Lessons on high performance as well as shared cultural experiences are making this week’s PacificAus Sports camp in Queensland invaluable to coaches and athletes.
The group of nine athletes and seven coaches from Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and Papua New Guinea are in Brisbane for nine days as part of the Netball Queensland partnership in place with Netball Australia, with thanks to the Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trading.
Participants are spending the camp training, learning and playing in a true high-performance environment.
Among the opportunities offered have been talks and presentations from Netball Queensland high performance staff and service providers on a diverse range of topics including nutrition, physical conditioning and on-court skills.
“It's my first time in Australia so overall it's just amazing to be here,” Samoa athlete Sayonara Alaalatoa said.
“This opportunity, it's just great, because if it wasn't for this, I wouldn't get the chance to be here in Australia.
“I've been picking up on a lot of things during training. I know I'm learning a lot.
“I'll take all of that back home.”
It hasn’t just been external learning that has been a feature of the camp, with the athletes coming together to share their own cultures with one another during their stay.
“It's been really fun with the languages,” Tonga’s Kaloni Moala said.
“I asked them how to say ‘hi’ in their language, learning a new language, so I can go back home with it.
“And their traditional dances, I sometimes ask them to do a dance so I can see it.
“It's really cool how close we've become.”
While young athletes are learning important skills to take back to their home nations, the camp has been equally eye-opening for coaches such as Papua New Guinea’s Oti Lasagavibau.
“One of the topics that I really enjoyed was the load management from the strength and conditioning perspective, and also the nutrition side of things,” Lasagavibau said.
“We had a session with the dietician, on what an athlete needs to eat before game and what an athlete needs to eat after the game and what are the processes in dealing with the recovery and all that stuff.
“Also the court work, some of the craft or the drills and the skills that we've come across. It's been exciting.
“I'm looking forward to taking on as much as I can to relay the message or to impart that knowledge onto the other coaches, and the athletes at large.”
Netball Australia announced on Thursday the PacificAus Sports Netball Series’ second event will be held on the Sunshine Coast in October, with the Fiji Pearls, Papua New Guinea Pepes, Samoa Tifa Moana and Tonga Tala all returning having played in the inaugural series in March.
This week’s camp however culminates in the Pacific Island athletes coming together to compete as an invitational side in the 18U competition at the Nissan State Titles, being held in Brisbane from Sunday to Tuesday.
“What's really important for our players is that they get to interact with other players from around the state and it's important that they see the level that Australia is at obviously, dominating, netball,” Samoa coach Manuia Leuii said.
“Just to have that experience of what they've been taught on court this last week but it's also important for them to understand being good sports and having that camaraderie with other players.
“That's really valuable for the girls.”
