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Netball Defence Drills Without a strong defence no netball team can ever hope to win a match and that’s why it’s extremely important for players to work on and practice their defence skills during training . And to help them to do that you’ll find a collection of useful and extremely effective netball defence drills below that when practiced regularly will have players defending like a pro!

Piggy In The Middle

This netball defensive drill requires seven or more players and one ball.

Start the drill by having the players form a circle with two of the players in the middle of it. The players forming the circle must then pass to one another using different styles of passes along with varying heights and speeds and as each of the player passes they must call out the name of the player that they are passing to.

Then as each player passes to one another the two players in the middle must try to intercept the ball. Once one of the players in the middle of the circle successfully intercepts five balls they can then swap places with one of the players on the outside of the circle.

The Triangle Drill

This netball defending drill requires four players and one ball.

To perform the drill have three players stand in the formation of a triangle with about three metres with one player being given a ball and designated the thrower. The fourth player (the defender) must stand opposite the thrower and in the middle of and a tiny bit in front of the other two players (who are the receivers).

First the thrower must make a chest pass to one of the receivers and then the defender must try to intercept the ball. Once the defender has successfully intercepted five balls the players then rotate positions.

Red Rover Drill

Here’s another great netball drill for working on defending skills that is played on two thirds of a netball court.

First three players are selected to be defenders and they are not allowed to cross the transverse line which is the middle marker. Then upon the coaches signal the rest of the players must try to cross the transverse line from the base line over the middle marker.

As the rest of the players try to cross the transverse line the defenders must try to zone as many people as possible and players who can not be zoned can successfully cross the transverse line. The drill should continue on until all but one player has reached the line and that last player swaps place with one of the defenders.

Zoning Out Drill

Here’s another drill that is played over two thirds of a netball court.

To perform this drill start by splitting players up into two groups. One group will be the offensive team and the other will be the defensive team. The defenders must then line up along the middle transverse line between the two thirds and the offenders must then line up along the base line.

The coach then must select one defender and two offenders and upon the coaches signal the offenders must run at the defender from varied positions along the line and the defenders I to try to zone the offenders from getting into the area.

Continue this drill until everyone has had a turn and then swap positions.