Lana McCarthy

Dr Lana McCarthy has spent the past 10 years in the sport, education and coaching sector in various roles, including as a registered health and physical education teacher, a netball development officer, a regional sports advisor, and as a lecturer in physical education.

She was a netball coach for a range of high-performance New Zealand netball teams, spanning secondary school, Under 17, Under 19 and Under 23 level. She undertook research for her master’s thesis with the Northern Mystics ANZ netball team in 2014, on the development and importance of establishing team culture and leadership within sports teams. This led to a PhD investigating team culture, leadership and coaching styles, and the ways in which captains and coaches have constructed the culture within the Silver Ferns — the first study of its kind in New Zealand.

Players need to be able to think for themselves, make split-second decisions and act upon these decisions with confidence and self-assurance, taking responsibility for their own actions.

Like thousands of other young netball girls in New Zealand, I grew up with aspirations of one day playing for the Silver Ferns. I would watch my idol Bernice Mene and hope that one day I would play goal defence for the Silver Ferns just like her. I have countless childhood memories of watching televised games of the Ferns playing against the Australian Diamonds, with victory often impossible to predict until the final seconds. I also remember being glued to the television and witnessing momentous moments in the history of the game, such as the one-goal loss to Australia in the dying seconds of the 1999 World Netball Championships in Christchurch, or the epic moment when Temepara George (now Bailey) was sent off during the final of the World Cup in 2003 — and the Silver Ferns got their revenge by reclaiming the trophy, and the title as the world’s top-ranked netball team.

I began playing netball for Cornwall Street Primary School in Masterton. On cold winter Saturday mornings we played on the asphalt at the Colombo Road netball courts. The old blue pleated netball skirt came down to my knees as I ran around with my team-mates, chasing and crowding the ball like bees around a honey pot. We would rotate positions every quarter and I would try my hardest to avoid the goal shoot and goal attack bib so I wouldn’t have the added pressure (and embarrassment!) of trying to get the ball through what seemed then to be a ridiculously tall hoop. These early experiences would result in netball for evermore becoming my sport of choice.

When I moved to Masterton Intermediate School, I was nervous about

having to trial to be placed in a netball team. The pressure of competing against others was daunting, but this was just the first of many netball trials to come. I was the only Year 7 student to make the A1 team, the rest being Year 8s. This had not happened before, and so it was a very big deal! I also have fond memories of my classroom teacher, Mr Thompson, being so proud of me. Those intermediate years also solidified my preferred playing position: a defender at heart, goal defence was where I belonged on court. At Wairarapa College I continued to play netball. I was the first Year 11 student to make the Senior A1 team, going on to captain that team, and I was named in the Wellington Regional Talent Identification Squad. I also progressed throughout the Wairarapa representative netball age-group teams, playing for the Under 15s and Under 17s.

In my childhood and adolescent playing years, the support and encouragement of my parents was an important factor in my continued involvement in netball. They made every effort to come to nearly all my games and representative tournaments, while juggling three kids who played three different winter sports. They both also played numerous roles: supporters, managers, taxi drivers, counsellors, financial backers and first-aiders. In 2005 I moved to Palmerston North to study a bachelor of sport and exercise at Massey University (and then a graduate diploma to qualify as a physical education teacher). The level of performance and competition was much higher than in small-town Masterton, and I realised very quickly that I had to work twice as hard if I wanted to play regional netball at the top level.

On the recommendation of a former Masterton team-mate who was playing for the club, I trialled for Feilding Netball Club, and was selected for one of the Premier One netball teams. I felt way out of my depth and intimidated, as some of my team-mates were Western Flyers netball players, who went on to get ANZ contracts and even play for the Silver Ferns. However, I also thrived on being pushed harder than I had ever been pushed before, and it was during this period that I developed the most as a player. My coach was Yvette McCausland-Durie (later the Central Pulse and Silver Ferns assistant coach), who at the time was coaching the Western Flyers team. I hung off her every word. I was in awe of her knowledge of the game and truly admired the way she formed positive relationships with her players, while also expecting a high level of work and performance.

During my first year with Feilding Netball Club, I also made the Manawatū Under 19 representative team. For the next 10 years I continued to play Premier One netball; during that time, however, I suffered a serious injury, requiring two shoulder reconstructions followed by intensive strength and rehabilitation programmes. This meant spending a few months on the bench. I never returned to full strength as a player and realised that I could no longer compete at Premier One level. It was a turning point in my career in netball and I needed to re-evaluate my involvement in the game.

A role in administration was still an option, and so I joined the club committee. I was later voted chairperson (2017–18). Although my days of competing in Premier One netball were in the past, I still wanted to play, so I joined the Feilding Reserves team, a team of former Feilding Netball Club Premier One players, playing in the grade below.

In 2018, while completing my PhD, I was a member of the Massey University Tertiary netball team that competed at the New Zealand university games in Auckland. Having always been a staunch Feilding member, it felt odd to be playing for a team that I usually played and coached against. There were many good, hard battles! I came into that team as one of the oldest players, and some of my team-mates were also my students. I have such positive memories of this experience, as I was welcomed with open arms and instantly made to feel a valuable member of the team. To my surprise, this ‘old girl’ secured a starting position and our team went on to compete in the final against Waikato University. Ahead by one goal in the closing seconds, we showed great composure. We played the ball around, maintaining possession as the clock wound down, and went on to win the New Zealand Tertiary National Netball title.

As a young netball player I was the recipient of the ‘traditional’ autocratic style of coaching. I was told what to do, how to perform it and when to do it in a game. My team-mates and I relied heavily on the coach to provide the instructions and the game plan. When we deviated from this plan we would be thrown into a state of panic as we didn’t have the skills or capability to think for ourselves, make decisions and react to challenges on court.

This was how netball was taught in those days. There was very limited

knowledge of coaching styles or approaches. I had never heard of concepts such as Teaching Games for Understanding or an ‘empowering’ approach towards coaching. It wasn’t until I played under Yvette McCausland-Durie that I experienced a different style of coaching: one where players were included a lot more, were asked questions and were encouraged to think for themselves, and where the environment was competitive but you also felt at ease with your coach and your team-mates.

As my playing career reached its peak, I also turned my attention to coaching. I began in 2009 as coach of the Senior A1 netball team at Freyberg High School, taking over as the head coach of the Palmerston North Girls’ High School Senior A1 in 2015, and working as a Manawatū representative coach from 2010 to 2019, the assistant coach of the Central Zone Under 23 netball team and other various talent identification coaching programmes run by Netball Central. In 2019 I had my first year as head coach of the Feilding A1 — the team I had played for many years ago. Still competing in the Manawatū Premier One competition, we had set the goal as a team early on in the season that we were going to win. We achieved that goal and for the first time in 10 years Feilding A1 were the Premier One netball champions. That was one of my proudest coaching moments — not because we won, but because this group of players and management was truly the most united, positive, supportive and hardworking team that I had ever had the pleasure of coaching. I was also deeply honoured to have received the Manawatū 2019 Coach of the Year award.

I’m a strong believer in the importance of using an empowering approach when coaching players and teaching students. Players should be encouraged to learn independently and to want to seek improvement and development in their own performances. Players need to be able to think for themselves, make split-second decisions and act upon these decisions with confidence and self-assurance, taking responsibility for their own actions.

But while I favour the empowering approach, I have also come to recognise that there’s a place for both the autocratic and the empowering styles. My coaching approach has evolved over time into a more mixed coaching style, which aims to teach players to take responsibility for their performances and the decisions they make, and to learn and grow from these experiences, while also being given clear directions at times when particular technical and/or tactical aspects need to be reinforced.