Three Botswana Netball Association (BONA) coaches last week attended a coaching seminar in Singapore conducted by the International Netball Federation’s (INF) Coaching Advisory Panel (CAP) at the just-ended Mission Foods six nation’s tournament.
International coaches seeking to transform and elevate netball to a higher level were drilled on tactical aspects of the modern game.
Among the techniques discussed were shooting, mid-court, defence unit and full court defence. Tacticians enlightened coaches on the modern tactics that included speed of the game as well as transition of play from attack to defence which is critical when playing against experienced contenders.
Botswana will be up against netball heavyweights next year when they host the 2017 Netball Youth World Cup. The coaching course will go a long way in preparations for the junior team for the games next year. The three coaches that attended are senior team gaffers Kagisano Mawela and Neo Mawela while junior team coach Sithulile Mlotshwa was also roped in to grasp skills ahead of the World Cup. BONA took advantage of the seminar as these national team mentors where on duty at the invitational Mission Foods nation’s tournament.
‘’We sent the three coaches to the seminar with a purpose to enhance their coaching capacity. We also requested INF tutors to work with them for the duration of the games on technical aspects of the game, said BONA President Tebogo Lebotse-Sebego. She said that the association also sent the junior coach to assess three youngsters that travelled with the squad.
‘’Our junior coach is amongst those in Category A and we would really like to train her to the highest level. Early this year we undertook training with some of our local coaches and the reason is to be able to scale them to a high level of training,” said Lebotse Sebego.
Meanwhile, at the Mission Foods tournament, despite Botswana losing their first match against neighbours Zambia, the team won games against Ireland and Singapore to fight for a podium place. In their last match of the day Botswana took Canada to the cleaners walloping them 64-31.
