Netball coaching

Netball started today. I'm coaching year 4's (the Budgies) and year 6's (the Kookaburras) and still playing with the Wrens. The year 4's played at 8.15am, the year 6's at 9.55am and we played at 2.05pm. It was the very first game for the Budgies. They have ten players so I had a big job organising ten girls into positions. Luckily, not everyone wants to shoot and some girls chose to play WD. The hard part was I had to choose two girls to be off for two quarters because they had ten. They didn't mind as much as I thought they would though. It's obvious that some girls get it (netball) and some girls don't. One girl, little Emily, was brilliant. She was directing play and getting intercepts everywhere - and it was only her first game! Some of the girls were a bit lost unfortunately but that will improve. Another girl, Rachel didn't do Netta but she was a brilliant defender, she has really long arms. I didn't do such a bad job telling the twins apart. I have to remember Maddy has a freckle on her chin. The Budgies were up 4-0 at one stage but the other team came back and it was a draw 5-5.

I thought I'd be really bored waiting around between games but because they were running 10-15 minutes behind, the Kookaburras started arriving not long after I finished with the Budgies. I was dismayed to see Prue, who has 'taken over' coaching for the three sessions I can't be there came to the game. I feel so pressured when she's there and I feel she undermines me. She's very nice though and some of the feedback was good. The Team we played had a very tall GA. Unfortunately, our defenders (apart from Demi) are very short. The first quarter went well, but in the second quarter, I had to put Demi in goals, so it was the shorter girls defending. I tried to do something about it but I couldn't. Jess had done the positions for me. We started getting thrashed and it wasn't looking good. One of the parents came up to me and very boldly said "Is there a reason why we have two short defenders? Is there a reason? Put Demi into defence!" I replied calmly that we would have only one shooter then so she said "Well put Sophie into shooter, Sophie can shoot!" Well actually, Sophie had never played shooter in her life. I was horrified. Prue spoke to me after the game and said if that happens again, the parent will be dealt with. Hopefully the other parents understood that it's not my fault the girls in our team are short. Despite a great third quarter, we couldn't come back from the deficit and we lost 22-10. Some of the girls had brilliant games though. Laura shot 9 of our 10 goals, she put on some brilliant moves, like any top GS would. April didn't get any goals which is extremely unusual, but she fed Laura very well. It's nice to get back into it though.

It wasn't looking too positive for the Wrens. We were lucky to have 6 players. We had Clare (shooter), Jess, Sally Elyse who's new and I (midcourters) and Zoe (defender) who was sick. So basically we had no defenders, three centres and a shooter. It was decided that Jess, Elyse and I would share C, GD and GK while Zoe played GS so she didn't have to do much. I played GD, C, GA, GD and I was pretty terrible IMO. I just couldn't defend. We didn't do very well - we lost 21-11. We did well in the last quarter with Jess in GS and Zoe and I defending though. I noticed there is a big difference between running fitness and netball fitness!

Hope we have better luck next week.

Nike Run for the Kids training session

Today after a netball coaching training session, I rode into the city planning on going to Port Melbourne for a run alongside the beach. However, I remembered that Nike are holding Run for the Kids training sessions on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, and the Monday ones are at Fed Square at 6pm. So I rode really fast and managed to make it there by 6.03pm - just in time! I've been meaning to go on Saturdays, but I always take the easy option of going to the gym. We had a quick warm up and then split into groups. I joined the fast group (5min/km) who were doing 10km - two laps of the Tan. I didn't really want to do two laps, so I decided to just do one. It was really intimidating, as everyone else was a lot older (and taller!) than me, and it was mostly blokes. I kept up with the group easily - that is until we got to the Anderson St hill! I really struggled - I just had no power in my legs. I dropped from the front of the group to the back. I tried really hard to keep up but another lady and I kinda dropped away from the group with a leader. I left them without really telling them after one lap, I didn't think the leader knew I was with the group (stupid me, we had yellow wristbands on!) and I think that shocked him. I jogged back to Fed Square and got a free red Nike t shirt! What a great run! It was fantastic to run with a group.

Coburg King and Queen of the North

This morning we headed over to Harold Stevens Reserve in Coburg for the 2007 King and Queen of the North. I decided to do the 6km (with a 12km as well). I did two warm up laps on the track which was very nice! The race was due to start at 9am but I was registered and ready at 8.35am. There was a very small field racing - maybe 20-40 people, but that's what I expected. My goal was to get under 30 minutes and place amongst the females.

It was great at the start - I went out hard and there were people around me, but certainly not too many people. I could see the leaders for the first km, before they sped off and you could no longer see very far up the trail. It was held along the Merri Creek trail which is similar to any bike path alongside Gardiner's Creek or the Yarra so it was a lovely run. Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling very well so I was kinda wishing for it to be over (just a little bit). The turnaround at the 3km mark came about quicker than I expected (at about 13 minutes 50). I was first amongst the females for the first 2-2.5km and then a lady passed me. However, she was doing the 12km, I realised as she didn't turn around at 3km. So I was in the lead, and quite comfortably. I kept looking back but could not see anyone behind me, in fact I couldn't see anyone in front of me either! I got very excited when I passed the bridge marshal at 21 minutes, as I had passed him in 5 minutes 35 at the start. I thought I was in for a 26, 27 minute race! However, I got a bit lost, there was a fork in the path and I didn't know where to go! Luckily I chose the right path, but it probably added 15-20 seconds onto my time. I didn't have a very good finish from then on, I didn't realised we had to run a lap around the track to finish and I was very confused as to where the finish line was, so I didn't have a nice sprint finish.

I finished in a time of 29.14, a bit disappointing. However, I FINISHED FIRST out of all the females, and got under 30 minutes, so I completed my two goals. I waited around a bit coz I knew I would get a trophy. Little did I realise how big the trophies would be! Bigger than any of my netball trophies! I was very embarassed when I got presented it, but I was very proud.

It was a great race, only $10 and I got a trophy! I will definitely try and do another Coburg event. So I am now the 2007 QUEEN OF THE NORTH (6km)!

Super Sunset Series Races 2 and 3

I completed the last two races of the Super Sunset Series on February 21st and March 7th at Princes Park and the Tan respectively.

My time for Princes Park was 40.29 and the Tan 40.30.33 (8kms). I was again troubled by ITB or a hip injury. I'm very disappointed not to get under 40 minutes but it's hard racing on a Wednesday after a full day at school (plus cricket training). I won the junior female 8km in all three races (can't say I had much competition). I think the races were quite badly organised and the times were so inaccurate. I'll be very surprised if I do the series next year.

Racing every fortnight is very disruptive to training, as I don't like to run hard in the 3-4 days leading up to a race. I will try and get some good speedwork in before Run for the Kids. I wish i didn't have a hip injury though!