Netball: Van Dyk hits the perfect form

Irene van Dyk at training with the Waikato/Bay of Plenty Magic yesterday evening. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Perfection in performance is something sportspeople strive to achieve throughout their careers, but very few will actually attain the lofty standards they set for themselves.

But for Waikato/Bay of Plenty Magic shooter Irene van Dyk it is becoming a habit.

The 1.9m sharpshooter this week recorded her second straight perfect game in the ANZ Championship, recording a 100 per cent accuracy rate in the Magic's 63-45 win over the NSW Swifts. Van Dyk's 45-from-45 effort follows her impressive 100 per cent performance in round two against the Southern Steel and was her sixth perfect game in 19 ANZ Championship starts.

Having amassed such an astounding record, van Dyk is comfortably the most accurate shooter in the league.

But the veteran gives little away when it comes to sharing the secret of her success, simply claiming "practice that makes perfect".

It seems a rather basic directive but, in truth, very few netballers would apply themselves in practice the way van Dyk does. The lengths she goes to to perfect her craft are legendary.

During the netball season van Dyk spends around 45 minutes a day just shooting goals.

She says she has given up trying to count how many shots she puts up each day, and, besides, what matters most is the quality of her training. Van Dyk is continually coming up with ways to make training more difficult.

Slightly obsessive perhaps, but undoubtedly effective.

To mimic match conditions she'll often get another player to get in her face or give her a knock as she is taking a shot, or, when she is alone, van Dyk shoots with her eyes closed, so if her vision is impaired in a game by a defender she can still calmly put the ball up.

"I think when you practise a lot, it goes into your subconscious and by doing the same thing over and over again it means it just becomes second nature to cope with those sorts of situations," said van Dyk.

The former South African international's love of training is not limited to putting the ball through the hoop. Van Dyk puts in a great deal of strength and conditioning work with her trainer in the off-season to ensure she is physically prepared for what will be a long season ahead.

Just two months out from her 37th birthday, van Dyk is quite possibly in the best shape of her life, leading Silver Ferns coach Ruth Aitken to muse "it defies logic ... well defies chronology anyway".

In some ways, Aitken was right the first time. With the advent of the new transtasman league, the netball season is becoming longer as national coaches try to shoehorn in their programmes around players' franchise commitments.

But despite the netball calendar becoming longer and more intense, van Dyk has only continued to get better and better when many believe she should be in the twilight of her career.

Magic coach Noeline Taurua, who is only a few years older than van Dyk, believes there is no reason her star shooter can't stick around for at least a couple more seasons yet.

"She's definitely a true professional and that shows in her physique and conditioning. She gets better and better every year and she puts in a lot of hard work into getting her body prepared for a long season."

Van Dyk's enduring qualities are all the more remarkable given the amount of criticism she has copped throughout her career. The South African-born shooter may be a freakish talent, but she has also attracted her share of detractors over the years.

Critics declared van Dyk to be "past it" nearly two years ago after the Silver Ferns' less than memorable tour to England as part of their build-up to the 2007 World Champs.

Once hailed as the saviour of New Zealand netball, the star shooter was all of a sudden blamed for the Ferns' failings in their disappointing tour, in which they suffered their first loss to England in 32 years of tests between the two countries.

Van Dyk has even come under fire at times for her impressive shooting stats. There is a school of thought which says van Dyk's obsession with recording a perfect 100 per cent game could at times hurt her team's chances. The theory goes that if the shooter is in line to notch up a 100 per cent game she may be less likely to put up a long shot, thereby risking a turnover by offloading the ball and moving closer to the hoop rather than taking the harder shot.

It's hard to put forward such arguments now after van Dyk's strong start to the season. Not only are her stats phenomenal, but the veteran of 92 tests for New Zealand, has also displayed an increased range and a willingness to shoot from further out.

Her coach puts this down to Van Dyk's constant desire to improve her game.

"I think one of the things is she is open to new knowledge, she is always wanting to improve herself, which is a big thing for someone who has been in the game for so long," said Taurua.

But van Dyk, in her typically modest way, is quick to deflect the accolades to her teammates and fellow shooting partner Maria Tutaia.

"Honestly, when you have a goal-attack like Maria who can take the pressure off and put up the shots from anywhere and middies that are really good at putting me into really good shooting positions it makes my job pretty easy," said van Dyk.

Perfection in sports is a rare find, but it seems sportspeople of the character of van Dyk are rarer.