Adapting to Coaching in the COVID Pandemic

“Now is the perfect opportunity for you to practice and develop the basic principles of the game with your players. By focusing on their footwork, agility and passing in pairs, you will see your athletes become faster, stronger and more skilful when they get on the court.”

A few months ago, you had probably never received a ZOOM call in your life, but now (if you’re anything like me) you are hosting training, S&C and fitness sessions online and trying to find new ways to keep netball fun, engaging and as close to the real game as possible. 

With the government restrictions lifting, we can finally move away from the ZOOM calls and coaching through a screen and actually start to see our players in the flesh again. But with social distancing rules still very much in place, how can we deliver a session which is fun, relevant and developing our players when they are not allowed to play the close contact sport we all love?

So how can we get back to socially distanced training? Firstly we need to consider the things we need to have in place in order to make training safe. As well as looking to the government’s guidelines, we also need to consider the outlines and regulations set by England Netball: 

• Players need to be 1.5 – 2m away from each other
• Minimal sharing of equipment
• Sanitising equipment before and after the session
• Sanitising players hands before and after the session
• Coaching must take place outside
• Groups should consist of no more than 6 people (5 players + coach)
• Safe playing surfaces

With these limitations in place, it can be difficult to plan worthwhile, progressive sessions that replicate the game and can keep your players interested, but now is the perfect opportunity for you to practice and develop the basic principles of the game with your players. By focusing on their footwork, agility and passing in pairs, you will see your athletes become faster, stronger and more skilful when they get on the court. There are 100’s of agility drills that can be easily adapted to replicate game play, add in a ball and the world’s your oyster. 

Still stuck for ideas? Here’s some ways that you can make socially distanced training safe for all of your players:

• Create playing channels for your athletes to work in to make sure they maintain social distance
• Embrace squares and triangles – these are great for practising footwork patterns and can be set up at a safe distance form each other
• Make playing pairs – ensure the same players work with each other each week to reduce mixing. This is a great opportunity to strengthen your on-court partnerships e.g. having your GK and GD working together
• Races – Most players love the competition elements of the game so it’s important to not lose that even when our training looks different. Try timed races with penalties for the losing teams and players. 

So are you ready to start coaching now? Just in case you are still lost for ideas, we have created a free session plan ready for you to take straight from the screen to the court (or playing field). If you are interested in any of our pre-season programmes or coaching programmes please get in touch using the contact form in the Coaches’ Corner section of the site.