Many of you might wonder what the months between the end of the Super Netball season and the beginning of preseason look like for us netballers. And many of you won’t wonder at all but I’m going to tell you anyway, sorry! My first answer is that this time varies from player to player. For some, there is little rest and the focus immediately shifts to international commitments. Others might have a few months of kicking back and relaxing and those who, like me, are injured, may end up doing a whole lot of the same thing.
Back in the ANZ Championship days, players were only on eight-month contracts which meant that for the four other months of the year we were without our regular income and thus many players tried to find work or take on extra hours from existing jobs they held throughout the season. Now, with Suncorp Super Netball, we are fortunate enough to be on 12-month contracts and get paid all year round. But this also means we have a commitment to the club to ensure we are still staying in shape should we be lucky enough to receive more than our allowed eight weeks leave.
In my first year at the Swifts, we had four months off between our season ending and the start of preseason so most of us who were from interstate ended up packing up and heading home to mooch off our parents and save up some money to go travelling. I did a two-week trip to Vietnam and also went to Europe over the Christmas break with my family. I’ve always loved to travel, it’s something that I have been fortunate enough to do a lot of thanks to my parents. When I was seven, my older brother was nine and my younger brother was only four, my parents took us out of school for six weeks and we travelled around Europe in a campervan. All our friends thought Mum and Dad were crazy, “the kids won’t even remember it!” they said. But we do (well parts of it, and what I don’t remember I do through photos) and it was one of the best things we ever did. “It doesn’t matter, we want to go, so the kids are coming too!” Mum and Dad replied to the sceptics. The parts of the trip I do remember include drawing pictures of superheroes with my brothers as my parents navigated their way through the French countryside with nothing but a hand-held map, cracking Easter eggs on our heads with an Italian family in Florence, Dad getting yelled at by German police officers for going the wrong way down a one-way street and feeling snow for the first time as we tobogganed down the Swiss alps. While I may not remember every detail, what I do are some of the best I’ve had and will stay with me for a lifetime.
As kids, we would go on a family holiday almost every year. These ranged from overseas destinations like New Zealand, Fiji, New Caledonia and the Cook Islands to local trips to beaches and up the river. My parents always said there was no better way to spend their hard-earnt savings, and believed that experiencing different places and cultures would give us skills to help us through life and develop into good people. They have both lived in different countries around the world, from Mum volunteering in a kibbutz in Israel straight after university, to Dad working in places like Iraq and Jordan and the two of them spending a year in Ethiopia. They have inspired me to want to do my own travelling which has involved a two-month trip around Europe, six weeks in the USA, a few weeks in Sri Lanka, Bali and Vietnam as well as trips to Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago and South Africa thanks to netball. The people you meet, the food you eat, and the things you learn about the world while overseas can’t be learnt in a classroom or read in a book (insert Grace on the Court plug).
My off-season this year has definitely been a little different to normal. Rehab is a full-time job. I have a new appreciation for ‘normal’ people who suffer significant injuries as rehab takes excessive amounts of time, money and effort. I’m currently doing six gym sessions (2 a day, 3 days a week), three conditioning sessions and at least one physio session a week as well as my ‘at home’ rehab exercises. So when people ask me “what have you been doing with your spare time now that you’re injured?” my answer is always “more than I did before I was injured”. Believe me, I’m not complaining. I’m so fortunate to be able to dedicate all my time and effort to rehab to ensure I come back as fit and strong as I possibly can that I empathise deeply with those who don’t have access to the support, facilities or people I do. And I can’t forget the two-week trip to Hawaii I got to sneak in between rehab sessions…
Speaking of rehab, it’s probably time for some hamstring exercises…
Until next time (and I promise next time won’t be this long),
Maddy xx