NWU’s Claudia van den Berg talks about her decision to shoot 300 hoops every day and how it improves her game.
According to Van den Berg, when she was in primary school her grandmother always forced her to shoot 100 goals every time she finished netball training and she hated it because it felt like forever. As she went through high school and eventually made her way onto the NWU team, the number of hoops she was shooting increased to 300. Not only does she just shoot, she also jump ropes or runs while doing so in order to improve her statistics.
Van den Berg believes it does better her game, saying: “I believe the more you practice, the luckier you get. I can feel a gradual decline when I’ve skipped a day of shooting because my academics needed attention. I also think that shooting everyday makes me more accurate.”
When asked how she motivates herself to get onto the court and practice her goal shooting, Van den Berg said that she finds that it relaxes her a lot and she actually loves doing it. It helps especially during exam time, and she also just loves the game of netball very much.
Because NWU doesn’t have an indoor court, you would think that the rain would stop her from practising. However, this is not the case. When there are important matches coming up or the rain isn’t too hard, van den Berg says that she just puts on her rain coat and has specific shoes with better grip that she also wears.
The dedication from players like this definitely shows on the court; considering how well NWU have done in past tournaments, as well as this tournament so far.
By Bronwen Bain
