How to get my players thinking about court positions and timing drives?

Lee-annes NetballCoach, Australia

hi Leanne (great name btw...lol)

its hard to answer this question without knowing the ages of your players.  obviously the younger the player the harder it is to teach this.  

but what i try and do is play limited movement games with the girls, ie, only 3 are allowed in any 1/3 at a time or the team has to go for a run (or something), and I am constantly reminding the girls at games when we are attacking to spread out.  you can play practise games that when you blow the whistle that they all have to spread out except for the correct person who is to be taking the pass.  

timing is all about patience and knowing who should be going for the pass and driving into a space that no one else is in rather than everyone breaking into the one area.  this is a long process. (im still teaching 16yr olds about this...so there is no easy fix here).  just keep getting them to spread out.  one game that helps with it is a numbers game.  give all the girls a number, and they must throw the ball in that order only.  there are a number of drills on how to get the ball down the court on here.  the simpliest is get them to spread along the sidelines evenly, and one by one have them break into the center and take a pass, and then the next person breaks at the correct time to receive theirs.  instill the importance of not breaking too early.

hope these help.

Nicola WhiteCoach, Australia

Hi Leanne,

What I find helps is for the girls to really understand the roles of each player on court and how they interact together to make a team. I tell them that if the court were divided in half, the attackers mainly focus on their attack end with the goal and the defender concentrate on the opponents attacking half. I produce handouts to reinforce the idea, which really seems to back up training sessions. Also another idea that i've found really helpful is to remind them that where they stand for a centre pass is their area of resposibilty. So if a sideline pass/freepass is given to their team and they are not involved they should immediately move back towards their area and make attacking leads from this position. This spacing also helps to set up follow on passes and helps them see past just the immediate pass, and with timing. I think timing is hard and really comes with experience and skill. Hope this helps %3A)

Janet Coach, Australia

Depending on the age/experience of your players - playing number netball is sometimes a good way to get players moving in an organised sequence up and down the court.  By this I mean number each player down the court and each player receives a pass in sequence to start with but they must make a preliminary move(dodge/clearing/roll/ and then lead into space towards the ball.  Start without defenders until players get the idea then you can vary numbers to introduce thinking about it (miss some out where missed player offers but doesn't receive, add a double play etc) and finally introduce defenders to up the pressure. This can be done in small area to full court.  If your players are very new to netball sticking to the roles/areas of each position as Nicola has mentioned and reinforcing leads into a free area is probably best until they start to show some understanding of their positions.