Igniting the coaching passion

Athletes, whether playing individual or team sports, need coaches. And netball is no different. Here, we speak to several who have experience of other sports alongside netball.

It has been an incredible summer of sport – an Olympic and Paralympic year and the Euros alongside the usual fare of Wimbledon, test match cricket, the Open and so on. We have got to see the best of the best, both competing and coaching, but we all know that everyone has to start somewhere. And the Netball Family is known for throwing themselves into things, for rolling their sleeves up and giving their all for the good of the sport.

Former Loughborough Lightning player Flo Edwards, who recently appeared on the BBC’s The Apprentice, kicks us off with a comparison between coaching in business and netball. She says: “I see similar attributes in netball coaches and great business coaches. For me, there’s not much of a difference, if at all. I think you are coaching in any aspect, you are steering and you are guiding somebody through, I guess, a period of growth and the attributes that you show as a coach in that space are interchangeable.

“It’s knowing when to be hands-on versus when to sit back and let people make mistakes. It’s giving them guidance, giving them tactics and skills and building on their characteristics.” You can read Flo’s full interview talking all things netball and business here

Alice Clark, who coaches netball, handball and basketball, says: “Having the opportunity to work with the charity United Through Sport in Mauritius opened my eyes to how sport reduces barriers within diverse groups. Supporting handball and basketball sessions helped me realise how transferable my coaching skills are and I really enjoyed getting to know different sports.

“Coaching netball to a group of young people of different ages, who had never heard of netball and whose first language was not English, really pushed me out of my comfort zone. Along with my co-coach, we delivered a netball launch event for the island and we had 80 girls turn up and they even made netball posts for us! As well as being a fabulous morning, full of very loud and happy netball players, the event has resulted in support for the charity to start delivering netball to all girls schools in Mauritius.”

Rose Johnston says: “I’ve enjoyed coaching a range of sports and found a home in netball. My coaching journey started assisting a teacher at my school coach the year 7-9 girls’ football. I enjoyed volunteering and helped with sports days and disability sport events. I went away to uni and coached toddlers’ gymnastics, but then I found a Level 2 netball coaching course and my County Netball Chair put me in touch with a club who were looking for a new junior coach. I loved working as a coach and volunteering as a junior coach; then I found I could coach full-time and joined England Netball as a Netball Development Community Coach [NDCC] in Hampshire.

“I realised quickly that I wanted to include everyone and make people feel they had achieved something. For some, just turning up is an achievement and it was key for me to praise the teamwork and social skills that attendees build. The way I like to coach has personal development first but it’s not always easy to measure how much more self-confidence a Back to Netballer gains, or whether a Bee Netballer has learnt to share, or a Walking Netballer made a new friend, or a club player developed their communication.

“All these components build a community and I love catching up with players and groups I have coached and hearing about the awesome things they have achieved.”

Finally, Alice Skuse, who coaches netball and swimming, says: “I love coaching! I love the challenge of watching and identifying what needs to be done differently. I love working with a complete mixture of personalities, abilities and characters and bringing them together as a team. Coaching is a really exciting challenge, whatever the sport. It is so rewarding helping people improve and recognising their own potential.”