Evaluating my First Netball Season

My first official season coaching has just ended. I've learned a lot about netball, a game I'd never seen before our first game at Sports Day in KL. Coaching was a great experience, but an honest evaluation of "lessons learned" will remind me what to do in the future should another coaching opportunity ever arise...

Here are some things that players just had to learn the hard way...

1) Wear shoes (or flip flops, as a bare minimum) to run on the grass field. All my talking did not have an impact, but dog poop squishing between their toes at the last practice hopefully did.

2) Cut finger nails and remove their jewelry BEFORE the game. My English isn't understood but a referee's  sending girls in search of nail clippers and watching their bibs be given to the non-starters 30 seconds before the start is.

3) Demonstrate the "No substitutions until the end of the quarter" rule.  Next time I need to explain that it doesn't mean that players can walk off the court, stand on the side, keep their bib,  and watch the other six players hustle because they are tired.

4) Tell captains that they are not the coaches during the game. Even though I'd asked the captains to help analyse the players and positions during practice,  it doesn't mean they can walk up to a usually-good-but-super-jet-lagged-player and exchange bibs with them in the middle of a quarter. After all, I wanted to feel needed as the coach.

On the positive side, here are some things I did OK and would probably repeat next year...

1) Tell the players that they can only say positive words and not criticize their teammates during the game. They girls got the immediate benefit of this rule when they saw and heard one of the other coaches call her players "stupid idiots" with some Bahasa swear words sprinkled in. My players felt bad for the other girls.

2) Tell the players they will probably make some mistakes because nobody is perfect, but that they shouldn't focus on the mistakes. Instead, they should take a mental photo of the things they do well and just keep repeating them. I think our goal attack really got this message. Her shot percentage was 75%  scoring 3 of our 4 goals.

3) Remind players to have fun. I think they did. Look at the smiles on their faces after their first win...

Shopping for Net Ball Uniforms

In one week, the school's netball team will play its first game. For most of the girls it will be their first sports competition of any kind. For me, it represents my first coaching experience and the first netball game I've ever seen. What better way to celebrate so many firsts than to send the team captain in search of our first uniform.

The team captain had pre-selected some Nike T90 shirts with a splash of purple - they noticed that I like purple-,  lots of red - to make the principal happy and match the boys' basketball team- and a little black- to coordinate nicely with their PE shorts. In other words, she had made a thoughtful selection and wanted my approval which I happily gave.

So...after school we drove to the Lumut waterfront where there are many great super-low-priced tourist shops selling everything from Bill-a-Bong surfer shorts and Malaysian batik sarongs, to Nike and Adidas sports apparel and flip flops (see blog post titled barefoot basketball and why shoes are overrated).

After determining that the store had enough stock to meet our demand, the team captain negotiated a price. I was impressed. She spoke Malay. She verified his math on a piece of paper. She confirmed that everything was accurate. We paid... RM12.00 per shirt..(about $3.50 for a genuine, fake Nike team jersey.)

The team captain then took the shirts to a screen printing shop to have the school name printed on the back. She texted me later saying the price is the same for an A4 sheet of paper (about 1 inch longer than all the paper we use in the US) no matter how many letters and did we want to put numbers on the back as well. I replied sure and asked if the girls have their "lucky" numbers and can she get all that? She happily obliged and asked if I wanted a number. I kindly said "no thank you". (The whole "lucky number" thing is so complicated I'm afraid that I would choose an "unlucky" number and then be really embarrassed, so I figure no number is better than an "unlucky" number.)

So now our team has its first uniform, and it fits my first motto of competition.

If we look good, we'll play good.

Cultural Differences at School

At parent conferences today I was asked, "How's our daughter's personality?"

I paused before answering. I really like this student. In my eyes, she's hard working, self-motivated, driven, personable, confident, intelligent, and assertive.

On the other hand, one of my colleagues, a female Chinese teacher, recently remarked that this student is too aggressive. She is too confident. She should be more submissive to the teacher.

Here's how I began my answer:

"From my American background, my cultural perspective, she is...(see above).

I then went on to explain - these are not native speakers- that "assertive"- acting in one's own best interest without denying other's theirs- is a good thing in my mind. She asks questions, she wants knowledge, she wants success. "Aggressive" - ready or likely to attack or confront - has a negative connotation (outside of sports). Their daughter has friends and does not step on other toes to get what she wants.

I wish more students here were "assertive."

The parents seemed satisfied.

To be honest, this student seems so "normal" from my experience with 14 year old American teenage girls that I'd never even given her much additional thought.

But I realize if the parents desire a  submissive, passive, daughter in order to "fit" into a culture, they may need to have a "family meeting."