NSW Swifts Abbey McCulloch and Steph Wood to train Orange netball juniors

NSW Swifts stars Abbey McCulloch and Stephanie Wood will be on hand at Orange PCYC on Wednesday to take a huge number of the central west’s up-and-comers through the Netball NSW Train Like a Swift clinic, the first to be held outside of Sydney.

Three clinics have already been held as part of the 2016 Train Like a Swift program at Sydney’s Netball Central last week, going through preparation, strategy, recovery and technique, with Wednesday’s session to focus on a number of elements as well.

McCulloch, primarily a wing defender, and Wood, who normally plays goal attack, will take the 55 registered players through sessions on attacking and defending strategies, nutrition and game and body preparation.

“This is the first time one of these has been held in a regional area, which is exciting ... it’s a good starting point,” Netball NSW west/central west regional coordinator and former Canberra Darter Mardi Aplin said.

“Players are coming from all over the [region] which is great. The Swifts girls will be taking them through recovery, nutrition and that sort of thing and they’ll also be doing defensive, attacking and centre court drills with everyone.”

Aplin went on to say how beneficial the clinic will be for all those who registered, considering the calibre of players they’ll be learning from.

Now 26, McCulloch, one of the Swifts’ co-vice-captains last winter, represented NSW in a number of under-age representative sides before making her ANZ Championship debut in 2013 with the Queensland Firebirds.

Since then she’s earned a leadership role for the Swifts and was also invited into the Australian Diamonds Selection Camp in 2014 and the Future Diamonds Focus Camp last year.

Wood, 24, debuted last season and was also invited to the Future Diamond Focus Camp. Prior to that, she represented Australia at the under-21 and under-19 levels. She was also a part of Queensland’s under-19 national championship-winning team in 2010, where she was named tournament MVP as well.

“It’ll be a really valuable experience for the 55 players who did register,” Aplin said.