Kimberlee Green Portrait Kimberlee green Portrait Images: Warren Clarke

Cold healing

“We normally finish a session with some static stretching. They’ve done tests and found that after a heavy session static stretching is the best way to recover because your muscles are already broken up from the exercise – you don’t want to damage the muscles further by doing dynamic stretching. After the stretching it’s straight into the cold plunge pool, up to our chests, for a minimum of five minutes. If we’re really sore we might stay in a little longer. I normally stay in around six minutes – any longer than that and I freeze! The pool we use is pretty small, so we can’t really run or walk in it, but when we’re down at the AIS the pools are massive so we get a bit of light, weight-bearing movement into our recovery.”

Joint pain

“All the girls strap their ankles for every court session, every game. It’s something we’ve done all the way through, ever since we were juniors. I’m not sure if any research has been done into the effectiveness of strapping, but for us it’s a precautionary thing. It’s interesting, though, that the New Zealanders, for example, never strap. They have no protection – I’m not sure why.

“We don’t normally strap knees unless someone has had a previous problem, a reconstruction, for example. I find if the muscles around my knee are working properly, then I should have no problem, but if one of the muscles is tight, then my knee will feel it. It’s just a matter of knowing your own body and knowing what works for you. I find that if my gluts aren’t doing the right thing, then my ITB (iliotibial band) gets tight and pulls my kneecap across – I feel a pulling sensation in my knee. So when I feel that pulling, I tape two tennis balls together and then roll them along my ITB, loosening the muscles either side of the band.”

Screen games 

“Before each court session we’ll normally sit down as a team and watch a compiled video of things we need to work on for that session. This is normally a short session – no longer than ten minutes.“At the moment we’re also doing a lot of individual video analysis – our assistant coach has been cutting up video of specific things that each individual needs to work on, and then he pops that footage on our iPods. At the moment, for example, I’m focussing on my work as a defensive centre, trying to block up my opposite number after they’ve passed the ball ratherthan just running down the court with them, letting them have that long run out of defence. [This makes me sound really lazy!] Attack-wise, I’m also studying our team structure, which is going to be important this year given we’re such a new team. Our assistant coach has dumped a massive amount of video on my iPod for me to watch … But I do find video analysis really helpful; I find it very easy to recognise flaws on the court after I’ve seen them from different angles on the video.”

– Aaron Scott