SINGAPORE — It is the most popular sport played among schoolgirls in Singapore, but the coaching of netball in schools still needs a more structured and consistent system to ensure that the right basic skills are being imparted.

That is why Netball Singapore teamed up with the Ministry of Education (MOE) to launch a Primary School Netball Co-Curricular Activity (CCA) resource yesterday.

A 338-page manual has been developed by the two organisations, and 24 copies of the resource have been distributed for now.

Netball is the first sport to have a CCA resource, and the plan is for more sports to have similar resources in the future, Sport Singapore CEO Lim Teck Yin told TODAY.

A series of training workshops will also be organised for netball CCA teachers-in-charge and school coaches on the use of the resource, with the first session conducted with 22 teachers yesterday.

“This resource will go towards helping to build a steady stream of players (for national team succession), and the important point is to build a big pool of players with the right skills since (they were) young,” said Netball Singapore president Jessica Tan, who is also a Member of Parliament for the East Coast GRC.

“You need to do it properly in schools via the CCA. If not, the students either don’t learn the sport well, or may suffer injuries.

“The popularity of netball and the buzz surrounding it are a lot stronger these days, after our Asian Netball Championships (2014) and South-east Games (2015) titles. We want to build on this interest, and schools that do not have netball as a CCA can also start one via our resource.”

This year, 98 primary school teams and 186 secondary school teams took part in the National Inter-school Netball Championships.

The Primary School Netball CCA resource, which took three years to develop, was spearheaded by high-performance coach Julie Hoornweg.

The Australian has been lending her expertise and know-how to Netball Singapore for the past four years.

“I was going around the schools and I thought something needs to be done. So we put our heads together and came up with this manual,” said Hoornweg. “The main difference between Singapore’s and Australia’s school systems is that the sport is way too competitive in Singapore.

“So, this manual will also encourage the rotation of players in different positions during school training, so that they don’t specialise in a certain position early.

“So don’t just put the tall players at the posts (for shooting or defending), but encourage them to run, to jump and throw, like anybody else on the court.” ADELENE WONG