<&>Wellington Corpus of Spoken New Zealand English Version One <&>Copyright 1998 School of Linguistics & Applied Language Studies <&>Victoria University of Wellington <&>side one <&>0:52 i used to um <.>s train i used to swim a lot as a um cos my mother was a lifesaver so <.>sh she was a major influence in my life as a swimmer she also used to um tut train a women's netball team so when i <&>1:00 was little i was around that environment most of my life and er always wanted to play it but because i was young at that stage in in seventies and it was er <.>m males or men or boys didn't play netball so <{><[>tut i never played a winter sport <[>mm okay voc we'll talk a bit about your swimming background <{><[>um you've you must've been a pretty good swimmer cos eventually you ended up in a in a new zealand squad tell us a bit about that alex <[>okay well i didn't actually end up in the new zealand squad i tried out um but <.>it at that <.>st i was <.>at <.>at <.>at the adolescent stage of my life where things were <.>ha other things were happening and i could've made it <.>in in to the team but i didn't have the discipline <&>tape cuts out briefly the opportunity was there um i had the capability which disappointed my mother but disappointed me voc NOW it disappoints me i <{><[>could've gone somewhere as a swimmer <[>okay did any of the other um brothers or sisters swim yes <.>mos my whole family except one of my sisters the very youngest um we were all swimmers basically when we were little mum just threw us into the pool and told us to <.>s swim <&>2:00 and <.>sur survive and um ever since then we never turned back we um dominated the um scene in taranaki me and my family <{1><[1>um as far as swimmers were concerned and there were very few maori swimmers er there were very good swimmers in patea we used to have carnivals and swimming meets and stuff like that eventually um <.>ash as years got on um a lot of maori swimmers dropped out of the scene and basically there was just me and another guy from new plymouth who used to train more a lot often than i did so <.>i and then once i got a little bit older and indulged in other things um i dropped out of swimming because i felt it was not my thing <{2><[2>at all <[1>oh right <[2>okay okay did you um specialise in one event in one swimming event or did you well i was the good thing about it is that i the training i was trained by um a <.>o an old woman um who um tut used to be um she was from england um who used to be in um er a <&>3:00 awesome swimmer over there and she trained me in <.>e in all the strokes so <.>i eventually <.>i breaststroke now is totally different from the breaststroke that is <.>y is old there's an old stroke and there's a new stroke um i was trained the old way so i was at the stage where new new <.>s um techniques were coming in and um because of my times i was trying to the coach was trying to <.>t teach me the new stroke so it will be faster and help me but i i lost my speed through trying to change my stroke and trying to develop it into the new technique and i couldn't do that mhm but i preferred doing <&>tape cuts out briefly um breaststroke cos i and it was just voc to me it was just crusier just like sort of <.>l reminds me of a frog or <.>alli an alligator just sort of gliding through the water and you can like cruise around and check people out but er my fastest stroke was actually backstroke i was <{><[>very good mm <[>oh is that right oh great you moved from taranaki around the age of sixteen did you continue in your sport um as a swimmer no i actually didn't play very much sport i when i left um voc taranaki when <&>4:00 i started playing volleyball and um which was a new sport for me cos <.>w um the school didn't facilitate for volleyball itself at um at a very good level so when i got into it the people that that voc my own age were very good at playing volleyball and because i'm tall um i learnt fast cos i pick things up a a lot easier if i watch and and am involved myself in it so i started playing volleyball and i thought wow i like this cos it was fast um tut yeah it was team <.>i cos swimming is more an individual thing <{><[>you know depending on like relays are are totally different but it's more independent it was my first time i had <.>e ever had to play in a team so that was new for me <[>mhm tut so you enjoyed your days of volleyball? oh absolutely and <&>tape cuts out briefly i developed <.>m my volleyball skills um mm they've increased and er i quite enjoy it you eventually ended up in wellington voc what sport did you get involved with here um well i started basketball for a wee while um but then a friend of mine said <.>d have you ever <&>5:00 played netball before and i said well tut SORT of but actually not in a team so um he said listen there's some trials for a netball team would you like to come along so i went along and um haven't turned back is that right mm <.>how how did you catch on how did you find the game when you initially started playing um was it a a a complete BUZZ did you did you get attached to it <{><[>straight away <[><.>ye <.>ye yes as soon as i got on that court and um learnt a few ball skills and learnt the basic rules i just thought this is incredible er men's netball is <.>a a lot different than women's netball it's a lot faster it's totally different totally different concepts voc um tut so when i got on to the court it <.>re it sort of reminded me of volleyball cos it's really fast um you always have to be thinking ahead <.>i <.>just <.>was in total aura bit of contact in in the male version um yeah too much i think voc voc depending on on the refs if you get pulled up you get pulled up like everything else but it is a lot um rougher there are some <.>r pretty rough teams out there why do you <{><[>think male play netball alex mm <[>you get knocked around <&>tape cuts out briefly <&>6:00 i guess it's because it's a new sport for men to to get into they've <.>n i mean <.>it they've been always <.>s <.>sup on the sidelines supporting women and now voc because because of that i mean it's like when women are being on the sideline watching rugby now there's women's rugby because they know so much about the game when they're supporting it they know tactics they know how the game is played the same as men when they support when they're being on the sidelines and they've been watching women playing netball it's like they know <.>basic the basic rules like voc um passing stepping stuff like that and held ball swallows tut so now it's given the opportunity to actually play netball <{><[>um mm and there's some awesome teams out there <[>mm is there a male new zealand rep team selected each year yes there is um they <.>h had trials a couple of weekends ago <.>ha in wellington for the wellington's netball team so um australia men's netball team <.>are are currently here in new zealand um they're in auckland at the moment at a tournament so <&>tape cuts out briefly <.>they're they want to get um i mean <.>s <.>n new <&>7:00 zealand men's netball team together a s a p so they can have a game against them okay so mm you've just returned from a tournament in napier <{1><[1>tell us a bit about it who went how many people <{2><[2>were involved and the type of atmosphere that prevails there <[1>yes <[2>voc um well um the weather wasn't very good but i guess the weather wasn't very good anywhere in new zealand in queen's birthday weekend went up on <.>s saturday games were played on sunday um how many <.>h how many games there was a round robin of say ten i think <&>tape cuts out briefly it was very well organised everything was <.>o cut to the t on time if you're not on time that's it there was a seven minutes a side too that <.>was took halves um so it was like very fast by the time you actually <.>finish you know got warmed up in the first half it was half time and you only had like only couple of seconds you had half a minute to swap ends and then you're on again and then there's the seven minutes and that's it the game was over so er it was very fast um it was really hard to get into initially because our first game we were <.>just we were <&>8:00 just thinking oh <.>g is it over already um but it was really good to see a lot of men's <.>o a wellington <.>t team cos there um i play every saturday and wellington teams <.>s sort of dominated that up there there was like two from porirua and i i think a couple from the hutt as well that went up and um it was really good to see them up there <.>w it was just basically like playing netball on saturdays <{><[>um you should've seen see the everybody else there um there was a couple of teams from hamilton and um palmerston north which is really good just cos um being here in wellington <.>y you get to know the other guys' netball teams <[>oh right mhm and <&>tape cuts out briefly eventually everybody er <.>what they're trying to organise another tournament soon so um but i don't think voc <.>i i play for metro netball team and we're going over to australia in er september <{><[>for a tournament yeah <[>is that right is it full on basketball netball all day sunday was it we went up er with two women's teams and <.>w the guy that plays in our team coaches a women's team so we went up and they supported us and we supported them and it was a <&>9:00 really good <.>a atmosphere down there UP there was awesome i mean the women were really like the top grade women's teams always <.>w they were always watching the men's teams um and we were always watching them because it's like when we're <.>at <.>that the day that we left p i c were playing and <.>we <.>w it was really good for us to psych ourselves up for it thinking <.>that i mean they're top you know they're just incredible to watch so we were watching them thinking yeah they're they're got good defence whatever um picking up really good skills just by watching um so when we were up in napier um tut the women's top teams up there were <.>r they were they were awesome and we got good comments from from them as well um it's really good to <.>s to hear women that are in top grades saying you guys play really well you know wouldn't mind having a game against you just for fun so there is that mm we enjoyed it <{><[>it was a good weekend <[>do you think that that polynesian maori influence in netball er is a natural it's a natural game for them to play because they've got good eye balance coordination etcetera <&>tape cuts out briefly <&>10:00 at the moment i think um a lot of voc basketball players are <.>g <.>r getting into netball because er at the tournament <.>i you could tell that there were a lot of men that played basketball er a lot of their shooters were basketballers you could tell that they were shooters cos they could shoot from <.>insi as soon as they got into the circle they just aimed for it and it was in you know fucking it was just there laughs the trainings for netball alex um how many hours a week do you train or <{><[>you know how many days a week <[>oh mondays and wednesdays we train um full on training <.>we i sort of start training starts at half past six and finish at ten we um we go through warmups we have voc games and <.>b ball skills and we have coaches come in from other teams <.>y um yeah so it's <.>qu full on full on full on yeah you guys are sponsored by metro yes and how long have you been playing <&>pronounced as paying um netball down here ever since you have arrived in <{><[>wellington eh <[>um yeah yeah basically yeah and been enjoying it <&>11:00 okay um do you see the the game of er men's netball increasing in new zealand more <{><[>more men getting involved <[>absolutely absolutely <.>i there are so many men out there wanting to know more about netball so they can get involved with it it's really difficult um to know who to contact or how to get involved i think the best idea is to actually just to contact the netball um association whether that's kapi mana or hataitai or just go up to the courts and say do you know of <.>m men's netball teams because there are there is a <.>gr good demand for <.>me <.>m <.>m men netball players male netball players <&>11:45