Academy Netball Shooting for Sustained Success

Written on the 23 March 2022 by SWSAS

Academy Athletes are Ready for Success at the Regional Academy Games

The South West Sydney Academy of Sport Netball squad heads to Wollondilly this weekend, as part of its final preparation for its assault on the ClubsNSW Regional Academy Games competition.

The Academy Netball program, which has long been known for its high level of expectations and professionalism, recently completed an intensive two-day camp at Olympic Park’s Netball Central, with ten fellow Regional Academy of Sport programs.

The camp, hosted by Netball NSW, provided athletes and coaches not only a chance to get an idea of the competition, but more importantly share ideas, training drills and the expected standards of Academy level competition.

“Every person that attended represented their Academy with pride and passion and they were all a pleasure to work with,” said Netball NSW’s Regional Performance and Pathways Manager Mardi Aplin. Who also stated that it was wonderful to see so many coaches working together to support the athletes across so many different teams.

The camp, which featured visits from both NSW Swifts and GWS Giants Netball players, ahead of their own season openers, included a range of on and off court skills and education, including physical movement techniques, social media skills and mastering technical game attributes such as change of direction and elevation.

Coaches, athletes, and umpires were encouraged to ‘strive for personal growth’, and continually question their ‘why’ in the planning and execution of training. On court action saw athletes from each Academy mixed in together, further encouraging support and sharing of knowledge, as they undertook position specific skills.

The culmination of the camp was a series of “friendly” games held across day two, with guest coaching staff overseeing and mentoring each Academy coach and program.

The focus of the Netball program is now firmly fixed on the ClubsNSW Regional Academy Games in Wagga, in just over two weeks’ time. SWSAS Head Coach Van Nguyen is looking to finalise her squad for what will be a weekend full of intense action.

“The program has enjoyed the challenge of a change in age bracket, and also navigating a reduced squad as a result of many factors,” said Nguyen. Whilst discussing the Netball NSW decision to narrow the focus of the Regional Academy program to the 15–16-year age group. Which in turn allowed the Academy to select more athletes from within our region, with ten new, and fourteen returning athletes selected.

“We are looking forward to guiding a number of athletes through their first Academy Games, whilst supporting returning athletes who will take on the challenge of leadership, of this fantastic group of players.

We have placed a lot of time and emphasis throughout the program into mastering the “one-percenters”, purposely developing a culture of responsibility and accountability, both on and off the Netball court, and across all staff and athletes.” said Nguyen.

It is this focus on being accountable and doing the little things well consistently, that the Academy hopes will continue its success, not only in Academy Games netball competition, but in the ongoing success of athletes performances, in making State squads, and representing their Region, at the highest level.

The squad will compete in Wagga Wagga during April 8-10, before a short mid-program break to allow athletes to firmly focus on their own local representative program commitments, before returning in August, ahead of the Regional Academy Challenge, in Port Macquarie in September.