Advanced Netball Drills easily Practiced at Home

Undertaking our advanced netball drills are highly necessary if you're a young and experienced netballer ready to make that next step. Taking that next step however requires high motivation and hard, consistent work. Getting your child to undertake drills that reflect in-game situations as well as improve on their physical strength through our recommended advanced netball drills will enable them to greatly improve in becoming an advanced netball player!

ADVANCED NETBALL DRILLS

Fitness

Netball is a game of short and sharp movements over small distances. The fitter your child is, the more equipped they will be to complete games without getting as tired as they previously would. Becoming tired and fatigued during games greatly impacts your child’s ability to perform as best as they can. So, if your child wants to become that advanced netball player, get them to work on improving their fitness! However, this doesn’t mean just going on a run around the block. A netball player is never running at the same speed for the entire game, so let’s get your child to run and train at different speeds. Mixing cardiovascular endurance with speed training is a great way to improve your child’s aerobic capacity whilst also developing their explosive energy. Interval training drills consist of alternating periods of both high and low-intensity activity. Netball players both jog and sprint throughout games, so let’s practice doing just that. Here are two advanced netball drills your child can use to train how they play and to gain better endurance:

Four Corners

At the local oval, set up four corners 40-75m apart. This can be a 10-minute exercise, or a 20-minute exercise, depending on how to fit your child may already be. 1) From the first corner to the second corner your child will be required to jog. 2) Sprint from the second corner to the third corner. 3) Walk from the third corner to the fourth corner. 4) Sprint again from the fourth corner and back to the start. Repeat this cycle for time duration and work to improve on that length of time each time your child does this exercise. A diagram of the exercise can be seen below.

The four corners advanced netball drill to improve fitness for netball

Clock Work

Set up 8 cones in a circle with a ninth one placed in the centre. From the centre cone, the distance to each of the other cones should measure about 5 metres. Starting in the centre, get your child to and sprint to the first ‘outside’ cone. Once there, circle around that cone and sprint back to the middle. Then, working clockwise, continue running, but reduce the sprint to a jog, as they make their way around the next cone along to get back to the middle. Cycle between sprinting and jogging until your child gets back to the starting cone, and then rest for a minute before repeating. A diagram for this exercise can be seen below.

The clock work advanced netball drill to improve fitness and agility

Core Strength

Strength is a vital part of the game of netball and is essential to develop to complete these advanced netball drills. Upper body strength allows a player to be able to throw the ball with greater power and precision, as well as support the rest of the body to stand up tall and hold their ground. Lower body strength gives an individual netball player a greater ability to explode off the mark and move faster around the court. But an individual’s core strength and stability are arguably the most influential part of the strength in netball. Core strength in netball is used for balancing and jumping. Greater core strength will allow your child to effectively catch a ball in the air, land cleanly whilst under pressure and then make their pass to a teammate. Core strength is also used on the defensive side of netball, defending their opposition player by repeatedly jumping to defend passes and leaning to defend shots. Developing your core strength can be done solo and at home with a number of different exercises. Here are some that your child can do to help build their core stability:

Alternating Toe Touch

Lie on your back with your arms straight above your head and your legs straight along the ground. Simultaneously lift your left hand and your right leg towards each other so that your hand can touch your foot. Once you have done that, put them back down and do the same with your right hand and left foot. Perform 10-15 of these in sets of three, with a short break in between each set.

Also Read: SIMPLE NETBALL DRILLS EASILY PRACTICED AT HOME

Sprinter Sit-Ups

A sprinter sit-up is like doing a sit-up but in a sprinter running motion. Firstly, lie down on your back with straight legs and arms down by your side. The upper half of your body does a normal sit-up, however, as you do this, bring one knee up towards your chest whilst extending the arm on the same side behind you. The arm on the other side comes forward and is bent at a 90-degree angle. After you reach the top of the sit up, lie back down and repeat on the other side. Perform 10-15 of these in sets of three, with a short break in between each set.

Straight Leg Raise Hold

Lie on your back with your legs straight and hands down by your side. Keeping your legs straight and feet together, lift your legs off the ground to about 45-degrees. Hold that position for about 20 to 60 seconds, and then lower your legs back down. Take a short break and then try to perform that at least three times. If your child has excelled in these exercises, to make it harder, you can combine the three exercises and do one set of each straight after one another. Take a minute break at the end of that and repeat. Also, make sure you warm up properly prior to starting these exercises.

One Metre Distance

If your child is an advanced netballer, they will know that, if their opponent has the ball, they must defend at a distance of at least one metre. The closer you are in defending your opposition, the more impact you can have on their pass or shot of the ball. Therefore, keeping in mind the one-metre rule, it’s important that your child can get as close as they can to their opponent once they have gained possession of the ball. To see a summary of the rules of netball, click here. It can be hard for your child to accurately remember how far that one-metre distance is, but constantly undertaking this drill can develop an accurate memory of this:

Cone Work and Keeping That Distance

Mark with chalk or place a cone on the ground one metre away from a wall. Now, set up four or five cones that you child can pivot around as they would move on a netball court. Once making their way around these cones, sprint to the final cone that is one metre from the wall and get them to act like they are defending their opposition by sticking their arms straight up. Doing this drill and getting to that last spot to defend the wall will greatly enable your child to accurately learn how far that one-metre distance actually is. You can repeat this drill by mixing up the direction your child runs around each cone. A diagram of the drill can be seen below.

Practicing the one metre distance netball drill for game situations

Consistently putting these advanced netball drills and exercises into practice will see your child elevate their netball game. If your child wants to get more practice and learn more advanced netball drills, sign them up for one of our 3-day netball camps. Our camps offer structured programs that are tailored for your child according to their ability, so that they are doing drills and exercises that are equipped for their skillset.