netball!

Darn it!
I forgot to take any pictures of us playing netball, so all I could get was this lousy photo of the netball hoop.
The floodlights had gone off too, so I had to use the camera flash.
Yes, i played netball on Saturday.
6-8pm.

Jac was kind enough to help us organise a netball game and even went to book the court for the full experience.
Initially, I was quite worried if we could play since she said it was an open court, and it had just rained in the afternoon.
Thankfully, the skies cleared up, and luckily the court had some drier.
So we each took turns squeezing the court dry.

Now on to the action!
I played centre, because I was the youngest, so they deduced I would have the most energy.
Oh my goodness, I was so tired by the time the half was over!
I supposed I lacked tactical discipline, so therefore I was prone to running all over the place instead of running smart.
Furthermore, my lack of any netball tactical concepts meant I was running into places, anticipating a certain play, only to end up running in the opposite direction to cover any lost ground.

I also struggled to come to terms with the myriad of complicated rules.
I got fouled like thrice because I decided to launch a long ball forward more than 2 thirds of the court (FOUL!)
I was often caught in possesion of the ball for more than 3 seconds (FOUL!)
Of course, I constantly violated the travelling rule, with my head still stuck in the captain's ball and basketball rules (FOUL!)

The rest of the group kept violating the travelling and the 3 second rule.
If fouls were called for being less than 3 feet from the ball handler, I'm sure I would have gotten called out too.
Thank goodness we can't be fouled out like in basketball.

With the 3 second rule hanging over my head, my passing became very one dimensional.
I kept throwing these lob passes which allowed me to clear alot of distance, but also making them very easy to intercept.
Also it was quite foolish to go for distance since there's a maximum to how long we can clear, a very irritating rule I must say.
If i'm going to keep playing centre, i need to boost my fitness even more.
A centre who is unable to the whole game is useless and is simply not fit enough to play there.

All in all, I really had fun.
No, I had a blast!
Jac says we're going to make it a monthly thing.
Excuse me now while I go research netball tactics from the internet now.