Netball: fight for the ball

I want to know if there is a way to make the girls fight for the ball more and not back away from their opponents. Any suggestions?

Hi My U11 team play against teams that continually use bounce passes, but they struggle to defend against them. I don't encourage the girls' to use them at this age, but I think this is making it hard for them to know what to do. Any help gratefully received. Thanks Charlotte

Hi I have a new team of 7/8 year olds and we have one very weak player that doesn't move or listen nor catch the ball. Any advice? I need to play her in all positions as they move around to learn them all but feel she needs to learn one at a time. She says she just wants to shoot but that's difficult when she can't catch. Other players aren't passing to her either as she doesn't movebinto position. Any advice would be great! The rest of the time are thriving!! Asked using Sportplan Mobile App

My team has only won one game so far (out if 4) this season and when calls go against them or they drop a few passes or miss a few goals they just lose motivation and seem to struggle. They are seniors not juniors and I don't know how to pull them out of a funk. Asked using Sportplan Mobile App

we have a new netball team at school (10yo & 11yo) most of who have never played netball before. What kind of drills can we do to help them with their breaking and getting infront of their player to get the ball??

I am new to coaching this year and have a couple of girls who struggle to catch the ball despite 3 yrs of playing. One is quite scared and the other does not have good gross motor skills. Any suggestions on drills or games to improve these?

HI,I would like some ideas on how I can get my under 12's representative team hungry for the ball? They need to become more aggressive without being bitchy if you know what I mean.Thanks Leah

Hi I have a new team of 7/8 year olds and we have one very weak player that doesn't move or listen nor catch the ball. Any advice? I need to play her in all positions as they move around to learn them all but feel she needs to learn one at a time. She says she just wants to shoot but that's difficult when she can't catch. Other players aren't passing to her either as she doesn't movebinto position. Any advice would be great! The rest of the time are thriving!! Asked using Sportplan Mobile App

Game 3 this week and now down to 5 players with the GS GK C out with hand/arm injuries. I still expect all players to turn up to practice.Only 3/8 turned up last week and I wasn't very happy.Others need to fill gaps these players could help.Now I need to rethink training.now that I have requested everyone come, what drills can I do that are ball less.Unfortunately due to age and high visibility of the courts at lunch asking them to visualise would not happen. They are young and I don't want to jeopardise healing for them. It is a shame this has happened early in season as I do think we had an opportunity to do really well, never mind. Always next year

My defenders are having a lot of trouble getting the ball in from out of court. 1 issue is the goal keep really struggles with quick decision making autistic) thinking of trying gd throw in instead as we seem to llose the ball every time. Any advice would b appreciated (8-10 yr olds age of team)

Please help I am the coach of 9 13/u girls. We currently playing in Blegue but we are struggling. I sit and watch how other teams play they look like well oiled machines with every girl knowing her place and what to do, in comparison our girls look"messy" they still crowd the ball running in to the person who's got the ball. At times when they do spread it they tend to "hug" the boundary lines staying within 2 m of it. They rely on overhead passes a lot . Or very short passes around 2-3m apart. And our biggest struggle is to score of our own centre passes. We just don't seem to be able to get the ball across the line. Please help

Hi I am a first year coach of a 9 and under team.My girls are struggling with the concept of running to space and receiving a pass on the move while advancing the ball to our attacking third.It seems no matter how hard i try to implement drills for passing at practice, come game day the girls still group together and call for the ball standing still. Any ideas/drills anyone could suggest would be greatly appreciated. Regards Mark

I'm coaching u/10's and have an excellent A team, but the B team have learners who haven't been playing netball so long. Does anyone have one or two basic activities, easy to understand (for them) which I can drill them with for passing, defending and getting free, as well as something for the shooters. They are always all over the place (we do practice channels) and really struggle to get free - they run a bit and then just stop to wait for the ball. Anything, even just some advice would be appreciated! :)

Hello all, I have been coaching my u10's currently for 2 years now. They are a fabulous little team i.e. gs holds and defence box out etc however we are never winning games! They are currently playing up a year and after sitting back and watching what is going wrong I had noticed they all seem to be in one area so no-one can drive into a space to receive a direct fast ball. When this occasionally does happen the ball is not released fast enough and consequently intercepted! I was wondering if anyone has an tips on space, driving into space, and early passes! This team could be amazing if we sort this is out! Please help!!!!!!!!!

I have conflicting advice - don't teach too many court strategies ie C to WA to GS to GA from a centre pass as I have been told that it stiffles their thinking. But without this I find they all crowd the space and at 10yrs old it seems very difficult to get them to understand about reading who is already in that space.  Or perhaps I just aren't explaining that concept well??  And also when bringing the ball through the court from a goal line throw in at our GK end - same with strategies for that. Is it okay to say GK I won't you to throw it to GD, then GD to C and so on and this is where your area of the court is and I want you to stay in that area and try and get the ball there?  Keeping the WD on the otherside and making sure she doesn't cross over. Confusing over how much at this age we teach court strategies or perhaps they are know as plays.  Alice P

Help... I am new to coaching netball albeit have played for years. My experience in playing comes from being an attacker so trying to work with my defence, is proving tricky. The issue I have is that both my GD and GK face mark. I have tried numerous drills in training however as soon as they get in to a match, they revert back to face marking. When the ball is coming down the court, I encourage them to stay on their toes, side marking and moving in front and round the back however when the GA or the GS moves out, the face marking starts. We have had balls bounce of the backs of heads and all sorts. Does anyone have any tips?  Di

My friend coaches an under 13s team and when someone has the ball they all run for it like seagulls going for bread. The coach has told them many times to spread out and for not everyone to run to the ball at once but the girls keep doing it and they can't get the ball down the court.

My GD is tall and has a very good stretch when marking the shoot. She anticipates well, and when she sees the shoot about to release the ball, times her action and from her stretch, flicks her hand to try to deflect the ball from its path. In a recent game, she was continually pulled for contact when doing this. She felt either the shoot had raised the ball up into her hands (and it should have been the GD's possession), or the shoot had actually released the ball before she then deflected it, rather than her knocking the ball from the shoots possession. The umpire after the game was happy to discuss and said the GD had been penalised for knocking the ball out of the shoots hands, and should have stuck with the stretch and not added the flick. Any advice?

coaching u13s have 6 good players and 2 that this their first season.For this first half of the season most of their training has been catching and throwing .I find that they are not improving so on game days the other players are reluctant to pass it to them as they either drop the ball or pass it to the opposition.I am struggling to know what to do 

I am coaching a little net set go team (set tier) with ages 5-8. Usually I coach high school girls. A mum of one of the 7 yr olds just messaged me with this: "i was just wondering If you have any tips to help us get Miss S enthused about netball, she isn't enjoying it but wants to "give it more time" (her words)." We only have a half hour training session before we play as no one else will coach but this is the only time I can do training and there are players from another town so this is the best option for everyone. We play a couple of warm up drills/games and practice 1 skill ready for our game. I have covered the basics of passing and footwork so far. None of my team have ever played before, but 4 of them did the net set go - net tier last year. The girl has only played 2 games so far as we have had a bye. So far she has had a go at positions GK, GD, GS, GA, and WA. She is the tallest girl in the team and so tends to get a fair amount of the ball. Any ideas on what to suggest to this mum?