Tasmanian Magpies have surprised their returning coach Jon Fletcher over the extent many players have gone to keep fit while locked down and isolated in their homes.
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The novel ways have transformed house bricks to substitute dumbbells and running the steps of houses in lieu of a stairmaster after the Tasmanian-based stars previously had access to the TIS three times a week.
Fletcher has applauded the improvisation under the influence of TIS staff while still possibly months away from a season start.
"They are monitoring the different ways of providing and adapting the best they can. Some players have some gym stuff, but some just wouldn't," Fletcher said.
The latest ingenuity was just one step of adapting from the COVID-19 pandemic that postponed the ANL competition, which had been set to commence next month.
For the Magpies, regrouping in isolation is par for the course - coronavirus or not.
The second-year side less than two years ago won the state's first national netball title, training disjointed and all over the place.
Fletcher takes control again after his 2017 stint of a team that is split into three different hubs - Hobart, Launceston and Melbourne - as a part of Netball Tasmania's partnership with Super Netball affiliate Collingwood.
So not being able to train as a collective unit every session gives the Magpies a clear advantage over five of their seven rivals.
Only Canberra Giants and Territory Storm split their group but instead over two cities.
"Without having to thought about that, it's probably helps us more," Fletcher said.
"For the girls, it wasn't like 'what are we going to do now?' but more of 'oh well, that's what happened, let's move on'.
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"We're used to it. Our communication stays the same. Sure we can't actually train in groups, but we train separately anyway.
"It's probably not a hassle; we're better equipped because that's our lifestyle."
Players have been encouraged, just like their fitness, to keep working on their ball skills but to do so with a household resident in another makeshift arrangement.
Fletcher wants skills to remain sharp that has been robbed of a number of rounds of the State League before their ANL opener.
"We've gone from training in threes or fours to training as one rather than some teams would have gone from training of 13 or 14 down to one," Fletcher said. "So our adjustment is only a slight adjustment."
The earliest sanctioned Netball Australia competition can start that includes Super Netball is June 30, which impacts on tuning up towards a possible start-up date.
Fletcher is not so confident of this target date, fearing it will be pushed back until it's "out of sight out of mind" and accordingly he is not taking any chances with preparation.
So home programs have been given out to 11 players, which six are based in Tasmania, to cover conditioning, training loads, mental wellbeing and daily sleep patterns.
Social media is also playing its part with chat groups stretching over the 700kms between teammates that will extend to more frequent video hookups as the year goes on.
"When we are allowed to go whatever time it might be, whether it's June, July, August or September, we do not want to have to pick up the pieces - we just want to hit the ground running," Fletcher said.
"So there is a big emphasis on keeping in touch at all times."
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