Mavericks Maggie Out & About!
10th October 2009

Although it may have been the off-season for the players, Mavericks Head Coach Maggie Jackson has been clocking up the miles doing a range of work across the region alongside the usual commitments that keep her quite busy!

Coaching Workshop in Chelmsford

On behalf of Mavericks Maggie Jackson revisited East Essex on July 13th; a county where she both grew up and began her teaching and netballing career. Steph Hart (a former pupils!) had done a great job in setting up the workshop and 33 coaches attended a defending circle workshop at the Mildmay Sports Centre in Chelmsford.

Maggie involved 14 local Academy players in this workshop and the focus was on “turning over the ball” : communication, positioning and seeing the ball early were the main links.

Maggie emphasised how important it was to give defensive players time to develop as they are often growing taller and therefore not always appearing as co-ordinated as others of similar ages. It requires patience by the coaches in helping the players understand the game and by becoming proactive players they will “take more ball”. Maggie returns on September 7th to tutor a “feeding the circle” workshop.

Fair or Foul Conference

As part of the East Region AGM on July 10th the region held a conference that focussed on “Pushing the boundaries fair or foul” . Cheryl Danson, the East Region Chair initiated this and Sheelagh Redpath and Maggie Jackson were invited to lead the conference. 60 netballing enthusiasts attended the Goldsmith Centre in Letchworth.

Sheelagh and Maggie set the scene and focused on the important roles the player, the coach and the umpire play if the game is to continue to be fair and exciting.

All those attending were placed on one of nine tables with an identified facilitator and using both video footage and photos Maggie and Sheelagh introduced a task with some of their own experiences and thoughts and each table was then to discuss and identify 2 potential solutions that was fed back to the whole group and Cheryl became the scribe. There was time for 4 tasks to be looked at and the innovative and exciting solutions that emerged are now going to be discussed by Cheryl Danson at a national level.

Maggie and Sheelagh's thanks go to the nine facilitators for their hard work and encouraging and succeeding in getting ideas and views from all those who attended.

Gloria Keech (Mavericks CEO and Umpire), Sue Collins (Regional Talent Coach), Jo Munnion ( Regional Talent Coach and former Mavericks Youth and England Under 19 Head Coach) Linda Swain (former Coaching DO) Chris Laundy (East Region Talent Chair) Kendra Slawinski (Assistant Senior National Squad Coach and Former Mavericks Head Coach) Teresa White (Back 2 netball DO) June Snellin (East Region Officiating Chair) Alison Brightman (East Region Coaching Chair)

These are just a couple of the events that Maggie has been involved with over the summer months. She always gets a positive wecome from every corner of the region and players and coaches from local level upwards enjoy gaining the benefit of Maggie's international and CNSL experience (she has a few years under her belt!)

We understand that everybody would love a personal visit from a Superleague coach or player. All requests should be directed to welovemavericks@mavericksnetball.co.uk and the draw for visits and events will take place soon. Thanks for all your support.