Worries in Netball- taken from Sunday sun newspaper May 11

The National Sports Council (NSC) hopes to have a new primary schools' netball coaching programme in place by September to address the concerns facing coaches at the secondary school and national level.
Acting director of Sports Mona Alleyne told SUNSPORT she would meet with deputy director Adrian Donovan and senior coach Anna Shepherd to come up with a new approach to the island's leading female sport.
Several concerns have been raised by Barbados Netball Association (BNA) president Octavia Gibson, who was appalled that some of the basic skills were lacking among players called to trials for the recent Caribbean Netball Association Jean Pierre Under-16 Tournament.
Gibson said it was testimony to the skill of coach Julie Phillips and the rest of the management team that the team placed fourth, based on where the players were when they first went to trials. She raised those concerns with Alleyne.
Ironically, many of those coaches in the NSC also coach at the secondary school and league level.
"Generally the programme has been working well, but that is relative. In the past, there have been highs and lows. There have been some very good netball players coming out of primary school and coaches end up with a good nursery. Some years the teams are not as strong," Alleyne said.
Alleyne said that with only one coach being added to the staff in the past two years, the coaching would've been consistent, and thus the problems might be linked to the players.
"Five or six years ago there were players who were very good at age 11 and could play against seniors and hold their own. I can't see that happening now. The nursery is weak."
Alleyne, who has held roles at all levels in the BNA and the Barbados Association of Netball Umpires, continues to play and coach and has seen some of those problems first hand.
She cited a recent junior game where as an umpire she was able to note a wide disparity in the skill level of the teams, but believed it was also linked to some of those who were coaching at the club level.
"When a game is playing and you see some of the substitutions or how players are moved around, you wonder what kind of thinking was done before the decision was made. I don't want to use the word coach – which is a strong word – but it may be some of the advisors around the team who are making the decision rather than the children themselves," Alleyne said.
She noted that many of these same "advisors" didn't attend training sessions when they were offered by the BNA, and recalled in the mid-1980s when only three coaches attended a training session and there were more teams competing then.
Another problem Alleyne identified was a lack of flexibility among coaches.
"One of the difficulties is that coaches are fixed in their ways and if it can't work this way, it can't work another way. When you are dealing with people who are flexible, you have to be flexible too," Alleyne said.