To Herts County Netball,

Our first year finally draws to a close and we would like to thank you again for your support;
attendance has been quite good over the summer term with weekly numbers ranging from six to
thirteen. Some of these are fairly regular attendees; others are only able to come on the odd
occasion. The local “Live a Little” charity, who arrange activities for young adults with special
needs and learning difficulties, have managed to bring a couple of their clients along for a few
sessions this term.

We were able to hold a one off summer holiday session outside on 1st August, which was attended
by 11 athletes. Several members of the Wodson Park Walking Netball group kindly came along to
help out both during the skills section and the game that followed.
We continue to work hard at our core skills, helping each athlete improve to the best of their ability.
On weeks where we have had a larger attendance and our assistant coach has been available, we
have been able to split the group into two to work on skills, doing a basic exercise for those who
still find passing, catching and shooting a challenge, and a slightly more advanced version for those
whose skills are a bit more developed.

We are still working on pivots and jumps during warm ups, and introduced the idea of jumping up
to catch a ball for some of the more co-ordinated athletes. On one week with lower attendance we
did try the noughts and crosses shooting game – the shooting was good, they got the concept of
trying to get three bibs placed in a row, but the idea of placing a bib to block the other team was a
little beyond them… they did love it though and we played a second round at their insistence!
We were able to start exploring the concept of passing the ball slightly to the side of a team mate
who has a defender standing beside them; we first introduced this during a passing exercise with a
static defender standing beside a feeder so they had to choose which side to pass the ball. We have
tried to reinforce this when it comes up during game play, especially around throw-ins from the goal
line where the situation is very clear if passing to the WD or C on the circle edge.

In early July we held a fundraising tournament at Sele School,
which was very well supported. Special Olympics St Albans
were able to join us, giving us enough players for six mixed
ability, mixed gender teams. Every team won at least one match,
and it was lovely to see everyone on court having fun in the
sunshine! One athlete who was recovering from a bad shoulder
was kept involved by keeping score (mostly accurate!). Several
players grew noticeably in confidence during the day, and for at
least two of them this has carried over into our regular sessions
with them being more pro-active about calling for the ball and
trying to get into space to receive a pass. One of our athletes who
usually struggles to even hit the ring when shooting scored four
goals when playing as GS. We will definitely be holding another
next summer by popular demand!

Thank you again from all at Omega Otters.