AMI NORTH HARBOUR NETBALL with Adele Lendich

The Season Is Upon Us

Twilight is underway. Ladies’ Day needs more teams!

Adele Lendich Our Business House campaign is also underway…. Where are all of those social teams who want to have fun, improve their fitness and finish off with a drink at our bar on a Friday night!…. Women and Men - come on down to AMI Netball North Harbour and join up or visit www.netballnorthharbour.co.nz for more details.

One of the big issues for us, as a major sport on the North Shore with 16,000 members, is to address side line behaviour.
That is “parents behaving badly”.

This phenomenon is not new to sport, but come on - let’s give kids a fair go without publicly embarrassing them.

Some sports are now having to appoint ‘field marshals’ and Netball was no exception, last year assigning a person to ‘roam’ the courts to ensure that our spectators were well behaved.

Our young players shouldn’t have that added pressure of trying to please their parents on the court, and they certainly don’t want the embarrassment of witnessing their parents yelling at the coach, the umpire, the opposition or their fellow team-mates.

In 2001, researchers from Waikato University looked at abuse from the sidelines and how it affected the performance of our youngest sports people.

The research was part of a campaign entitled “Give it a rest and they’ll play their best” which urged supporters to set a good example to children.

Unfortunately, their findings showed that some kids dropped out of sport as a direct result of their badly behaved parents. They either feigned an injury or said that they weren’t enjoying the sport anymore.

Last year AUT and selected sporting organizations including the Regional Sports Trusts met to discuss this issue. Whilst there is ongoing robust debate surrounding this issue, I think it is a sad indictment of our communities when inappropriate adult behaviour interferes with what every parent fundamentally wants – our kids to play sport, have some fun and most of all, to ensure they have a good experience.