Netball

What is Netball?

Netball is regarded as New Zealand's premier sport for women. It is one of the country's top sports, with more than 120,000 registered members and many more players who are involved socially. Over the last ten years it has become increasingly popular with men who have found it to be an exciting and competitive sport, with social advantages. Spectators enjoy the fact that it is an action-packed, fast and exciting game.

Netball originally evolved as an offshoot of basketball during the late 1800s. It was called “outdoor basketball” and was played on a paddock with 9 players aside. In 1958 it was unanimously decided that New Zealand Netball should adopt the International Rules, which meant that we changed to a game of seven players instead of nine. The first netball season began in 1961 with New Zealand becoming world champions in 1967 at the second world championship tournament. International netball is now played in approximately 50 countries.

Today, Netball is a non-contact ball sport played predominantly by females in two teams of 7 players.

It is played on a court made up of three zones (or thirds). The two end zones have a goal circle with a goal post on each baseline, with the centre third zone having a small circle in the middle. Each player is allocated zones or areas that determine where they can, or can't, move.

The aim of the game is to pass a ball between team members and score a goal, while the opposition attempts to prevent this from happening and aims to gain possession of the ball. When a player is in possession of the ball they cannot run with it. Players have three seconds in which to pass the ball or shoot for goal. Only Goal Shoot and Goal Attack can shoot, and they must be within the goal circle.
There are a range of positions on court and each has its particular requirements, such as Centre (C), Goal Shoot (GS) and Goal Defense (GD). This means that netball can cater for players with different skill sets and body types.

Netball is an excellent game for developing teamwork as no one player can “win” a game – it requires the whole team to work together. It is a fast game requiring stamina, speed, agility and good hand-eye co-ordination.

Let's see :-).