After drinking a few glasses of wine on Saturday night, I was full of confidence. When my friend mentioned that she was thinking of joining a netball team to boost her fitness, memories of my competitive netball-playing days at Barton Court Grammar School came flooding back.
Filled with nostalgia, I jumped at the chance to go with her to the next netball session being held by an association that she had found online.
Thinking that this would be a fun and friendly way to keep fit and meet some new people, we turned up on Wednesday night at the Shooting Stars netball practice. Walking into Mayfield Secondary School, we made our way through the school corridors to the sports hall. First-day nerves began to set in as we entered the cold sports hall to find that some girls had arrived and were already practising shooting.
Suddenly the netball hoop seemed to be a lot smaller and the court a lot bigger than I had remembered. The girls were all very slim and tall with long, toned long legs. They were wearing matching Shooting Stars hoodies, one with ‘Shooting Stars On Tour Malta 2010’ emblazoned on the back.
This is when I realized that this wasn’t going to be like the keep-fit classes at the local gym.
Standing there in my cobbled together yoga-come-gym outfit, I felt very out of place. I haven’t played netball since secondary school and here I was, 13 years later, being thrown into the deep end.
Lots of girls came flooding in, which to my relief, included a few other ‘older’ ladies. The whistle was blown and the ‘trials’ were announced and suddenly we were all doing circuits.
What I thought would be a small group of women in their 20’s and 30’s, playing netball on a school court, laughing at each others mistakes and having fun had turned out to be an intensive trial to make the top teams.
Chatting to one of the other new members, she informed me that this was the top team in Portsmouth. She had come from a lower-ranked team and was trying out to make the grade with Shooting Stars. Her passion and dedication to the sport was clear to see. I felt like a traitor. I didn’t share her passion and in fact, could barely remember the rules.
There was nothing I could do. Not wanting to seem like a spoilsport, I joined in. When instructed, I threw the ball against the wall, chest-passed, shoulder-passed, defended, caught the ball in the air, through my legs, from behind, I did everything asked and with full effort.
After what seemed like an eternity (probably only an hour) we were broken into teams. I thought that I might die. Looking at the other girls, they had barely broken a sweat.
My old trusted WD bib was handed to me. I was never able to shoot at school and I’m sure that 13 years later this ability has not improved, so Wing Defence was the best place for me. For those of you unfamiliar with netball, the Wing Defence position cannot enter the goal circle, the ‘D’ shape by the goal ring.
I had barely caught my breath and I was up there, competing in a full-on match.
Playing against the tallest and slimmest teenage girl in Portsmouth, the whistle was blown and I was playing my first netball match in over a decade. The ball was passed like a bullet, the girls sprinted around, shouted at each other and the whistle kept on blowing. What was going on, I had no idea. I had forgotten just about every rule and broke at least two of them, meaning that the other team were awarded penalties. I ran into our Centre position and nearly knocked her out. I was knackered, my fingers hurt, my face was bruised and I thought those 15 minutes would never end.
When the whistle finally blew, I noticed how disappointed some of my teammates were to have been trounced so badly. The girls shook their heads in disappointment and I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me whole.
I had let everyone down by being slow, podgy, old and stupid.
Reading this, you’d have thought that I’d be crazy to go back. However, my friend who had encouraged me to go along in the first place had a great time. She assured me that I wasn’t as bad as I’d imagined. She reckons I’ll get better once I’ve learnt the rules. Me, I’m not so sure.
What I do know is that there is a competitive voice within me that refuses to let something like this beat me. That’s why I was on all the teams at school - this strange narcissistic desire to get better at the things that I can’t do.
I just need to get quicker, loose some weight, practise shooting, learn the rules, improve my fitness and buy a hoodie. Easy.
KIMBERLEY BARBER
For details regarding Shooting Stars netball team go to http://www.shootingstarsnetball.org.uk/
 |
| Picture from kentsport.org |
No comments:
Post a Comment