Defensive tips for Netball Shooters

Sharelle McMahon and Natalie Medhurst are fantastic all-round netball shooters. They’re both fast, extremely agile, have quick hands, can jump high, fake pass, use a variety of moves and shoot accurately. They’re also brilliant at sticking tight on their defender and putting extreme pressure on the opposition down the court.

To be a great all-round netball shooter and real asset to your team you must learn how to defend. Not only defend, but you want to be a real pest for the opposition.

Working as a team, full court defence is the best way to put pressure on the opposition. This means that all 7 of you on the court have all your players covered. All 7 of you are relentlessly attempting to intercept each pass. You persistently put hands-over pressure on the person with the ball.

From personal experience it is much easier to score a goal if the ball is worked down the court in 3 or 4 passes. Making the defenders and mid-court players work hard to bring the ball down the court forces those players to have patience. You’ll find more often than not that this forces an error whether it’s a spilled ball, bad pass, or held ball.

If the opposition has the ball and you’re a GS or GA your job is the same as everyone else’s in the team – you MUST stick to your GK or GD and work extremely hard to get the ball back. Here are some little tips to help:

• Learn how far 3 feet is. The second your player receives a pass, jump back 3 feet and immediately put your hands up to pressure the next pass.
• Once your opposition player has passed the ball, step forward and try to block their next drive.
• Talk it up – lots of talk and shouting directions to your fellow team-mates is helpful (i.e. If your player is driving to the left and you can’t reach the pass you can yell at a team-mate to run there instead). Talk also serves to distract and add more pressure to the opposition too.
• If you’re a GA you must defend both two thirds… no slacking off in the goal third! If it’s the opposition’s centre pass make sure you defend your GD tight.
• Learn to switch from attacking mode to defensive mode quickly. The second you throw a bad pass you must recover and work quickly to get the ball back/shut down the opposition play.
• Fitness counts! It takes a high level of fitness to constantly hound your opposition player.
  

Note: Your style of defence may vary, depending on whether your coach sets a zone defence down the court, or strictly 1-on-1 defence.

Focusing on getting the ball back helps with netball shooting confidence. If you miss a shot,you’re your heart into winning the ball back. This prevents your mind ticking over and worrying about the missed shot.

Work on your defence – there’s nothing better than watching a shooter grab an intercept. It truly inspires a team!

Leanne Hughes is a former international netballer who was written the Up and In netball shooting e-book for up-and-coming shooters and their coaches.

Netball Training: Where do you find the time to practice shooting?

Netball Training: Where do you find the time to practice shooting?

All the superstars in the netball shooting world practice their shooting at least 4 times a week. If you want to be a future Sharelle McMahon, Catherine Cox, Irene Van Dyk or Maria Tutuaia then you must have this dedication to your netball training too.

It’s recommended that you practice your shooting at least every second day.

This may be a little tricky if you’re playing netball and training in school teams, club teams and representative netball teams. In between netball training and games, going to school, socialising and other extra-curricular activities, where do you find the time to actually spend four sessions a week putting up a decent 200 shots?

I find the best way to manage your netball training effectively is to arrive to netball training at least 20mins early and put up some shots. 30 mins is preferable.

Try to simulate a real netball match during your shooting practice. Here are some tips for your netball training:

• Mix up the position where you’re shooting from - try not to stand in the same spot and shoot 20 shots from the same spot (unless you plan on catching the ball in that same position during every match – which is highly unlikely!).
• Mix up the timing of the shot – practice faking the defender off the shot.
• Team up with a friend – whether it’s a shooter or mid-courter to help you out. Practice driving hard onto the ball, receiving the pass and shooting the ball successfully in. the ring. Incorporate all your funky shooter moves such as rolls, dodges, double dodges and front cuts.
• Huff and puff during your shooting netball session. In a netball game you’re constantly on the move, so its important that you can shoot well when you’re physically exhausted (especially towards the end of a quarter/game).

If you’re feeling uninspired and not sure how to mix up all your netball shooting sessions, why not look at the Up and In netball shooting e-book which provides 18 printable shooting cards, based on different aspects of your game (such as consistent netball shooting, long-range netball shooting, etc). Coaches, it's perfect for your netball training sessions too!

- Leanne Hughes is a former international netball player and author of 'Up and In' - netball shooting guide.