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Is a defence allowed to block a shooter from entering the circle with their body but not using their arms?
absolutely we have our goal defence try to do this every centre pass the aim is to keep the goal attack out of the ring and if the goal shooter is well covered they can not get the ball in to goal. It is however very taxing on the player and we find we have to change the defenders after two quarters as they are exhausted
Even better when your WD/C can zone/block the GA out and have both defences defending the GS in the circle. the only time you are not allowed to do this is if the player was taking an out of court pass, or was retreiving the ball from out of court (if they went out of court to better their position then you dont have to let them back on at all). you must let them back on court but once on court you can zone/blcok, them as much as you like. this is a bit of a dying art though. dont see it too much these days as it takes out a set of players, and doesnt really do either team much good, unless the only person who is any good at shooting is the person who is being zoned out. i once (curing a game of mixed netball) zoned/blocked a 7ft GD player (i was the GS) from defending and rebounding. this shut down their game dramatically. so it does have its uses, but you need to pick them.
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