How to defend on a netball court

In the previous two lessons, we saw that there are 7 netball players of each team on a court.  These players are also attackers and defenders, depending on which direction the ball is going.

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The attacking team must try to get the ball to their goal third to try and score, and the defending team must try to keep them from doing so.  A defending team is waiting for mistakes to occur.  Putting pressure on the other team, will destroy the quality of opposition ball.  By forcing and putting pressure on the attacking team to make quick decisions, their options will be reduced.

Remember that there are 7 players of each team on a court, each of those 7 players must be able to defend as well as attack.  

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Defence work includes:

1.  Pressure of a player. (One on One Marking)

A player must try and prevent her opponent from receiving the ball.  The team as a whole, must try to force the opposition into errors or into a held ball position.  The disadvantage of this type of defence work is that you are actually just following your opponents movements. (Copycat defending) 

2.  Semi -loose defending

Still one on one player defending, but a little further away from their opponents. This will give the opponent a false sense of security, thinking that her player is not defending her.  Timing for the defender in this case is very important, if she is going for the interception of the ball.  

3.  Marking space:

Peripheral vision is vital in marking space defending.  The defending team is setting up intercepts for individual members.  Intercepts are taken after the opposition has been set up to false sense of security by assuming some of the teams attacking players are open to receive the ball.  

When marking space defending is used, the defenders does not necessarily have to move around with their opponent the whole time. 

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4.  Part court / Full court Zoning

Every player on court has a specific place to play and defend.  This type of defence is reliant on the whole team, because if any of the players are out of positions, the ball will be passed with ease and all the defending players will be behind the play.

The aim of part court or full court zoning is to push the opposition team to throw long passes to her teammates.  These ball will be easily intercepted.  

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5.  Defending a player with the ball

Aim: 

• To force the opponent to pass the ball in a specific direction
• To force the opponent to make a specific pass
• To intercept the ball

Netball players must be at least 3 feet or 0.9m away from their opponent before they can defend.  Rather tell the players to be more than 3 feet away, as this will give them more opportunity to intercept the ball and do 2nd defence.