A week ago we had our sports Competition between our school and Coronado? Primary school. We normally try to have 2 to 3 of these a year. As I compare what we do for a competition against what schools in the states do for their competitions I understand why they may only do it two or three times a year.

In the states, there is a lot more training and practice games/matches before they compete against other schools. While Middle/Elementary schools don’t have spring or summer training sessions off campus like some of the High school sports, they do at least set up practices regularly for many weeks. They practice fundamentals such as passing and rules. They do conditioning to prevent injuries and help the students perform their best. They work on team mechanics to build unity and help timing and coordination between teammates. Here they started a week before the competition and had tryouts by letting them students pick teams to compete internally then the teacher picked the students he/she was going to pick anyway. They then basically do practice games against those not picked. No skill drills, no making sure they understand the rules (this may be because in the case of netball every adult has had a different set of rules). There is no conditioning other than playing in the practice games.

Another weird thing was they waited until right after the students ate their big meal of the day before playing the first game. Our students did share the playground equipment during the lunch break with our visiting school.

Netball is sort of like basketball. Differences include the type of ball-it is more like a soccer or volleyball. The basket has no backboard and the rim is only slightly larger than the ball. Their is no dribbling. You can run around until you catch the ball then you are supposed to be still until you throw it to someone else. When you catch the ball in a certain area of the rim, you must stop and allow the defender to come in and put their arm up to try to block your shot, but they do not jump to block just stay standing firm.

For those of you who remember church basketball back in the 70s, will remember technicals were a way of life. We actually gave out awards for most technicals in a season. On some occasions parents were kicked out of the gyms for yelling at referees. I understand that better after having watched their coach referee the netball game. I confess I do not understand all the rules, but I can see differences really well. For example when our girls were shooting the ball to the hoop, their girls were allowed to be close and have their arms angled forward. When they were shooting, our girls had to give them over a foot of extra room and their arms had to be straight. Every bit of contact when against our team. Now I will also confess their team was better because they had practiced passing and catching fundamentals and ours had not, but still I am glad no one understood english well enough to understand some of the things I was saying to the ref during halftime.

We did mount a comeback in the second half but still fell short. The girls tried hard and put their best foot forward. Maybe next year I can practice some basics with them.

Soccer/Football match went more smoothly with our team being significantly sharper on the pitch, bu they do get more practice time than the netball girls. The referee in this was more just let them play with very few stoppages. We won this match 2 to 0.