Sam’s story: Helping our next generation be NetballSmart

Silver Fern Sam Winders (née Sinclair) was in no-man’s land when she came home to New Zealand. 

The 47-test veteran had been playing for the Giants in Sydney for the 2024 Suncorp Super Netball season.

She spent the last part of the campaign sitting on the bench and came home with renewed focus. 

“I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m no longer cut out for this life of sitting on the bench – I just want to play, whatever that looks like’,” the 29-year-old says. 

There were limited spots in the regions she wanted to play so, for the first time in her career, she thought of life outside netball.

Sam was lining up to study a Diploma of Teaching when she got a call from Silver Ferns physio Sharon Kearney.

“Shaz called me and said, ‘There's a job going at Waikato Bay of Plenty Netball and I think you should apply’,” Sam says.

“I thought, ‘Why not?’ It was the first time I’d had a proper job interview in years, it felt like my first day at school. But it’s all fallen into place and I’m loving it.” 

Sam, who was deputy head girl at John Paul College in Rotorua, is the new NetballSmart Development Officer for the Waikato Bay of Plenty (WBOP) region. 

“I'm teaching stuff I’m so passionate about and, to a degree, a bit of an expert in. Being able to move well and doing things that make you a better person and a better player,” she says. 

“It’s a full circle moment – 10 years ago, when the NetballSmart warm-up first came out, I was a fresh-faced university student and netball player.

“So going from being an ambassador of NetballSmart to now being fully embedded in it and helping the next generation of players is cool.” 

Revised NetballSmart tackling injuries

In 2024, ACC accepted 23,796 netball-related injuries which came at a cost of $48 million to help people recover. This was the highest number of netball injuries and cost for the past five years.  

ACC has partnered with Netball New Zealand since 1997 to deliver NetballSmart. It’s the only injury prevention programme to focus solely on improving outcomes for females.

In 2025, Silver Ferns lead physiotherapist Sharon Kearney has driven a revision of the programme.  The revised warm-up focuses more on the landing and deceleration components of the warm-up, and it’s also more game specific.

Sharon says Sam is an ideal role model for the programme.

“Sam is a hard-working and very competitive player who sustained minimal injuries at an ANZ Premiership, Suncorp Super Netball and international level,” she says.

“She ran hard, decelerated strongly and landed each jump well, no matter how challenging. 

“Sam's ability to share her expertise directly with players on achieving success, integrated with NetballSmart messaging to minimise injury risk, is invaluable.

“That’s why Sam was great as a NetballSmart ambassador and now as one of our regional officers – she can help tell the story of what it takes to play netball like she does.”

Preventing injury with improved athleticism

Sam’s focused on developing more young athletes in New Zealand.

ACC data shows the 10-14 age group (6,306 claims) and 15-19 (4,513) had the most netball-related injuries in 2024.  

“We don’t have the depth of athlete we need,” Sam says. 

“Often in netball, we bypass the athlete and go, ‘Who's tall, who's got the physical attributes of being a netball player? Let's pick them.’

“So you get to the Silver Ferns and some people can't jump, turn fast, accelerate well or stop efficiently – they just lack those athletic capabilities or may have sustained significant injuries on their journey to the top. 

“In the sessions I’m leading, we’re taking that concept and running with it. We train them to be athletes, embedding in habits early which give them freedom to do whatever they want in the game and decrease injury risk.”

Sam says the aim is to prevent serious injury, like rupturing an ACL (anterior cruciate ligament), at all costs among young people.

‘Injury comes at a huge personal cost’

In 2024, ACC accepted 373 ACL-related netball injuries, and 335 of those were to females. 

“I’ve seen in my teams the huge personal cost an injury like that has. It puts everything on hold and, for some players, they might not be the same again,” Sam says.

“I grew up here in Rotorua and we had so many talented players who didn’t make it to the next level so that’s a big drive for me, making sure we’re looking after our local players.” 

Sam says it’s a special feeling coming away from a team training where the players are fully-engaged in learning the NetballSmart dynamic warm-up. She says players who complete the warm-up have up to 50 per cent less chance of injury.
 
“From the team point of view, the teams who have the fewest number of injuries are generally the most successful as well.” 

And for Sam, she hasn’t hung up her bib just yet. 

For now, she’s playing club netball for Ngongotahā in the Tauranga premier competition. 

“I don’t think I’ll ever lose that love of playing and competing, but I’m also getting huge rewards from working with our young players,” she says.

Netball injuries by the numbers

In 2024 , ACC accepted 23,796 netball-related injuries which came at a cost of $48 million to help people recover.

Of those netball injuries, 373 were ACL-related with most (335) being suffered by females.

About NetballSmart

NetballSmart is an evidence-based framework made up of six principles. It helps improve performance in sport by preventing injuries.

The revised warm-up focuses more on increased emphasis on the landing and deceleration components of the warm-up and is more game specific.

For more information, please visit the NetballSmart website.

NetballSmart: Official injury prevention programme of Netball New Zealand