{"id":1083,"date":"2023-07-19T04:00:15","date_gmt":"2023-07-18T18:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unisport.wpenginepowered.com\/bond-university-builds-a-pacific-bridge\/"},"modified":"2025-06-26T13:47:42","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T03:47:42","slug":"bond-university-builds-a-pacific-bridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unisport.com.au\/bond-university-builds-a-pacific-bridge\/","title":{"rendered":"Bond University Builds a Pacific bridge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Visiting Tongan netballers Viviena Hafoka and Seilala Sikuvea have travelled to Australia as a part of a six week PacificAus Sports and Netball Australia Immersion program designed to create pathways for emerging Pacific athletes to benefit from high performance coaching and training.<\/p>\n

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The Immersion provides athletes with exposure to high performance netball programs, competitions, expert coaching and high performance support services.<\/p>\n

Athletes also have access to professional development and off-court education opportunities.<\/p>\n

Seilala \u2013 an athletic defender \u2013 says the lessons have already been numerous.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe game is so fast paced at this level,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I love the way the players communicate with each other in the middle of all that fast movement.\u201d<\/p>\n

She says a crash course into elite-level strength and conditioning was eye-opening.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy legs are still aching!\u201d she says. \u201cAnd Viviena could hardly walk for a few days afterwards!\u201d<\/p>\n

Both agree they\u2019ll be taking plenty of invaluable information home with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow to properly run training programs and better understand the needs of individual players,\u201d Seilala says.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd how to help players communicate better with each other on court.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kim Boland is Head of Netball Operations at Bond University.<\/p>\n

She says the program is a particularly good for a university-based netball franchise because it allows a steep learning curve to be readily accessible.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe girls do pre-program and post-program physical testing so our physiotherapists here at Bond get involved. There\u2019s also sports-medical testing through the Health and Medicine Faculty. We\u2019ve identified that Seilala has a few issues with her eyesight, so we\u2019ve sorted glasses for her. We shouted both girls new netball shoes. So all of that, in addition to really rigorous training and learning all adds up for a really rich and rewarding experience for all involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bull Sharks netball family has rallied around its temporary new recruits.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur Sapphire team captain Hannah Le Sage has been doing some intensive one-on-one shooting training with Vivi,\u201d Boland says. \u201cBoth have been loving it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the Gisinger family [Jorja and Joesi Gisinger both play for the Bull Sharks] who are very proudly connected to their Tongan heritage took the girls out for a big family dinner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Viviena and Seilala will be at Bond until August.<\/p>\n

For the remainder of their time here they\u2019ll train with the Bull Sharks Elite Premier League Development squad and Under 18s State Titles team.<\/p>\n

Source: <\/strong>Bond University<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Visiting Tongan netballers Viviena Hafoka and Seilala Sikuvea have …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1084,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"iawp_total_views":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"unis_sport_category":[125],"unis_league_category":[],"unis_university_category":[61],"class_list":["post-1083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-unisport-news","unis_sport_category-netball"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unisport.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unisport.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unisport.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unisport.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unisport.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unisport.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unisport.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unisport.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unisport.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1083"},{"taxonomy":"unis_sport_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unisport.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/unis_sport_category?post=1083"},{"taxonomy":"unis_league_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unisport.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/unis_league_category?post=1083"},{"taxonomy":"unis_university_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unisport.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/unis_university_category?post=1083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}