Stellenbosch University to organise international Pre-World Cup Netball Conference

The Division of Sport Science at Stellenbosch University (SU) will soon, for the first time, host an international netball conference. The event is particularly relevant because of the 2023 Netball World Cup to be hosted in Cape Town at the end of July 2023 – the first time a Netball World Cup event will be hosted on the African continent.

The conference will be held in-person at the Division of Sport Science situated at the Coetzenburg Sports Grounds on the Stellenbosch campus on 20 and 21 July 2023.

Themed “Beyond the Court: Exploring Netball Science and Applications”, the conference is organised by a steering committee of the Division of Sport Science in collaboration with the Western Cape Government.

The conference theme aims to capture the essence of netball as a dynamic sport that combines scientific research with real-world applications. Keynote speakers, workshops and discussions at the conference would focus on a variety of netball-specific topics. Attendees would have the opportunity to delve into the latest advancements in netball research, gain insights into player management to reduce injury risk, and discover technologies to enhance player performance. By bringing together researchers, coaches, players and administrators, this conference aims to facilitate knowledge exchange, collaboration and inspiration, ultimately leading to the advancement of netball as a sport.

The Western Cape’s Minister of Sport, Anroux Marais, is to open the conference at 09:00 in lecture room A in the Department at Coetzenburg in Stellenbosch on 20 July 2023.

Topics to be covered include: Nutritional strategies for netball players; Reducing injury risk and illness in netball players; Off-court conditioning modalities to enhance performance and reduce injury risk such as backward/retro-training, barefoot training, neuromuscular warm-ups; Safe landings in netball; Nutritional deficiency in netball players; History of netball; and Elite sport systems for player development in South Africa.

Workshops on performance analysis, GPS-based training, goal shooting and lower-limb injury risk assessment are included.