coaching a mixture of young and mature women

Netball CoachCoach

I coach a team like this too and we have come a long way this season.  I made sure I had the younger girls mobile phone numbers and I was quite firm that they need to communicate with me about training and match availability.  If they don't communicate then they don't get selected.  They seem to like to text the most.  i send out squad emails for the team, and match repots so they all keep informed.  At training I mix the 2 groups and make sure they mix with each other.  I have also had quiet words with both groups that they can learn from each other - the younger ones from the older players and the older players can mentor the younger ones as we were all there once.  I think the younger ones have stepped up their game especially when we have beaten by "old ladies" as they don't move much but are very accurate.  Give it time, they will come around, especially when they see the older ones getting annoyed with them because they are mucking around.  If you ask them questions about the drills and skills then they have to listen and understand why they are doing these drills.  Hope this helps

Netball CoachCoach

We are in the same boat and everything that Jo said above is pretty much where we are at.  It is hard especially because the young girls have been playing together for 7 years and they made a pretty big leap from College to Senior Prem this year so it is a learning curve for us all even the team managment.  We are very lucky in the fact that like Jo's team our older ladies (20+yrs) are awesome mentors and are very supportive of the young girls (14-17yrs) even when theyhave thier teenage moments.  I use Facebook alot to keep everyone up to date & I find that even the senior players are more likely to check their facebook page so its a great tool even for our supporters who can follow our progress and like Jo I group text the team with reminders etc as well.  I find with the older players it is a bit harder as they have work, family commitments to fit around netball which can be a issue sometimes but we always manage to work around it.  I guess the main thing is to make sure you dont segregate them and talk to them the same way i.e. dont treat them differently I think they younger ones will adapt better and will appreciate it in the long run, just remeber to keep the parents of the younger ones in the loop as well as sometimes we forget that they are ones responsible for getting them to training and games. 

Sportplan TeamAdministrator, United Kingdom

Hi,

we thought this was a tricky question so we posted a link to it on our netball Facebook page and here are some of the answers we received:

Hope this helps!
The Sportplan Team