Training is a fundamental part of any sport, including netball. It allows athletes to improve their skills and game techniques while taking part in game-related activities. There are thousands of netball coaches across Australia, many of which don’t have knowledge to allow them to coach their team in the best way possible. To coach properly, innovative Netball drills and training sessions need to be used to ensure that the team continually improves without losing motivation and becoming bored.
Some Netball drills are extremely interesting, and can be used over and over again because they contain a lot of variability and teach a range of skills. However, others can be boring, static, and will not engage the players in the way that they should. Choose drills like the former to ensure that your team improves and becomes as good as possible, quickly! The following are examples of high quality, engaging Netball drills which you can vary a lot and use over and over again.
Reaction Drill:
As a team invasion sport, a high level of fitness is an absolute must when playing netball. Without a good fitness base, it won’t matter how good your skills are. Therefore, the top Netball drill is a fitness one: use it for a short time during each training session and you will be amazed at your team’s improvement.
This drill can be used with groups of any size, and is therefore useful for when you get stuck coaching a couple of teams or a clinic where a lot of players are present. To begin, the players spread out around the court, standing about 2 or 3 meters from each other. The coach stands in the center circle, and signals players to begin. On the signal, players must “fast feet” while continually moving their bodies to face towards the ball. The coach passes the ball to someone, and it then continues around the group, while the rest of the players continue to fast foot and follow the ball around.
Cardio Shooting:
This Netball drill focuses on both fitness and improving your shooting skills. It involves two players, one of whom acts as a shooter and another who acts as a retriever. The retriever places the ball at some place on the semi-circle, while the shooter sprints from there to the sideline and back. When they get back to the ball, they attempt a shot. They then run back to the sideline and back again, while the retriever places the ball at another place on the circle. The drill can be continued until ten shots are made or for a certain time period.
Weaving Netball Drill:
In order to become an effective and high quality attacker, you need to have very good footwork and need to be able to change direction quickly. You can practice this through some sort of weaving or agility drill, many of which can be found online or in various coaching manuals.
This drill focuses on the basics: get your feet moving quickly. Begin by setting up a line of cones about 1.5 meters apart. The players take turns moving through the line of cones, using just their outside legs to push-off. Once they reach the end, they turn around and return in the same way. Time each player so they can try and beat each other’s times and improve their own. This Netball drill would be especially useful when incorporated in some sort of training or fitness circuit so that the players don’t have to wait a long time between turns.
Dodgeball Variation:
Split your players into two teams, and place one in each of the center and goal thirds. Give each team a number of balls – maybe half as many balls as there are players. The players then throw the balls to each other, while trying to catch the other team’s passes. It is different to dodgeball in the sense that the two teams are trying to work together in a way to successfully pass the ball. This drill works well in teams which are already quite skilled, and who have a strong desire to work well together and a strong sense of self-motivation.
Triangle Passing:
If you have a strong defense and work well as a team, then you will be extremely difficult to beat. The best way to have a strong team – for experienced teams especially – is to use some sort of zoning in your defense to ensure that even if players are left unmarked, they have less chance of receiving the ball. A zoned defense ensures the dangerous space is protected rather than the player itself. One of the best ways to practice small-scale zoning is by using a triangle drill.
This involves splitting players into groups of four. Three of these players become attackers and the fourth becomes a defender. The attackers stand in a triangle around three meters apart, and the player at the peak of the triangle becomes the ‘thrower’. The defender stands opposite the thrower and a little in front of the other two players. The thrower chooses one of the other two to pass to, while the defender tries to intercept the pass. Reset after each pass. After five intercepts you can rotate the group so that every player gets a turn in each position.
Final Word:
Learning how to teach your netball team proper skills and good strategies through high quality, dynamic drills is extremely important for any coach. Listed above are just some of the top netball drills to boost your skills, but there are a lot of high-quality resources available online and amongst the netball community in general.
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