BARBADOS’ senior netball team left the island on Friday night on a mission of training for two weeks in Britain before heading off to the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India, with the goal of improving on their world ranking of 11th.
Manager of the team Maureen Shepherd said that Barbados are currently ranked tenth at Commonwealth and the British experience was targetted at improving on that position as well as to prepare for the Worlds next year.
Shepherd, who is also one of the island’s top darts players, has served previously as coach of the netball team and she was the manager of the 2002 Commonwealth team.
“The training in the UK will be a simulation of the competition in Delhi where the team will play one day or play back-to-back matches,” Shepherd said.
“Often in the past we have trained towards our fitness levels and games strategies, but the lack of match practice against quality opponents has hampered our progress in tournaments,” the administrator said.
Bright future
Shepherd added that the composition of the team of experienced players and talented youth lends itself to an even brighter future for Barbados’ netball.
“Coach Alwyn Babb has been working extremely hard with all of his staff to maximise all available knowledge and to push the team to another level,” added Shepherd.
It is the strategy of coach Babb to involve all of his staff which makes it easier for Shepherd to maintain the lines of manager and coach since her input has been wholeheartedly accepted by Babb since she took up her position.
Shepherd has also pointed out that the maintenance of a core group of players augured well for the future of the sport since the current crop would benefit from the exposure and would be available to use that knowledge for Barbados’ advancement.
With team
In addition to Babb and Shepherd, Marcia Oxley is the assistant coach to the Barbados team while manager of the Barbados Olympic Association, Glyne Clarke has travelled with the squad as he will go on to India as the chef de mission for the Commonwealth Games.
This year the Barbados Hockey Federation used a similar strategy to send its men’s and women’s team off to Canada and Britain to train for the CAC Games which paid off with both teams taking bronze medals.
Shepherd is expecting to reap similar gains and she expressed great appreciation to the BOA for assisting the netballers with the mission.