and was not kicking her heels far enough back. Even after I had shown her, she still found it difficult. When Zoe was doing the side steps she was not raising her arms up at the start, but in the last two sessions she did do it correctly and improved. Her fitness did not show any increases from the 1st session to the last.

Kim

Kim has a rather below average fitness; she went quite red and got tired easily, because she was tired even after the jogging she made mistakes and lagged behind when they were bending down at the lines. She also made mistakes in the heel flicks and side steps; she did not put a lot of energy into them, especially in the side steps as she wasn’t raising her arms at above her head. Kim’s fitness did improve slightly towards the last session, however Kim should continue exercising and possibly do more sport than she is at present to improve her fitness more.

Lianne

Lianne had poor fitness and got out of breath very easily and could not keep up with the running and stretching. This concerned me as she might not have been able to keep up with the other players and in the games in the sessions. Lianne showed determination and did not give up easily, she kept putting effort in and carried out the warm ups well. She did not make mistakes in the heel flicks, however she was slow.

All of the girls enjoyed the cone twist warm-up as it is competitive and is more like a game than a warm up.

Aimee and Lianne both enjoyed this game and really got competitive, they won the game and showed good team work. Aimee in particular worked very quickly as did Kim.

Even though the warm up only lasted 30seconds, it was easy to see which players were fitter than others. Zoe was the least tired after the game, then Aimee. Lianne was the least fit and that showed a lot as she was out of breath for a few minutes.

Session 1

The first session went well, all the girls were interested in what they were doing and all the girls were on time.

I had watched the players before and this gave me good ideas of the abilities the girls have in the areas I was coaching, so they needed to listen to me and what they were going to do. They did listen and showed interest and enthusiasm about learning how to get free.

All of the girls picked up the methods quickly and performed them well, some better than others.

I used my previous knowledge of the game, and the methods to assess and score the players out of ten on different criteria in this session. Whilst watching them I could assess theirs skills and faults and will help them improve and give them the help if they should need it.

The players needed to perform the separate activities correctly, showing speed and the correct movements.

The player that impressed me the most was Aimee Lawson she was the quickest to understand and asked questions to make sure she was doing it right.

Lianne was the weakest player as she got tired and didn’t concentrate as much on the movements towards the end.

This table shows how I marked the girls and explains why I gave them these scores outlining their good points and bad points. These scores reflect what saw I and how well they performed the tasks and how they improved.

The table on the next page shows the marks I gave the girls and explains why I gave them these scores, outlining their good and bad points using my knowledge of the game and the set tasks. These score reflect how well they performed the tasks and how they improved from beginning to the end of the session.

>Reaction- I looked at the time it took them to respond after I shouted the drills, e.g. how long it took them to change direction, if they changed in the next stride they took (good reaction time), or it took them a couple or more strides. Also how fast they started to sprint or change speed after I shouted/whistle blew, if they hesitated or not, if they did this was a slower reaction time.

>Required movements- I marked them on how well they understood and carried out the new skills they were taught in this session.

>Speed- I marked them on the use of speed, how effectively they used their speed under different circumstances, how they changed speed and if there was a noticeable change in their jogging and sprinting.

>Improvement at the end- I was looking at how well they had improved from the first time they did each task to their final attempts after learning them.

It is clear from the graph that Lianne was weak in this session, with Zoe and Kim around the Same level and Aimee is clearly the strongest player in this.

Session 2

This session caused a lot of confusion among the girls and they did not pick up on what they were supposed to do as quickly as I had hoped.

I had to go through the reverse pivot and running gauntlet activities twice. The main problem with the reverse pivot was getting the coordination of which way they were turning and which way they were running towards after they turned. So I introduced cones at the points where they have go around, such as the point where they needed to be at the end.

After introducing the cones the girls understood where they needed to be and quickly improved in speed and the effectiveness of getting free, some more so than others.

Aimee and Kim followed the instructions well and when they were doing the sprint/stop/sprint they responded quickly and made clear stops.

I think all the girls worked at the same level in this session, there were only small differences in their fitness and ability to keep up.

By the end of the session they showed me that they had learnt and remembered how to get free from the defenders and maximising the space through speed and skills during the running of the gauntlet. Some of the girls used a bigger range of tactics than others to dodge the defenders in running the gauntlet.

On the next page I have marked the girls out of 10 on many different areas of this session.

In this session I marked them on their….

>Use of coached movements – I marked them on the variety of skills they have been coached that they used to get free when running the gauntlet and the how effectively they used tactics to get free in the other drills, this included all the skills they had learnt in the previous session.

>Required movement- was how well they understood and carried out the new skills they were taught in this session, the main focus of this mark was the reverse pivot drill.

>Improvement at the end- I was looking at how well they had improved in all aspects of the session and whether they had taken on all the things I had coached, and used it.

>Speed- I marked them on the use of their speed, how effectively they used it under the circumstances e.g. when getting past defender.

This is a picture of Aimee doing the reverse pivot, she has just turned and is running in a semi circle, leaving Zoe behind.

Kim, Lianne and Zoe were weak in this session and didn’t perform very well, however Aimee got a good mark and was overall better than them in this session.

Session 3

This session was focused on improving the whole team’s centre pass by coaching the key players involved in the centre pass. Although Zoe is the GS and is not involved in the centre pass, she occasionally changes positions with Aimee to be a GA so it was still important for her to be part of this session.

The girls were very happy to learn how to improve their centre passes. They agreed with me that this was one of their weakest parts of a match.

They were open to ideas and listened well to what they were going to do and the explanations behind it. They all understood why it helps to run out towards the side of the centre and the reasons behind moving closer into the middle when returning to starting positions before the centre pass.

The only major problem in this session was the timing of the pass being thrown and received. Kim (C) was mainly at fault for the timing issues. This was acceptable as they haven’t done it a lot before and it was a new method to learn.

After practising, a lot of talking, walking the girls through the steps and making sure they were comfortable with timing, they slowly started improving and by the end their positions and the timing were showing promising improvements.

In this session I marked them on their:

>Timing, as this was the key outcome of the centre pass. If they don’t time things right they would be more likely to lose possession. So I was looking for the timing of the player running into the centre third and to the position out to the side of the centre and whether the centre got the timing of the pass right to the position and if that was right they would have received the pass with no problems.

>Speed- this is important in order to get to the area where the ball is being passed and change the speed to receive the incoming pass.

>Space and ball awareness, I looked to see if the attackers used the width of the court, if they kept their eye on the ball to see where it was coming from and going. With Kim I looked for whether she was throwing the ball to the right place, and whether she was taking into account how far away the player was from her and where they were going.

>Improvement at the end- I was looking at how well they had improved in all aspects of the session and whether they had taken on all the things I had coached, and used it.

This shows That Aimee received the pass far out to the side in the middle. Lianne has still only just caught up with Aimee as she is ready to pass the ball again.

The overall marks for the players in this session were very close, Aimee was only slightly better than Lianne. Kim was clearly the weakest player in this session.

Session 4

In this session the girls all showed that they had improved in the effectiveness of getting free and the different ways they do this. They showed that they could put this into practise in semi-real situations on the court with defenders present.

Some of the girls however were working at a much higher level than others.

Aimee was one of them, she was faster than all of the other girls and was too good for them at times.

This session included defenders, so the girls switched roles to be defenders as well as attackers.

This proved to be hard for some of the girls that were not fast enough or comfortable with being the person trying to stop the other from getting the ball and making them tightly.

But it is useful for each player to learn this because even an attacker will have to do some defending at times in a game.

The passing from one attacker to the other in the first game was very varied in each player and nobody was particularly consistent with their passing. This included their actual pass, which meant some were to high some where too low and some did not go directly to the attacker. Also, their timing of the passes, Kim especially kept passing the ball too early in the first task when the attacker wasn’t away from the defender enough, meaning that the ball was intercepted alot of the time. Zoe was the opposite and didn’t pass the ball quick enough when the attacker was clearly free, leaving more time for the defender to catch-up and intercept.

Timing in the second task was important, the attacker had to run out and receive the ball as soon as she was free. The defender had to move fast enough to stop her from doing this.

When they where feeders some of the girls had timing problems, and weren’t passing the ball as soon as the command had being shouted and the attacker had got free.

This is while the girls are doing the dodging game, Zoe has received the pass after getting free from her defender.

Session 5

I decided that I would encourage more defending in this session as the girls weren’t very good defending. This still worked with my original games that we were doing but I was going to ask them to put more effort into staying close and to defend a little more.

I encouraged the defender in the shadowing game to mark tighter when the attackers got better at getting free, this meant going a bit closer, which intimidated a couple of the players, which made them back off a little. I was looking for the attackers not to back away to get away from the defender but to stand their ground and use their speed and skills to quickly get free and away from them.

I was looking for quick, small movements in the shadowing game by both the attacker and the defenders, and good passing and ball direction.

The last task with the teams gave the girls a chance to show me how they have improved and how effectively they can use the skills they have learnt in all off the 5 session.

Most of the girls tried really hard in the mini-match, and with the exception of Kim at times, they al kept moving quickly and trying their hardest to get free and find space to receive passes away from their defenders.

I was looking at how strong the attacking and passes between the attackers is, as well as the strength of the defending teams.

Zoe and Aimee were the strongest at attacking, they were fast and made quick movements.

We used 2 players from year 10 to be the other two defenders to push the girls and to show them what it is like with players stronger than them. The girls worked hard to get free and used a lot of different ways of getting free, for example all of them used the change of direction at least once.

When I was marking the girls I was looking for them to use the full width f the thirds in order to make space for them, I did tell them to use the width before they started to play and all of the teams did and seemed to be much more aware of the width of the court.

Some of the passing was poor throughout the session and this was one of the areas that let Zoe and Kim down when they worked together in the Mini-match, they dropped the ball a lot and the passing was not accurate.

This is when the players are practising the shadowing skill. Zoe is being marked tightly and Aimee is ready to pass the ball when she manages to get free.

Evaluation

I think that my coaching went well, but if I were to do the coaching again with this team, I would do more activities on defending as they showed in the last 2 sessions that this was a weakness of theirs.

I had to explain the reverse pivot activity in session 2 twice, so that the girls could understand properly what they had to do. The girls found it difficult at first but by helping them and practise I did manage to get them doing it well. I would still include the same skill in this session if I did it again because it is very good to know how to fo this well in the game situation.

In session 3 I could talk more about contact at a centre pass along the lines, this would have helped the players know what they are allowed to do when someone contacts them.

I think that I should have done only 1 warm up the whole way through on each session as it would have been easier to analyse the player’s fitness. And by doing two warms ups, it made it more difficult for me to determine their fitness in each session as the effort and exercise varied in the two separate ones.

Alternatively I could have included a fitness test like the multi stage fitness test at the start and at the end, to see how their fitness improved over the weeks.

I would definitely spend more time on the reverse pivot as this is a really good way of getting free and if it is learnt correctly it will be very beneficial in a game situation.

I think I needed to explain certain bits of my sessions more clearly and do more examples at the start so they could understand better. For example show the girls where I wanted them to run to in session 3, and run through it, showing them the speed I wanted them to come away from the line at and where I wanted them to receive the centre pass.

Something I think I should have done, would have been to watch more than one of the teams competitive games before planning my sessions, this would have given me a wider range of information to work with and may have changed some of my session plans if I had seen more problems within their game.

I watched the girls after the sessions had finished in a competitive match with Keswick School.

I saw good improvements in their overall game in the attacking end. They were moving a lot more and I saw Lianne changing her speed to get away from a defender, also Aimee changing direction quickly. They were all much better at getting free and all used the court much more.

I did notice that although nearly all of their centre passes were successful, they were marked heavily towards the end of the game when the opposing team realised the centre was only passing to the attackers. If I had more sessions with the girls I would involve more, if not all of the team and coach the defence, the same centre pass tactics. This would mean more options and a more successful game. This would improve their game and would give Kim more options of who to pass to. I feel that she would be capable of making the right decisions of who to pass to or who is the strongest or less likely to be intercepted.

One thing that I wanted to coach from the beginning after watching them play was backline passes as I felt it was a weak part of their game and they lost possession a lot in this area. Now that the girls have improved their main problems of centre passes and getting free, it was apparent that is was a main problem in the Keswick match I observed.

If I was to do the sessions again I would work on this, even if it was just for one session, I feel they could improve this and make their game even better.

I was disappointed to see that none of the girls regularly shouted for the ball or signalled with their hands to where they wanted to receive the ball, this may have been because they didn’t know how to signal or some don’t fully understand. I think their mini match and regular matches in general would benefit from them learning this and also using their voice more to shout for the ball.

If I was to do the course work all over again I would do some things differently, and coach the girls more skills, to get the best outcome from them for their game.

I think that my planning went well. Watching the girls really helped me to determine what I was going to put into my sessions and what I was going work on with them. By being able to see their weaknesses meant that I could plan my sessions around that instead of working on parts of their game that didn’t need to be improved.

In my implementation I think that the theory of what I planned was good. It was planned around the team’s problem areas and would in theory build on them as the weeks progressed. I do however think that I could have fitted different skills into my sessions by taking out some of the games or drills that focused on getting free in the last couple of sessions. Such as the sprint dodge, as the main points behind that drill were covered in the session 3 while learning about centre pass techniques. Also I could have planned an extra session and spread out the sessions a bit more as some are cramped ma not have given the girls enough time to take in all the skills.

Bibliography

Books-

Netball - Know the Game by