Geoff Watson – författare

Once a small town sited at Te Papaiōea, a clearing in the bush that cloaked the Manawatū Plains, Palmerston North has always had big-city aspirations. Critical to its growth was the railway that runs through it, farming and education. Originally settled by Rangitāne, today Palmerston North is home to people from many parts of the world. Why they chose to come to the city, and what they did when they got there, is the subject of this richly illustrated and engaging history.

Insights and revelations from some of the legends of New Zealand netball. This book is a fascinating deep-dive into the development of the Silver Ferns’ traditions, the evolution of team culture and the nuts-and-bolts of leadership at an elite level. Legendary players and coaches — including Lois Muir, Leigh Gibbs, Bernice Mene, Ruth Aitken and Casey Kopua — candidly discuss the highs and lows of their careers, and of the Silver Ferns, the effect of the intense rivalry with Australia, coping with gut-wrenching losses, and the resilience of players and coaches. For the first time the perspective of these key actors is the subject of serious analysis, and Will to Win offers a real insight into the psychology of a women’s high-performance team. As such, it provides a practical guide for developing team culture and leadership for netball coaches at all levels. It also includes comments from Farah Palmer on women in sport and leadership, and a brief history of New Zealand netball, including the gains and losses as netball moved into a semi-professional era, and the struggles for sponsorship and for media recognition, despite it being New Zealand’s most popular team sport. 

This practical textbook explains the sport development process from a practitioner’s viewpoint, showing what actually works, how, and why. Focusing on the development of sport, the book considers the efforts of sport organisations to revitalise their sports at a community level to ensure their future relevance, growth, and sustainability.

Full of real-world cases and data, as well as the voices and reflections of a wide range of practitioners, Sport Development in Action explains how to research and draw up a development plan, how to design and implement programmes and establish delivery networks, and how to monitor and evaluate initiatives.

This is essential reading for any sport development course, and useful reading for courses in sport management, sports coaching, or sports studies. It is also an indispensable reference book for practitioners.