Only 5 weeks to go till the end, end, end of the netball season. Hallelujah! says Mum. While it's a bit freaky just how fast the year seems to be going, getting my Saturdays back just can't come quickly enough.

The netball carnivals are finally over for this year... and I'm relieved, even if it is a great day of sport for the girls. Yesterday all three played in an Age Carnival - an all day affair at a town 60 km up the road from here. Marc and I were in charge of the 14s team that Caitlin played in, which means that Marc "coached" and I handed out shirts and bibs and scored.

Alison and Zoe also played - in the alternate timeslot to Caitlin - so we were pretty much watching netball non-stop all day. Hmmm... we've had just a bit of practice at that this year.

But it was a successful day, a good day. Cait's team got up with a win on points countback, improving and improving throughout the day. Alison's rep team, playing up an age division, played a semi and final, and scraped through with a one point win. Zoe played up in the 10s team, and that level is as funny as a circus to watch after you've been watching a higher age and higher standard. But they came a very respectable third.

So more pieces of junk trophies to add to the indecent collection being amassed in this house.

Marc took the managing/coaching job pretty seriously, thinking tactically, and, after the first game, playing the girls in the same positions, which were the best positions for the team. It paid off - and with the help of more tactical advice from our association's coaching convenor, they won! (We see so much of teams through the year, and at carnivals, playing free-for-all with positions, or quieter players getting stuck in unsuitable positions... and the teams just don't improve. It's got to be more fun to play in a team that improves and gels and that.. well, yes... wins!)

And Zoe?! Zoe is turning out to be ok as a netballer too - her coach for the day reckoned she wasn't at all timid or cautious. She has big shoes to fill in netball as well as everything else that she's followed her sisters in; so far she is rising to the occasion in pretty much every area, which is pretty big talk for the #3 child in the family. Everything they've done well at, not to be outdone, she has too. Academic achievement awards? No worries. Swimming? Cross country running? Hey, wow, I can do this too! [The only thing she's lagged behind at is riding her own bike!] So, after yesterday? Add netball to the list, I think. She's got potential.

One thing these carnival days do is sort out the fit from the not-so fit. Our three were tired, as you'd expect, particularly Zoe because she's not used to that much netball in one day, but at least on the court they have the stamina to keep going. It's disappointing to see so many girls without that fitness- you can see them flagging by the end of the day - though at least they were there playing. There are those who choose not to play because it's all too much effort. They 'get a bit tired.'

Some of the teenage girls are carrying a lot of weight already, and, in the normal course of a week, if netball is all they are doing, an hour of training (more ball and court skills than fitness) and under an hour of game on the weekend, just isn't enough. I worry for them for their adulthood. Saying that, I know that as a teenager I didn't do much in the way of fitness - a few sets of tennis once a week, pretty much. Because I didn't have that fitness base from my childhood, it all caught up with me later on. Now I'm playing catch-up in my mid-forties, and I can see, with the wonderful wisdom of hindsight, what a golden opportunity these years can be.

So, despite the fact that I am all netballed out (without even playing the damn game myself), I'm already thinking ahead to next year. More rep for the older two no doubt. The "twisted sistas' intermediate team that we want Marc to coach (but I can see that the other mum and me will be managing the training sessions at least because, despite improvements in his working situation, I can't see him getting away by 4pm one afternoon a week. Which is a shame. He'd be good at it.) Cait wants to coach a Junior team - so she will have to coach her little sister whether she likes it or not - and so that will be another training afternoon I have to be at the netball courts for an hour.

Oh well. Just as well I think it's good for them. Now all I need to do is fit in my own fitness, and the positive outcomes from that will give me the stamina to face another year of their netball. I have another countdown clock starting to tick. March 2008. When it all ...starts ... again.

Labels: endorphins, netball