First Month of Pre-Season Training in the Bag

We caught up with the WBOP Magic team, and Head Coach Margaret Forsyth, this past week to get an update on how the first month of pre-season training has gone.

The team has been training and practicing predominantly without the New Zealand team players, Sam Sinclair and Kelly Jury, as their Commonwealth Games camps have taken up much of the pre-season preparation. We can also now confirm, Lenize Potgieter has been selected for the South African team. The wider management and playing team, are delighted about their selection, and wish them well at the Gold Coast. 

WBOP Magic Head Coach Margaret Forsyth said, February was a busy month for us, but it was great finally coming together to start pre-season training after a six-month off-season.  The first couple of weeks were a lot of strength and conditioning and testing.

“We then had a mini-camp at Papamoa in mid-February, which was an excellent way for team members to get to know each other better, build relationships and revisit our team Vision and Goals. The players devised and took part in a range of whole team challenges, personal stories were shared and life skills around self-awareness and acknowledgement were key sessions,” says Forsyth.

February’s conditioning block saw the team finish the boxing and hard conditioning sessions to move into more tactical sessions in preparation for our preseason games in March. Players are training hard week to week to ‘Win their Moment’.

Margaret also discussed our first pre-season game, which was on Wednesday 7 March in Auckland against the Mystics. We took a squad of 11 to the game, including all three training partners and one Beko player (Courtney Elliott). Sam and Kelly were away with the New Zealand team, and Casey and Lenize had minor ankle injuries that we didn’t want to risk.

“Although we lost the game 41-49, we won quarters 1 & 4, lost quarter 2 and drew quarter 3. All players got at least 1 full quarter on court. Overall, I was very happy with the run out, with terrific performances across the board, but especially from Sydney Fraser, Kat Levien and Captain for the night, Hayley Saunders,” says Forsyth.

The WBOP Magic will play the first competition season against the Central Pulse, on the 20^th May – 4.10pm, at Claudlands Arena.