Netballers too young for rep sides
Netball Mainland are standing by their policy of keeping young players out of representative netball.
Christchurch Netball Centre and Mainland Netball have a policy of keeping representative netball to those aged over 15, as early exposure can create player burnout, Netball Mainland chief executive Brigit Hearn said.
The stance has led to criticism from former Silver Fern player and Canterbury Flames coach Margaret Foster, who was ‘‘horrified’ to hear these players weren’t given an opportunity to aim for a representative side.
‘‘I was completely horrified...If our rep players don’t have a team to go to, what are they going to do, choose another sport?,’’ Foster said.
‘‘I find it completely ridiculous how they’re curtailing people in saying you can’t be representing, competing and having a sense of purpose.’’
Foster said having the opportunity to make rep level at a young age created competition in sport and introduced children to success, failure and resilience. She also said that talent identification can happen early on and with Mainland’s policy, they are likely to miss some promising players.
‘‘This is what life is about. You’ve got to put yourself out there for failure. We are helping them out in terms of resilience. I just don’t get it.’’
However Christchurch Netball Centre’s manager Megan McLay said talent identification at Year 7 and 8 has no impact on producing players who will will go on to achieve higher honours.
‘‘You can’t predict who is going to be a Silver Fern or in the [Canterbury] Tactix at ages 10 and 11.
‘‘It gives false expectations on how good these young players are and it is not in the best interest of the sport.’’
McLay used Tactix players Ellie Bird and Kate Lloyd as examples of players who have developed much later in their careers.
Bird’s rise was remarkable considering she was playing second grade for the Wellington East club last year, following surgery. She was now the star of the Tactix shooting circle.
Mainland Netball had the full backing from Sport New Zealand and Netball New Zealand who have been working together on developing a plan to keep girls and boys in sport, as participation rates were on the decline, according to Sport NZ statistics.
Netball NZ’s Silver Ferns development coach Kiri Wills agreed that identifying players at 12 years and under was not in the best interest of the athlete or the sport as teenagers developed at different ages and stages.
She said resources to coach girls who are at a rep level and those who weren’t are scarce, so it was more beneficial to keep them in the same pool to develop and pick the ‘‘cream of the crop’’ when they had come out of puberty and were all on an even playing field.
‘‘If you pick these girls at a young age you could be channelling resources into the wrong places. The reality is, you give these athletes a false reward for those who grew in a certain way and not those who have trained and worked for it.’’
‘‘It is massively risky business in boiling it down. It is a very unsafe bet, I wouldn’t bet my house on those girls making the Silver Ferns.’’
Wills said young players still have competitive attitudes, whether or not they have a rep team to make at the height of the season.
Sport NZ research suggested early specialisation in sport can be detrimental to the health and wellbeing of young athletes and their goal was to grow participation rates before developing those deemed to be great.