Netball - Steps to Success - Wilma Shakespear and Margaret Caldow

Netball - Steps to Success

by Wilma Shakespear and Margaret Caldow

NEW, 216 pages

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About Netball - Steps to Success

Master the key skills for on-court success. Netball: Steps to Success covers every aspect of the game, from individual playing skills to the fundamentals of team play.

Netball: Steps to Success gives players a solid grounding in the game. By teaching correct footwork and the fundamental skills of catching, passing and shooting, it provides a solid platform from which to progress to competitive game play. These skills are practiced and honed through a series of drills that feature a scoring system designed to accelerate your progress.

Once you master the basic skills, Netball: Steps to Success takes you on the court and prepares you for any situation. Detailed instruction, complemented by full-colour photographs and illustrations, will teach you the defensive and attacking strategies needed for winning play, whatever your playing level.

Off-the-court preparation, including conditioning routines and warm-ups, will ensure you’re at your best on game day.

Whether you want to sharpen your existing skills or raise your playing level, Netball: Steps to Success, part of the best-selling Steps to Success Sports Series (over 1.5 million copies sold worldwide), has the answer. You can be confident that the best instruction in the sport is at your fingertips.

About Wilma Shakespear

Wilma Shakespear was the director of Queensland Academy of Sport and has recently retired as the director of the English Institute of Sport. Before overseeing the delivery of support to elite athletes, Wilma played and coached for the Australian netball team. In fact, Wilma was the world's first professional coach of an elite netball programme, and at 26 she was the youngest national coach ever appointed by Australia.

About Margaret Caldow

Margaret Caldow, BEM, was a player in the Australian netball team for 10 years and was the captain for 8 years. She played in three winning World Championship teams. She has been involved with netball coaching since 1980. Her various coaching roles have included coach at the Australian Institute of Sport, specialist shooting coach of the Australian National team, head coach of the Victorian Institute of Sport and head coach of the Melbourne Kestrels. From 2004 to 2008 Margaret was employed by England Netball as the national head coach. During this time she led England to a bronze medal in the 2006 Commonwealth Games and a fourth-place finish at the 2007 World Championships, and on the new world rankings that commenced in January 2008, she took England to a third-place world ranking. In 1988, Caldow was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame.

In 2005, Sport Australia Hall of Fame honoured both Margaret and Wilma as members of the 1963 Australian netball team for winning the first world netball championships in England.

Review of this book

‘For players and coaches, this is a must-read netball resource from Wilma Shakespear and Margaret Caldow, two of Australia's most creative netball minds.'

Vicki Wilson OAM
Former Australian Netball Captain

‘Netball: Steps to Success helps coaches and players understand and develop the fundamentals of netball whilst providing relevant progressions of skills and practices to guide players through the key elements and requirements of becoming a world-class athlete.'

Tracey Neville
England International and Commonwealth Games Bronze Medallist

‘Wilma Shakespear and Margaret Caldow have combined their skills and strengths to develop a netball book that has such clarity and guidance. It will be a real support to athletes looking to improve and develop their observation and playing skills.'

Maggie Jackson
Head Coach of Mavericks Super league Champions 2008
Assistant Coach for England Netball Team

About Netball

Objective

The objective of a game of netball is for players to pass the ball to a teammate within the opposition's goal circle and score goals. The team with the most goals at the end of a game is the winner.

Court and its dimensions

A netball court is divided into thirds.Like basketball, netball is played on either a hard or soft court with scoring hoops or "rings" at both ends. The court is slightly larger than a basketball court, being 30.5 m long and 15.25 m wide. The longer sides are called "side lines" and the shorter lines called "goal lines"or "base lines". Court markings are no more than 50 mm wide. The court is divided into thirds which regulate where individuals of each position are allowed to move. A 90cm-diameter "centre circle" is located in the centre of the court. At each end of the court there is a 4.9 m-radius semi-circular "shooting circle" or "goal circle" from within which all scoring shots must be taken. The goal posts are 3.05 m high from the top of the ring to the ground and have no backboards. The rings have an internal diameter of 380 mm and are located 150 mm forward from the post and are made of 15 mm diameter steel. Both the height and diameter of the rings are smaller than basketball hoops. It is possible to play netball using a basketball hoop but if there is any contact between the ball and the backboard, the ball is considered out of play. If a goal is scored off the backboard it does not count. Some versions of the rules allow a goal to be scored from a backboard rebound if a player who can catch the ball throws the ball in without touching the ground.

Ball

The ball resembles a basketball but is lighter, smaller, slightly softer in construction, and generally white. A netball will often have patterns engraved or stitched into its design similar to a volleyball. Gilbert is the official ball supplier of the International Federation of Netball Associations.

Positions

There are seven players on each team, who are given nominated, named positions (some junior/training variants have only five players per team). Each player must wear a "bib" showing one of the abbreviations below, indicating that player's position. Each player is only allowed in certain areas of the court: a player in a section of court that is not part of their playing area is deemed "offside". The positions are described below:
Netball positions Position Name Abbreviation Player to mark Areas permitted
Goal Shooter GS Goal Keeper Attacking third, including the goal circle
Goal Attack GA Goal Defence Attacking and centre thirds, including the goal circle
Wing Attack WA Wing Defence Attacking and centre thirds, but not the goal circle
Centre C Centre Attacking, centre, and defending thirds, but not the goal circles
Wing Defence WD Wing Attack Centre and defending thirds, but not the goal circle
Goal Defence GD Goal Attack Centre and defending thirds, including the goal circle
Goal Keeper GK Goal Shooter Defending third, including the goal circle

Scoring goals

By the combination of the above, only the Goal Attack and Goal Shooter are able to score goals directly. The job of the Goal Defence and Goal Keeper is to block the Goal Attack and Goal Shooter from shooting. A ball that passes through the hoop, but has been thrown either from outside the circle or by a player not the GA or GS, is deemed a "no goal". Furthermore, a shooter (GA or GS) may not shoot for a goal if a "free pass" has been awarded for an infringement such as stepping, offside, or using the post.

Starting and restarting play

At the beginning of every quarter or after a goal is scored, play starts from the centre of the court with a "centre pass". These passes alternate between the teams, regardless of which team scored the last goal. A centre pass is made by a player in the "centre" position who must have one foot grounded within the centre circle. As the game restarts, only the player in the 'Centre' position from each team are allowed in the centre third of the court. When the umpire blows the whistle to restart play, players in the positions "Goal Attack", "Goal Defence", "Wing Attack" and "Wing Defence" can move into the centre third, where the centre pass must be caught.

If the ball touches the ground outside the court boundaries, then a member of the team that was not the last to touch the ball before it went out is able to throw the ball back into the court to restart play.

Contact and obstruction

Contact is only permitted provided it does not impede with an opponent or the general play and players must be at least three feet (90 centimetres) away from a player with the ball while attempting to defend. If impeding contact is made, a penalty is given to the team of the player who was contacted, and the player who contacted must stand "out of play", meaning they cannot participate in play until the player taking the penalty has passed the ball.

Playing time

A game is played in four quarters, each one lasting fifteen minutes, with intervals of three minutes between the first and second quarters, and between the third and fourth quarters. There is also an interval of five minutes at half time. If a player has an injury, a team-mate or umpire calls time, and the time keeper pauses the timer. When the game starts and the player has swapped places with another player, or is healthy, play is resumed and the timer is restarted..

Stepping, footwork, and passing

Netball rules do not permit players to let their landing foot touch the ground again if it is lifted at all while in possession of the ball, so players can take 1.5 steps while holding the ball. Players are entitled to balance on the other foot if the landing foot is lifted. Consequently, the only way to move the ball towards the goal is to throw the ball to a team-mate. The ball cannot be held by a player for more than three seconds at any time, and players may not tap the ball to themselves more than twice ("replay"). The player cannot catch the ball, drop it and pick it up again; this is called a replayed ball. The duration before it is called a drop is determined by the umpire. These rules, combined with the restrictions on where one player of a particular position can move, ensure that everyone on the team is regularly involved in play.

Netball - Steps to Success