The FIMBA GB +40 Women dusted off the festive cobwebs with a weekend camp in Leicester as the final team selections for the Masters World Cup and FIMBA World Championships were made.
As well as the usual Coaches welcomes, there was special recognition for the recent FIMBA GB awards nominated for and won by the team, including Most Improved Team of the Year and Spirit of FIMBA Team of the Year.
The camp started with passing and close out skills, before the plays were broken down with each element being worked on separately emphasising movement, passes and positioning.
The intensity was then racked up with some 3 on 2 and specific rules aimed at making the offensive think differently on how to approach an overlap before playing 4 on 4 on 4, again with specific rules and actions needed to be completed before taking a shot. After a quick debrief and two-way feedback session the team finished the session with a high standard game before heading out for some dinner.
After such a positive Saturday, Day 2 started with the team getting straight back in to 4 on 4 on 4, with the coaches looking to ensure the learnings from the day before were implemented.
The pleasing aspect was that there wasn’t a drop in level or understanding from the day before. The new ideas and individual tweaks we’d worked on were all implemented making for a very competitive run so early on a Sunday morning!
After a quick switch of focus to defence, Coach Harrison introduced a new offence he felt would open up some new opportunities and the team were unanimous in their approval of it. Coach Lauder, then worked on boxing out and rebounding with a special focus on the guard positioning, which created a very competitive segment of the day. To finish, Coach Sparrowhawk kindly brought some of his +35 Men early for a game and despite being tired after a very tough couple of days, the girls gave a very good account of themselves against the younger, stronger and taller men, with the new offence creating huge holes in the men’s defence.
Firstly, thank you Coach Sparrowhawk for agreeing to let your guys run against us. I was very impressed with the way the team played and the cohesion, hustle, intensity and fight they brought to the game. I don’t think +35s found it as easy as they thought they would, which is a great testament to this group.
Assistant Coach, Bruce Lauder
The final teams will be announced over the coming days, but for more details on the FIMBA GB +40 Women click here or to keep up to date with the their journey to the World Championships in Switzerland, follow gbforties on Instagram and Facebook.
If you are interested in partnering the +40 Women and support their journey in 2025, you can find all the relevant details on our partners page.

