Walk into any netball affiliation on a biting chilly winter morning and you’ll discover one factor. Whereas dad and mom and spectators are wrapped up in heavy coats, nursing sizzling cups of espresso, the gamers do their greatest to combat off the chilly whereas carrying sleeveless clothes.
Frostbitten legs and arms are one factor, however much more alarming is the truth that younger women and girls are turning their backs on the game due to the character of the uniforms. In line with Netball Australia’s State of the Sport report launched on Thursday, that is an pressing subject to deal with.
The report canvassed opinions from throughout the netball group, from grassroots to elite gamers, and the difficulty of uniforms was one which echoed strongly by all ranges of the sport. As one stakeholder quote within the report places it: “We have to be inventive in how we embrace everybody in our sport. For some folks, the uniform is the difficulty and permitting them to put on completely different garments can be a easy repair.”
Clothes and skirts have lengthy been a staple of the sport, from the field pleat tunics of the Nineteen Twenties by to pleated netball skirts, lycra bodysuits and the light-weight A-line clothes that gamers now don every week. A transfer away from this fashion can be a radical change for a sport that’s deeply rooted in custom.
And but, observe any coaching session from the native under-8s by to district consultant groups, state groups and the elite stage and you will note there may be nary a skirt or gown to be discovered. When gamers select what they need to put on, somewhat than being given a prescribed uniform, they’re nearly solely selecting shorts and tights.
Fortunately occasions have modified since I used to be a toddler taking part in within the Nineties and we had been required to raise our skirts as much as present the umpire that we had been carrying bloomers beneath earlier than beginning every sport. Though it was essential that we participated within the efficiency of femininity by carrying skirts, it could have been unthinkable to permit anybody to catch a glimpse of our underwear whereas doing so.
However the attitudes that formed these sort of guidelines and rituals sadly haven’t advanced. Regardless of the frenzy round modern rule adjustments such because the two-point tremendous shot, netball has nonetheless not confronted the feminine/athlete paradox, the place the historically ‘masculine’ traits of power and aggression – that are required in sport – have to be balanced by femininity in look. That is the place the clothes are available. There may be an concept that the viewers can really feel comfy in seeing gamers conflict within the air, combat for the ball and be taken from the court docket with blood streaming from their faces so long as they accomplish that whereas dressed appropriately for his or her gender.
Nonetheless, is that this all actually value it when the pool to attract gamers from is ever-decreasing as younger ladies refuse to take part within the sport in any respect? Because the State of the Sport report additionally addressed, netball nonetheless depends on a bottom-up funding mannequin, that means the less gamers stepping out on these chilly winter mornings, the less {dollars} within the checking account for Suncorp Tremendous Netball to pay its gamers and market its product.
Probably the most tough issues to understand about the truth that this modification has taken so lengthy to even be thought-about, not to mention applied, is that grassroots netball doesn’t require uniforms in any respect. Gamers put on positional bibs and plenty of social competitions have recognised this utterly does away with a necessity for uniforms. When one workforce wears fluro pink bibs and the opposite workforce wears yellow ones, it merely doesn’t matter that some gamers select to put on saggy T-shirts and tights, whereas others go for singlets and shorts.
This additionally makes it simpler to account for the spiritual and cultural wants of some gamers, similar to these from Muslim backgrounds. When inclusion is constructed into the material of the game, somewhat than granted by particular request, it permits everybody to search out their place inside it.
For so long as it has existed, netball has been a sport by ladies, for girls. That comes with challenges, because it lacks a robust and well-funded males’s league to pave the best way, but it surely additionally has loads of advantages, similar to the flexibility to be unashamedly female-centric. The time has now come to take heed to the voices of women and girls throughout the nation – not simply those that match the standard mould of a netballer, however those that sit exterior it as effectively – with a purpose to develop the sport and guarantee it’s a sport for all ladies.
Netball has the chance to develop into a protected place for women to be extra energetic, play with freedom from considerations about physique picture and declare their area. Presently the game is constructing its personal boundaries out of lycra and nylon and desires to begin tearing these down in the event that they need to stay related on this new, extra aggressive sporting world for women and girls.
