The Hidden Struggles of Building an International Team Without Funding

When people think of international sport, they often picture world-class facilities, full-time staff and endless support. But the reality for many national programmes, ours included, couldn’t be more different.

As Head of Strength & Conditioning, my role is to design and deliver a physical preparation programme for our international netball athletes. The challenge? We don’t have the funding or infrastructure that most of our competitors take for granted. That means no central base, no full-time access to athletes and limited opportunities to work together face-to-face.

The Challenge of Limited Contact Time

Most of our S&C work is done remotely. I create and deliver programmes that the athletes have to complete on their own, whether that’s in a gym, at home, or alongside their club or university setups. On the rare free weekends when there are no fixtures, I’ll try and travel to train with players in person.

The difficulty here is that remote coaching limits real-time feedback. When you can’t see an athlete move, you miss out on the crucial ability to correct technique, identify weaknesses, and make immediate adjustments to a programme. Progress becomes a mix of trust, communication and consistency. You rely heavily on the athlete’s self-discipline and drive to get the work done.

Thankfully, many of our players also train in other environments, such as NXT Gen, Franchise pathways, university or school netball programmes where they have access to additional S&C support. It may not be our programme, but it’s still a huge positive. Some structure is always better than none.

The Human Factor: Time and Fatigue

One of the biggest, and often most overlooked, challenges in international sport at this level is time or rather, the lack of it. Every athlete’s schedule looks different and that makes planning, recovery and consistency incredibly complex.

Some of our athletes work full-time as PE teachers or coaches. They spend all day on their feet, teaching, demonstrating, refereeing and moving around. By the time they get to their own training, they’re already physically fatigued. That kind of daily load adds up, and if it’s not managed properly, it can lead to overuse injuries, chronic tightness and decreased performance over time.

On the opposite end, we have players who work in office-based jobs. Sitting at a desk for hours, often rushing straight from work to training. For them, it’s not about being overworked physically, but rather about limited movement during the day. That lack of mobility and postural control brings its own set of problems: tight hips, lower back stiffness, weak glutes and reduced explosiveness.

As coaches, we have to manage both extremes. The goal is to bring everyone to the same physical standard when they arrive for international duty, to ensure that when the whistle blows, they’re all operating at or near peak physical condition.

That’s the reality of international netball: when you only get limited time together, you need your athletes to turn up ready. Not building fitness at camp, but expressing fitness, being in a place where the focus is on sharpness, intensity and tactical execution rather than simply catching up physically.

It’s not about punishment or perfection; it’s about preparation. And that’s where accountability, planning, and communication become everything.

Building a Culture of Accountability

In environments like ours, culture replaces infrastructure. We don’t have the luxury of daily contact or full-time supervision, so we rely on trust, communication and the internal drive of each athlete to uphold the standards.

Accountability starts with clarity. Every player knows what’s expected of them, what the programme involves and how each piece fits into their broader performance goals. But it doesn’t stop there. Accountability is about ownership: athletes understanding that their preparation doesn’t just affect them, but the entire team.

When one player misses sessions or neglects recovery, it impacts the group dynamic. When one player turns up fitter, stronger and sharper, it raises the bar for everyone else. That’s the kind of peer accountability we want to build, not through fear or punishment, but through pride in representing your country and your teammates.

Regular check-ins, honest feedback and open communication form the backbone of that culture. Every athlete knows they can reach out for guidance and in turn, they’re expected to track and report their own progress. It’s a shared responsibility - a partnership between coach and athlete.

Ultimately, excellence becomes the standard, not the exception. It’s about developing habits and mindsets that persist beyond the gym or court. So that when we come together, the team operates at a consistently high level, regardless of external constraints.

The Importance of Having a Plan

When resources are limited, structure becomes your greatest weapon. A well-thought-out plan brings order to chaos and gives everyone coaches, athletes and staff a sense of direction.

We start each year with a roadmap. It’s not a rigid document, but rather a framework outlining what we want to achieve at key points in the season: where we want the team’s physical performance to be, what our key performance indicators (KPIs) are, and how we’ll measure success.

This plan helps us anticipate challenges, manage workloads, and build towards peak moments. Whether that’s a major tournament, a test series or a key qualification event. It’s also a vital communication tool. When everyone can see the bigger picture, it’s easier to understand the purpose behind each phase of training.

But just as important as having a plan is being willing to adapt it. Things change… athletes get injured, life happens, fixtures move. The plan is there to guide us, not to restrict us. We constantly review, reanalyse and recalibrate based on what’s actually happening on the ground.

Having a plan gives direction. Adapting it gives resilience. And together, those two things ensure that we keep moving forward, even when the path isn’t straightforward.

Competing on the World Stage

What makes this all so unique is that we’re competing on the same world rankings as Australia, England, and New Zealand. The rankings don’t come with an asterisk, they don’t say “this team trains full-time with professional staff, and this one trains once a month.”

While those teams have entire departments, strength & conditioning, sport science, analysis, physio, recovery, nutrition the list goes on. Our Sports Science “department” consists of one person: me. I lead the S&C, physical preparation, sport psychology, recovery and rehabilitation for the national programme.

And while that sounds like a mountain to climb (and it is), I wouldn’t change it for the world. It’s a privilege to shape what this programme looks like, to build something that’s ours, something that reflects who we are and how we want to compete. All whilst working with the most amazing athletes.

The Reality Behind the Rankings

When you see the gap in world rankings, you start to understand why it exists. It’s not about talent, our athletes have plenty of that. It’s about access, contact time and support networks.

We might train once a month, but we do so with passion, pride and purpose. Every small gain matters. Every session counts. And while we may not have the same resources as the giants of the game, we’re building something with heart. And that’s powerful.

A Defining Year: World Cup Qualification

This season carries extra weight. It’s a World Cup qualifying year, and that changes everything. This is where all the small details matter even more. Every lift, every sprint, every recovery session contributes to the bigger picture. We’re in one of the most competitive qualifying regions in the world, where the margins between teams are razor-thin and preparation is everything.

For us, this is the moment where all the pieces must come together, the planning, the communication, the accountability and the culture. We may not have the same resources as the top nations, but what we do have is belief, commitment and a relentless work ethic. Every session counts because qualification is not just about talent - it’s about consistency, resilience and collective discipline.

This year is our opportunity to show what can be achieved through unity and purpose. When the time comes, we’ll stand shoulder to shoulder, knowing that we’ve done everything possible to give ourselves the best chance to compete, to qualify and to represent our country with pride.

Well they’re just a few reflections brewed somewhere between an early gym session and two flat whites at Federal Café, Manchester.