New Zealand netball coach Ruth Aitken wants her players to match their physical agility with mental speed when they take on Jamaica in a two-test series beginning in Christchurch on Wednesday.
With barely two months to go until the Silver Ferns defend their Commonwealth Games title in New Delhi, Aitken has very definite goals over the next week.
"Going into the Games, it's a real key that we've got players that can make adjustments out there on court," Aitken said today.
"If they come out and discover there's an issue or a problem, they need to adjust and change the game.
"That's one of the things we're encouraging in our players: to keep learning about what's happening with the game, and how they need to shift and adjust their play."
The New Zealand coaching line-up is looking to run a series of game plans against Jamaica, with Aitken emphasising the importance of a "seamless" transition between them.
"Certainly, tactically, we want to have our plan A and plan B, game plans that have quite a definite difference about them, and we're aiming on being more distinctive with our changes."
Aitken acknowledges that the Jamaicans are missing a couple of key players. The absence of experienced goal attack Simone Forbes is a real blow.
But she sensed a new resolution in the Sunshine Girls, who have been boosted by only their second win over New Zealand, a 53-50 win in Kingston last October.
The Jamaicans have struggled against Australia in the past week, losing all three tests by between 21 and 31 goals.
But Aitken is wary of taking too much encouragement from the wayward results.
"Probably the main thing I took, in the games there might have been one quarter where Jamaica really capitulated, they then picked themselves up and played quite well," she said.
"What would have happened in the past, if they had one quarter where they'd given up, then they'd continue to do that for the rest of the game.
"But I do think they showed more resilience than that."
The Jamaicans struggled mightily with the speed displayed by Sharelle McMahon and Natalie Medhurst in last night's third test on the Gold Coast, won 71-40 by Australia.
But despite trailing 40-15 at halftime, the Jamaicans managed to regain some respectability with an improved performance in the second spell.
Aitken said it was that unpredictability which made Jamaica a dangerous opponent.
"They are very unpredictable in terms of what they're going to bring to the court," she said.
"They will have taken some heart from the fact that when they executed their game plans properly, they were able to be competitive against Australia.
"Coming over here, they've got a fresh start and a new opportunity to show that. We're certainly not expecting them to capitulate."
The Silver Ferns would need to impose authority on the game right from the first whistle, Aitken said.
"We've got make sure that we really get ourselves and our structure sorted early, so that we don't give them an opportunity to get their tails up."
The Jamaicans looked at their most dangerous against Australia, Aitken said, when they pegged the ball up and camped on the circle edge.
They struggled with the long feed into lanky goal shoot Romelda Aiken. Australian circle defender Laura Geitz read the play well and latched on to some spectacular intercepts.
Aitken expects her team to work hard to adjust to the Jamaicans' flexibility and timing in the pace of their game.
"The ways we get free have to change, and we have to use our space a lot more wisely," she said.
"We'll need to go harder and further into the ball than we do against other teams."
