The Barbados Netball Association (BNA) is taking no chances until Barbados is rid of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
President of the BNA, Nisha Craigwell, said that while they have not made a definite decision to cancel 2020 as yet, they have heightened their online training programme to ensure players remain fit.
Australia, one of the biggest netball nations in the world is expected to commence their season soon and Craigwell told Barbados TODAY the BNA will consider following similar protocol used by the number one team in the world once local authorities give the all-clear.
“If you look at one of the big netball nations, Australia, they have announced that they will be starting their season. They have sent out protocols that they shared with us. So, we have analysed it to see how it could be implemented in Barbados. But we haven’t made any decisions, we are still very open as to what decision we will make as it relates to what happens in our country.
“We continue to train throughout the national shut down. All of the players have personal programmes. So, even though we would not have been training as a team, the training to make sure that we maintain our fitness continues.
“I did see one notice from the Government where it allows persons to train individually, but to be honest it is no different to what we would have been doing all along while the pandemic was going on. The only decision that we have made is that the shooters would be allowed to go to the poles to shoot, as you know it is a technique that we have to keep practising at. So we welcome that but we have always continued our personal training programme,” Craigwell said.
Still cognizant of the fact that netball is a contact sport, she explained that at this stage the players would continue to train at home.
“While I do thank the government for including netball because it means they recognise the importance of netball and staying fit, we are still wary of the fact that netball is a contact sport. If you think realistically, there are a lot of risks as it relates to COVID-19. So we are taking the necessary precautions to ensure that our players remain safe. At this stage because we have a programme in place we will continue to train at home until we think it is safe enough for players to be back out on the court,” she said.
The current training programme was designed in such a way that each national team – Under-16, 21 and seniors – has a personal trainer that communicates with each group via Whatsapp.
This, however, is nothing new as Craigwell explained BNA always had personal programmes set up considering domestic players were not professionals. She further explained that they have had to intensity this particular programme because of the national shut down.
“We do not have the opportunity to train every day and so to maintain the fitness level that is required at the regional and international level, we have to put in more work than what we would do together as a team.
“They always had programmes we put in place for them to do on their own but because of the full shutdown, now we have had to intensify that. We are not meeting obviously to analyse the level that we are at,” she said.
Netball like many other sports has suffered a major blow as all competitions at the regional level have been postponed or cancelled. The Under-21s who were scheduled to visit Trinidad and Tobago in July for the Netball Youth World Cup Qualifier are among those to lose out.
Christ Church Foundation School was also expected to make an appearance in the twin-island republic later this year for the high school tournament. Even the Youth Commonwealth Games scheduled for 2021 in Trinidad and Tobago have already been cancelled.
Barbados, the reigning Under- 16 champions, were expected to travel to St. Vincent and the Grenadines last month for the Jean Pierre tournament which was initially postponed. Craigwell said she expected that tournament to be cancelled soon.
With the Tokyo Olympics being pushed back to 2021 and with corporate Barbados usually tied into that, raising the necessary funds might be a challenge for the BNA to send the Under-21s to the World Cup in Fiji.
Even though going to Fiji entails extensive travel that means a significant cost to get there, Craigwell assured that one way or the other Barbados would be represented.
“As long as Barbados have qualified for any major meet, I do anticipate that we will make it because we are representing our country. So we will have to pull out all stops to make sure that our country gets there.”
morissalindsay@barbadostoday.bb
