Rokoura starts work on fitness

Former national netball coach Unaisi Rokoura started her ground work yesterday by conducting the fitness test of the Fijian Pearls and Fijian A players.

Speaking to SUNsports, Rokoura said the players have to be fit before the new coach arrives.

“This is the first camp for 2021,” she said.

“It is important that we have our ground work done before the head coach comes in.”

Rokoura said it was important to get their players out of the holiday mood “This is not a selection process it is just a camp to help the girls switch on and check on their fitness level,” she said. “Players have to see where they are after their holiday. This is the whole objective behind the one-day camp.”

Rokoura said the players had showed their commitment to training as they were at the FMF Gym.

“This will make it easy for the new Pearls coach and also for the players to adapt to her,” she said.

“As a player you really don’t want to disappoint the coaches.”

Rokoura said the main objective of Netball Fiji was for the athlete to look after themselves.

“You don’t necessarily need a coach to be supervising you 24/7. That’s what make an athlete stand out. It is what she does when no one is looking so that is what we are trying to encourage the players to do,” she said.

“If you are given a training programme to train for three days they can do another extra set of three.

“That is what we looking at but these bunch of 25 players we selected from the Reset Championship have good potential. We have a good blend of experience and young players.”

Professional

Rokoura said professionalism is important for any athlete who wants to play at a high performance environment.

“You have to do the extra yards. At the end of the day when we do fitness tests we coaches easily pick out those players who are following their training programmes,” she added.