Naomi Taylor, a super league netballer, has been working alongside the Netball Association Zambia (NAZ) to help create a national youth league following Zambia’s latest disappointing position in the netball world rankings. The Team Bath Toucans player, has spent the last three months improving current coaching standards and assessing the potential success of a youth league. The Guernsey resident, with 14 years of netball experience, loves the team aspect of the game and enjoys sharing her knowledge with young netballers.
Purposefully sent to Zambia to share her expertise with netball coaches, the British netball specialist hopes to give players the opportunity to continue playing netball beyond the school experience. At present, a high drop out rate exists due to absence of local netball leagues which prevent continuous involvement in the sport. Although organisations such as Edusport and Sport In Action promote netball at grassroot and early competition levels, programmes which bridge the gap between recreation and performance level cease to exist.
UK Sport’s IDEALS project - a campaign which aims to develop sport internationally - plans to help Zambia create local leagues consisting of 10-12 youth teams where netball experiences can be continued. The league system will allow talented players to be identified and will prevent training at grassroots levels becoming futile.
Improvements to the current system must encompass changes in coaching techniques and talent spotting in schools and communities in order to raise the profile of the game. Such changes have begun to occur through Naomi’s presence in Zambia.
Currently, Naomi has provided three day coaching clinics in Lusaka and Livingston to asses the existing netball knowledge. However, analysing the success of such sessions has proved difficult over such a short period of time thus a three to five year development plan has been suggested.
Although Naomi’s trip to Zambia soon draws to a close, through the friends of Edusport, her involvement will continue and she will remain in close contact with many of the coaches and teams she has supported. In the future, Naomi hopes a scholarship exchange programme will be devised to allow Zambian players to travel to the UK to play netball.
