If you contact us at Rockets Netball our committee will reply to you, but who are they?
Rockets Netball is an independent club and our executive committee representatives are voted for by our members. All committee members are volunteers who give their time and energy to keep Rockets Netball running smoothly. The executive committee (board) currently consists of: our President (Philippa), Treasurer and VP (Lisa M) and Club Secretary (Lisa H).
Here’s a little bit about them:
Philippa
What is your role at Rockets Netball?
I’m currently club President which means working together with Lisa & Lisa to keep the club members informed of any club information, ask their opinions and preferences (for practice times, tournaments, social events etc) and communicate with others outside of the club. We’ve structured our committee to appeal to our personal strengths so my role at the moment includes social media & website manager, communications with members, events co-ordinator and in 2024 I completed the Level 1 coaching qualification so I can help with coaching at our practices. From September 2025 I will be working with our other two youth team coaches as assistant coach. I see my role as the club’s cheerleader, just telling everyone how awesome playing for Rockets is!
How did you get into netball?
I used to play netball (& other sports) at school but I haven’t played for years. I stopped playing team sports after leaving school and due to health issues hadn’t really exercised for a few years. After moving to Portugal, a few years ago, I was looking for ways to meet new people and someone (Lisa H) suggested netball. I started with walking netball then found that I could actually move more than I expected and preferred (running) netball.
What are your favourite netball positions to play?
Anything in the goal circle. Either defence or shooting. I enjoy scoring goals but I really like playing defence. Playing in defence is hard work but so satisfying to turn that ball around and send it back to your own team’s goal.
What other exercise do you do?
Like I said, I stopped exercising for a long time due to health issues & have slowly built up my strength and stamina. I do enjoy cycling, swimming and I even have a PT at Gymnasium in Tavira now (10 years ago I wouldn’t have believed that!). My main cardio though is from netball and padel tennis. It gets the blood pumping and has really improved my fitness!
What is your favourite thing about playing netball over other sports?
The teamwork. Netball is a team sport like no other. You can’t move the ball up the court on your own, you HAVE to pass to your teammates to score goals and have a chance at winning.
What do you love about Rockets Netball?
I’ve learned so much, my fitness has improved dramatically, my netball skills have definitely got much better but my absolute favourite thing about Rockets is that we have fun! We work hard but we have a laugh at every training session. I’ve met so many wonderful women (& their partners/families) through the club. We work together, we ask each others’ opinions, no BS, no drama and we do it whilst having fun.
Lisa M
What is your role at Rockets Netball?
I’m currently Vice President and Treasurer. I’m a bit of a ‘details’ person (my husband calls me a jobsworth!) so I like to help out on things such as policy and procedure. Like Philippa, I also completed the Level 1 coaching qualification and take great pleasure in helping others to develop and achieve their full potential.
How did you get into netball?
I used to play competitive netball at school and university, then also socially as an adult. When I moved to Portugal, I never expected to be able to find people playing netball but there are a growing number of women who are interested in the sport. These are mainly immigrants to Portugal from ‘Commonwealth’ countries who have played the sport before, but since Rockets Netball was established, a number of Portuguese ladies & other nationalities have also joined the club.
What are your favourite netball positions to play?
Previously I would have always said C or WA (as these are the positions I played when I was younger) but I have started to really enjoy playing in defensive positions. Mainly WD, as I’m not really tall enough to be a GK or GD but if the opposition has a shorter GS or GA then I’m happy to give it a go.
What other exercise do you do?
HIIT and weights training.
What is your favourite thing about playing netball over other sports?
I’ve played lots of other team sports when I was younger, which I enjoyed immensely, but the thing I like about netball is that it is more inclusive and forgiving than other sports that I’ve played – especially as you get older.
What do you love about Rockets Netball?
Rockets Netball has players with varying levels of fitness and ability, with players in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s. Of course players need to have a basic level of fitness and no significant health issues that restrict physical exercise in order to take part, but we go to great lengths to accommodate everybody and encourage people to train and play to their own limits.
Lisa H
What is your role at Rockets Netball?
I’m currently Club Secretary. I like organising behind the scenes and I generally look after all the administration such as keeping all the documents and emails organised – there’s a lot more than you’d imagine, even for such a small Netball club! It’s also my job to take minutes in meetings and distribute them to everyone. We all work together in setting up the equipment ready for the training sessions & this season I have now started to plan and provide warm up exercises for our practices as well.
How did you get into netball?
Like a lot of our club members, I used to play netball at school but I wasn’t what you would have called ‘sporty’. I actually preferred hockey! But netball is a more accessible team sport now that I’m a lot older. I started playing walking netball, which helped me increase my fitness to the extent that I can now play netball, and I absolutely love it!
What are your favourite netball positions to play?
At the moment I play GS (which I must admit I do love), but I’ve played lots of different positions to get to this one. At school I was always GK, so when I started playing netball in Portugal that was my ‘go to’ position but it turned out that I wasn’t very good at it! So, then came WD which I played for quite a while until someone suggested that I should give WA a go. I must admit I wasn’t sure at first, as I’d always been more of a defender than attacker but, surprisingly, I really liked it.
What other exercise do you do?
I really enjoy playing padel tennis (that comes a close second-favourite to netball) and we have a lovely group of ladies who get together to do resistance band training a couple of times a week, which is great fun as well as helping us all retain some muscle strength as we get older.
What is your favourite thing about playing netball over other sports?
It’s a really great team sport where you still need a reasonable level of fitness to play. I like how the different positions are restricted to certain areas of the court which means no one person can dominate the team too much – everyone has to get involved.
What do you love about Rockets Netball?
At Rockets, everyone is equal and gets a say in how the club is run and managed. We always put anything that directly impacts our members to a vote and go with the majority view. Also, everyone can play & train to their own level of fitness and get even fitter in the process – I’m certainly about 3 times as fit as when I started. We have a wide variety of women from all walks of life, with different skill sets and everyone is a valued member of the team.
You can contact us at any time through email: rocketsnetball@gmail.com or via our Facebook or Instagram pages
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