WORLD YOUTH CUP PREP STARTS IN OZ

Roses Pathway Head Coach Sonia Mkoloma reflects on an enlightening tour Down Under.

A landmark tour of Australia at the start of the year saw the England U21 squad gain invaluable experience of competing in high-intensity training matches against the development squads of the two top-ranked sides in the world.

Sonia Mkoloma, Roses Pathway Head Coach, was keen to expose the squad’s cohort of 16 players to a different training environment and facilities, while immersing themselves and learning all the time from two of the world’s great netball nations.

“I think a lot of these girls that sit in my U21s catchment group haven’t been away to tour before,” she says. “So, going across to play Australia and New Zealand – the world’s number one and two – is important, especially in your youth years of netball, just to understand what it’s like, the intensity of the netball, and what to expect moving forward.”

The “exposure” flowed both ways, with Mkoloma able to see for herself how squad individuals shaped up in an alien setting, confronted with a different style of training and game-play. “It was for me to get eyes on players to see what they’re like in those pressure situations. I think when you train at home you see a different breed of player and I think actually in competition something else comes out.”

Mkoloma was keen to assess the strengths of her squad while also tapping into the pressure points, identifying the areas where, as she says, the “gaps” need to be filled. “My thing is actually: to be the best, you’ve got to play the best and understand what that looks and feels like. For us, it was about gaining understanding of where we want to be, and so: how do we get there?”

The playing programme was deliberately curated to ensure maximum intensity. The squad was away for the best part of four weeks, and at one stage played six games in seven days in a tri-series against their Aussie and Kiwi counterparts. Exposure to a condensed series of high-intensity matches, with “all the professional elements of that space” relating to preparation and recovery, helped the athletes gain a deeper understanding of how to manage their bodies through back-to-back tournament matches.

The squad was also given the chance to observe at close quarters how the NSW Swifts and GIANTS Netball tackled their own preseason training sessions. The Swifts and GIANTS – both part of the Suncorp Super Netball league – opened up their venues so the girls could watch how their top-level athletes operate.

“It just made sense to expose them to what the girls go through,” says Mkoloma. “So, in a way it is [gaining] the understanding that it’s no different to when you’re prepping before a game. What is different is that intensity, the quality of what they put in, and the extras that these girls do to get to where they need to be.”

The squad was led by co-captains Izzi Phillips and Tamilore Fapohunda, with Mkoloma wanting two leaders to ensure there was sufficient “wraparound support” for a group of young players, many of whom had not toured before. And while hard work and exposure were the watchwords, the squad was able to enjoy some off-court team-building activities, such as sightseeing at the Sydney Opera House and going to Manuka Oval in Canberra to see England take on their Australian counterparts in the Women’s Ashes. Mkoloma recognises the value of cross-sport solidarity. “The England cricket girls came and said hello. They did a shout-out for us. It was important for the girls, again, especially female sport, to support other sports.”

With the Netball World Youth Cup in Gibraltar looming in September, Mkoloma now has a much clearer idea how her players are shaping up ahead of it. “We’ll be going to the World Cup to win it,” she says. “Certainly to sit on that podium. We know it’s a lot of work to be done right now, but we’ve got the players that we think are capable enough to get that ball rolling and start to compete in September. So that’s exciting and I think I can confidently say that I’m looking forward to how our girls match up.”