Three of our Tasmania Wild athletes, along with one of our coaches had the incredible opportunity at the end of June, to visit the Thunderbirds. Paige O’Neill, Charlotte Walker, and Ellie Marshall headed to Adelaide along with Lynda Colgrave to experience the high-performance environment and day to day schedule of playing with the Adelaide Thunderbirds SSN team.
Tasmania Wild player, Ellie Marshall, found the experience insightful, “I really enjoyed having the experience to train at a higher level. It showed me an insight into how the elite train and what their every day looks like. I am so grateful for the opportunity netball tas gave me to train with some of my idols and to receive feedback from high performance coaches to make me a better netballer.”
The group were incredibly lucky to be welcomed into the club and emersed in many once in a lifetime experiences. From getting to train with the Thunderbirds themselves as well as the Thunderbirds reserves, to Q&A’s with the Thunderbirds leadership group and Thunderbirds coaches Tania Obst, Cathy Fellows, & Jacqui Illman. There were also opportunities to train in the Thunderbirds gym at SASI and engage in detailed match review and analysis.
The experience was not only invaluable for our athletes, Lynda Colgrave found the opportunities for growth in her coaching exceptional, “So thankful to Netball Tas for the T-birds experience. It was a fabulous opportunity to see what goes on at SSN level. The exposure to Q & As with coaching staff and the leadership group, post-match analysis and pre match preparations and training are experiences that have already helped my coaching immensely. To top it off the Thunderbirds were so welcoming towards myself and the athletes.”
