RISING netball star and Manor Gardens resident, Jamie Williamson, is jetting off to Australia in August. She has been selected to represent the South African Indoor Netball Federation at the Tri Series held in Brisbane.
Williamson, who will be competing on the U23 South African team, said indoor netball is a fast-paced game.
“The action netball court is slightly smaller, and the court is surrounded by nets – so the ball can’t go out. Often we pass the ball off the net – it’s like an eighth-player on the court. Because the ball can’t go out, it makes the game a bit faster,” explained Williamson.
She took up outdoor netball when she was a Grade One learner and took up action netball as a Grade Three learner.
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“First, I started off playing Goal Defence and then interchanged between Goalkeeper and Goal Defence. Through most of my netball career, I have played on the defence side. It requires you to think a lot, so it’s a nice mental game,” she said.
While she has enjoyed a range of sports, including water polo, soccer, touch rugby, basketball and volleyball, netball has been her constant over years.
At 1.85m tall, Williamson makes an excellent defender, although she says her height is not the end-all and be-all on the netball court.
Williamson played for the KwaZulu-Natal U23 Ladies’ Team before making the South African Squad last year. She went on to compete at the Inter-provincial Tournament (IPT) this year where she was selected for the South Africa U23 Netball Team.
“I’m very excited. I’m also concerned about the competition. Netball is not new to South Africa, but Australia and New Zealand are really known for their netball, so it’s going to be a tough competition,” she said.
With a stringent training schedule, consistency is key for Williamson.
“I practise at least three times a week and play games on the weekend,” she said, adding that there is a lot of fitness training involved on the court sidelines.
“Before the IPT, our coach gave us fitness regimes by Micaela Dorfling to do. It really helps because you are playing a lot of games every day, and it’s taxing on your body. She has very good fitness plans that help. It’s very netball-specific training, so we used a lot of resistance bands, weights and did agility drills,” said Williamson.
Adding to this is running training and a pretty high step count.
“From my watch, I could measure my steps and I’d get up to about 13 000 steps per training session,” Williamson said.
In terms of her pre-game diet, Williamson takes care to nourish her body with plenty of vegetables and stay hydrated.
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The netball player sustained a medial collateral ligament (MCL) tear in December last year and underwent intense physical therapy.
“During one training session, another player ran into me, and my knee was knocked. My MCL was strained very badly. I went for vigorous rehab for a week because I had to go on tour the following week. I had to make sure my knee was strapped before games,” she recalled.
A bright future
Veronie hopes to one day play for the South African Outdoor Netball Team, and having recently made the Kingdom Queens Team for the Telkom Netball League (TNL), she is well on her way. The said making the team was a highlight of her netball career.
“This is definitely a stepping stone to making the South African Outdoor Netball Team,” she said.
The TNL league was televised – a unique experience for Williamson.
“It was surreal – so many cameras around, constantly pointing at you, but it was a good experience,” she said.
“You have to focus on your game, not look at social media, because with the good, there’s a lot of bad,” she added.
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