Strike 1, Strike 2, Strike 3

Tu Tangata, Issue 11, 1 April 1983, Page 2

Strike 1, Strike 2, Strike 3

Four years ago Gina Weber had not touched a softball. Now she is the pitcher for the New Zealand women’s representative softball team. Tu Tangata spoke to Gina, a postie, (and her two sisters who are also national representatives) during the national women’s club tournament which was held at*Clareville, near Masterton, in March. She said her Dad, Martin, taught her to pitch in the back-yard of their Wellington home. “It was hard work. He used to teach me every night,” she said. Now she doesn’t practice outside games and practises at club, provincial and national levels unless there is something she is working on. While natural ability has pushed Gina to the top of New Zealand softball, she says she has not mastered the technique of the specialist position. “I still have got lots to learn about

pitching there’s still more things I have got to know about it.” Gina followed her two sisters into softball. Carol Moore, her older sister, started playing morning softball with her Mum, Lena. When she was 13-years-old the Island Bay club formed a senior A women’s team and asked Carol to play. “Then softball wasn’t as good as it is today. If you could throw and catch a ball you made the team,” she said. Carol, who is married with two children, represented New Zealand in 1979 and in 1982, when the team won the world series in Taiwan. She is catcher with Island Bay club and plays first base for New Zealand. Hillary, who is in the sixth form at Wellington East High School, started playing senior A softball when she was 14-years-old. Then she injured her leg during a “friendly” softball game at gala day and was out for about two

years. After coming back to the sport, she made the New Zealand under 19 team that went to Australia in January. She plays third base. The three attribute their success to assistance from family and friends, hard work and luck. Carol: “We’re very competitive. We like to win.” Hillary: “We have trained hard and we want to win.” Carol: “If we lose a game fair-and-square we can take it. But if we lose on errors, we 11.... The enjoyment we get out of it is winning.” The pressures increased considerably at national level. Carol: “It’s very different. You are not only competing with the opposition but you are competing with your teammates for positions. If you make an error on a crucial play you are out.” The New Zealand team trainings

were rigorous: One fitness exercise was 10 press-ups, 10 sit-ups, 10 leg changes and 10 split jumps. That group of exercises was repeated 10 times. After that came the normal skills training plus fitness running and sprinting. Hillary said the training was as difficult with the New Zealand under 19 team. Carol said she handled the pressures of international play by not thinking about them: Not thinking that the game was crucial and not thinking that she was one mistake away from losing her position to a team-mate. “Club softball is the most enjoyable because you can relax and play your own game. You don’t have to worry about whether the coach is watching. You don’t have to worry if you make an error.” Hillary: “I think the pressure makes you play better. It makes you more determined.” Carol said luck had a lot to do with them making national sides. “I don’t really know why we made it and other people didn’t... just lucky, doing the right thing at the right time,” she said. Much of the credit had to go to their parents, the Island Bay club and their coaches, she said. Their club coach is Mr Mel Davies who used to play senior softball. Carol: “It’s good to talk to him. He’s played top softball and he’s helped us a lot. I think he’s up with the top coaches.”

She said the club did most of the organising especially on trips which left the girls free to concentrate on the games. “We’re lucky to play for Island Bay. Our manager, Jimmie Anderson, looks after us. If we have got any complaints or worries he takes care of it. He fusses after us and all we have to do is think about the game,” Carol said. Though she had travelled with the Wellington and New Zealand teams, she said playing and travelling with Island Bay was the most enjoyable. “It is the best. Everybody knows everybody. You are like a big family there’s nothing like it. “Playing with Wellington you are playing with your rivals. The same with New Zealand. “New Zealand is harder. We did so much fitness work I used to wish my worst enemies were in the team. We had to get acclimatised in Indonesia and the Phillipines and then for the world series in Taiwan,” Carol said. New Zealand won the series. And while the side had its share of luck, Carol said New Zealand softball compared favourably with the quality of the overseas game. The New Zealand side concentrated on an efficient, error-free game while other sides tended to try and pull-off occasional feats of brilliance. She said some Wellington club games were intensely competitive. “At the beginning of the season we all get along fine but by the end...

we 11....” Island Bay’s main rival is the Broadway club. “It is intense it can come to blows. When we have to play against them we have to work to win. Sometimes we win by big margins but we always have to work,” Carol said. Hillary: “That’s because they have so many experienced players people who have played for Wellington and New Zealand. They’re competitive and they teach us to be competitive. It’s a team that hates losing, especially to us.” Carol said they had to put a lot of work into softball to achieve their success.

“You are training two nights a week. Then you are travelling to all the tournaments all the tournaments you are invited to. It’s a lot of time but it’s always enjoyable,” she said. Hillary is studying for her University Entrance examination. “I think it is hard to chose between school and sport school suffers. But you can work your timetable to suit both.” Carol believes the work put into the game has been worth it. And she feels she has a responsibility to pass on what she has learnt to younger players. She also hopes her two children take up a sport. “It gives the kids an outlet there’s so much violence and crime nowdays,” she said.