Wales Netball
March 24, 2020
This year, Welsh Netball in partnership with the National Federation of Women’s Institutes-Wales, has launched new Walking Netball Activator courses, with the popularity and positive impact of the walking format of netball continuing to grow and grow.
The Walking Netball Activator course is a newly designed course which seeks to equip prospective walking netball leaders with the skills and knowledge they need to run walking netball sessions in their community. So far, two Walking Netball Activator courses have taken place, with 11 participants attending the course in North Wales and 17 attending the Mid & West Wales course. These courses were specifically for Women’s Institute members who were looking to lead walking netball sessions and a majority of Wales’ WI Federations were represented on these courses.
Candidates completing the course received a resource book and certificate along with a walking netball water bottle and will now be returning to their communities to lead walking netball sessions. This collaboration between the National Governing Body and the National Federation of Women’s Institutes-Wales seeks to help WI members to stay active and take part in a team sport which is challenging, sociable and rewarding. Moreover, it is hoped that the social benefits of walking netball sessions will help tackle loneliness and isolation amongst older women, bringing yet another range of health and well-being benefits.
Now that Welsh Netball has run these courses alongside the WI, it is hoped that in the near future these courses will be able to be expanded upon and offered to the wider netball community. Walking netball groups have taken off across the country and it is hoped that the new Walking Netball Activator course can help cater for this growing demand and ensure that participants can enjoy fun, safe and sociable sessions across the country.
Abbie Kelsall, Welsh Netball’s Workforce Development Co-ordinator said: “It has been absolutely fantastic working with the National Federation of Women’s Institutes-Wales in running our first two Walking Netball Activator courses. The participants have been so enthusiastic and keen to learn and the feedback we’ve had already has been really positive.
“Walking netball is bringing health and well-being benefits to communities across Wales. We will be looking to run even more of these courses in the coming months as walking netball goes from strength-to-strength.”
All of Welsh Netball’s workforce development courses are currently suspended due to COVID-19. However, once they resume, all of our upcoming coaching and umpiring courses can be found here. Also, information about our coaching pathway can also be found here.
