BUILDING RESILIENCE 

Being professional players, my GIANTS Netball teammates and I have to complete a wellbeing check every morning. That system trickles all the way down; I’m pretty sure that our Netball NSW state teams undergo that wellbeing check as well. It’s a really good measure to monitor where, as players, we spike in physical soreness and also in mental fatigue.

Coming up as an athlete through the pathways to semi-elite and elite play in netball is something I will always be grateful for because it teaches you so much and sets you up to succeed, both within the sport and out in the world. As a netballer, you get into a rep team, then you get picked for the next squad, but you may not get picked for a game, so you build resilience. Then you try and qualify for another level of representative netball, and you may not get picked for that, or you may not get to play, so you build more resilience. From the start, you’re building resilience until you get to the top. So then, whatever is thrown at you out there, you have all these coping tools in your belt from what’s happened to you along the way. That is something I’ve been able to take into my professional career. The resilience of netballers is amazing.

It’s also not just about the physical aspects of the sport. Netball teaches you the proper ways to manage your life off the court. Some people might go into those difficult situations in life and not know how to react. Netball sets you up to succeed there, it prepares you for how to have the hard conversations and how to take the hard feedback. You don’t always get those opportunities to develop those skills.

(Photo by Narelle Spangher)

Netball also preps you for life after you stop playing. So many of my GIANTS teammates and I are in a position where we have our own business or have other areas of focus in our life that are important to us outside of the game and away from netball. That’s a real positive. That places us at an advantage. It sets us up for life after netball and teaches us that there is more to life than having our sole focus be on the court every day.

I had my first experience working in welfare at Netball NSW and I also had a role with the GIANTS AFLW squad up until last year, where I worked with the athletes on their wellbeing. Working with the GIANTS AFLW team was a really great learning experience, as I got to see the way in which athletes from another sport undertake training, their different mentalities and how one way of doing things can’t be applied across the board. That’s one key thing that I took away.

It also made me reflect on how much things have grown and developed for women in sport. It’s amazing. The fact that women can grow up and get paid on a semi-professional level to play so many types of sport these days is just incredible to see. I love to think that young girls can see that there are so many options for them out there. They can see opportunities for themselves in so many sports now and that can’t be anything but a positive. It’s great for sport.