So proud of the girls! After a shaky start they really improved and started working together as a unit. When they slowed things down the passages of play were excellent with accurate timing, ball placement and drives onto the ball. When we started using the reset properly in our attacking end, we were able to draw defenders and open up space to work the ball closer to the post. The girls came 4th out of 5 in their pool, only winning to LVS, and went through to the Bowl competition. They won all of their games in the bowl against Sherfield, Leighton Park and LVS and so were the winners of this competition.

Team things to work on:

- communication between the circle defenders for switching etc (I know this is advanced but Megan needs it)

- ?work on ball placement as this was the main reason we lost the ball, it was our errors.

- ?slowing down the play rather than rushing, to give time to balance and make the right decision.

Jasmine (GK) made fantastic improvement, compared with the staring game, with her body position in the circle and using her outside arm. This is something to continue working on as she occasionally goes flat and looses sight of her player. Also, her defending was great but ball placement after a turnover needs work. Needs to practice what to do when her GD is out of play.

Megan (GD) excellent work rate and tracking player, deny them space on court. She needs to work on using her outside arm to go for the ball as she used her inside arm a lot and kept contacting her player. On a penalty outside the D she worked really well at covering both players.

Amity (GK/GD) got several tips to the ball, she just struggling height wise to get the rebounds in the circle. Great 1to1 marking. She needs to work on her body positioning, which we did, getting on more of an angle so she can track back when her player drops to the post. She improved on this massively in the second half of the tournament, very proud!

Betty (WD) a very solid defender, excellent marking, backing up on the attacking third line and driving for the ball . She needs to work on taking a step out first when intercepting as she often contacted her player. She did an awesome job though and was only off for half a game!

Olivia (C/WD) great work rate and ample tips when defending. She needs to work on getting 2 hands to the ball to take the clean interception and ball placement into the shooters (she kept trying to send it in from a side line). She also needs to vary her defensive centre pass. She didn’t often drop back middle to cover the second pass, so this is something to work on.

Bethan (WA) excellent feeds into the shooters, incredible accuracy with this! She needs to work on making her drives for the ball a sprint rather then a jog and she needs to work on stopping/landing with the ball as she leaves her feet behind and then drags her landing foot. Top work though and with an awful cough still!

Sophie (C/WA) great feeds into the shooting circle and movement in centre court is solid. She needs to work on standing up in the centre circle as her feet are often wide and she is low down and can’t see over her defender. Also, she needs to make sure she makes decisive drives, sometimes she hesitates. Her clear and reoffering is great though!

Trixie (GA) great shooting accuracy! She needs to work on coming forward for the ball. She naturally always wants to ask for the overhead or drives flat across court. Also working on driving through the ball rather than driving and stopping to wait for the ball. We worked on her holding and split landing and this was great in the last few games! Much improved!

Lily (GA/GS) her movement in the circle was lovely. She needs to working on her shooting accuracy and rebounds. She often gets her hands to the ball on a rebound but loses balance and/or drops the ball through her hands (this was probably nerves). I have told her she needs to trust her core and keep that ball in court.

Ruby (GS) really nice holding in the shooting circle! Feet need to be more apart when shooting and she needs to work on driving out of the D to draw her defender out for Trixie to drive in. Too often they were both trying to hold behind at the same time, so I explained this to them that they can’t do this at the same time. She also needs to follow her shot to get the rebound.

All round a superb day of netball and a lot of progress made from start to finish! ????