Netball catching up among girls

DUBAI Netball might not be a highly popular sport in the UAE, but it’s certainly generating a lot of interest with many girls taking up the sport in recent years.

“It’s the number one sport for girls in terms of team events in the UAE,” said Susanne Skelding Director of Top Sports Coaching. “Over the years we have seen a steady increase in the number of participants and we hope to see the popularity similar to UK, Australia and New Zealand where netball is a very popular sport,” she added.

While the leagues in the UAE for women are already up and running, Susanne started the Dubai Junior and the Dubai Youth Netball Leagues this month which she believes will be a perfect pathway for girls to take up this sport professionally.

“We already have the competitive ladies league running. By introducing these two leagues, the girls have competitive netball all through their different stages of life,” said Susanne, who is also the head coach.

The junior league includes under-10 and under-12, while the youth league is under-14s. “As soon as they turn 15 they can play in the ladies league,” she said, adding the junior league at the moment consists of six teams and the youth league has seven.

“We have just started this and it’s a very positive response. We want to increase it in the coming years. We have something for everyone who comes to the leagues,” Susanne said.

Top Sports Coaching has also initiated programmes to promote the sport at school level providing professional training after school hours.

“We have under-10, u-12, u-14 sessions and then we go up from there. At the grassroot level we do at various locations around Dubai at different locations which is helpful to the parents to get their kids.

“The response has been good. We started in different schools encouraging more girls to come and join us. There isn’t a week where there has not been a new registration.

“We had only one girl attending the under-10 session at Arabian Ranches for almost five weeks. But we had a much bigger under-12 session.

“But this girl kept coming and the word spread and soon parents got to know about these sessions. Now we have 15 girls in a matter of few months. So it’s definitely growing,” she said.

The training sessions cover all aspects of netball, teaching them movement skills, ball skills. “We try to keep it netball specific. We always have two coaches on our sessions and we can make sure we can cover different levels.”

“If we have a girl who is really doing well and excelling at all levels, then we definitely move her up to another group so that we do make sure they progress and it’s a proper training programme looking at all skills,” she explained.

“They also have the opportunity to go higher up the level playing in the leagues. They need to play with different people and it’s important to play in the league where they get to play at all positions and having done that for a couple of years they would be confident players. It’s very important at this age they learn all the skills.”

Susanne said they also offer courses for umpires who officiate in the leagues which gives them great exposure.

“We want to make it a one-stop shop. We will expand those and umpiring coaches and courses and have better knowledge and umpire the new leagues we have created.”