Week 1 - Netball

Skill focus: Passing, catching and moving

Equipment

One netball per player (many of the activities in the School Sport Netball program require every player to have a ball, therefore any round ball can be used to ensure maximum participation).
cones
hoops
bibs or sashes

Download the Netball - Week 1 activity card to support teaching before and during the sport session.

Fast start - Tossing eggs

Equipment: 8 markers, 1 netball (or similar, E.g. volleyball, basketball, tennis ball) per student

How to play:

Provide a variety of catching challenges within the playing area, such as:
- - How many times can you clap your hands while the ball is in the air?
  - How high can you throw the ball?
  - Bounce the ball.
Sporadically shout 'ship' or 'shore' and students place their egg on the ground, run to that side and return to any ball (egg) as quickly as they can.
Remove some balls (eggs) when students are running and then hand back to students that missed out.

CHANGE IT!

Increase the challenge by offering a variety of one-handed catching challenges.
Decrease the challenge by using larger balls.
If students do not get back to a ball, they have to perform a throwing challenge to the side and then can join back in.

Select card to download

Skill development games

Choosing teams

In a sport education approach, affiliation is promoted by students being a member of the same team over a period of time. It is intended that students remain in these teams for the duration of each sport program for the skill development and the modified small-sided games, so that they can develop and learn together.

Place students in equal teams, 4 teams is optimal, at the beginning of the skill development session. Strategies for forming groups can be found in the Game-based learning in sport and physical activity e-learning course.
To further promote affiliation students can decide on a team name.
Once the teams are determined you can add the team and student names to the Netball draw template.

Activity 1 - Shuttle ball

Equipment: 1 netball per team, markers or tape to identify 2 lines about 3 metres apart

How to play: A ball is thrown to a catcher. The thrower runs to take the place of the catcher and the catcher in turn runs to join players at the thrower’s line.

Player 1 throws the ball to Player 2 and then runs to Line B.
Player 2 throws the ball to Player 3 and then runs to Line A.
Repeat this pattern until the ‘stop’ signal is given.
Introduce different passes (e.g. chest pass, one-handed lob pass, bounce pass, shoulder pass).

Shuttle Ball - Playing for Life Activity Card

Activity 2 - Marker dodge

Equipment: 25 cones (mixed colours)

How to play: Players practise changing directions and awareness of others through a course.

Place 4 to 6 markers of each colour in one-third of the court.
Organise players into groups of 2 to 4 and allocate them a colour.
The first player from each group moves into the area and dodges each time they reach their coloured marker.
On teacher's call, or after a set number of dodges, the player returns to their line and the next player starts the activity.

Activity 3 - L-O-N-G throw

Equipment: 1 netball per pair, 2 cones per pair

How to play: A ball is thrown between two players. If the ball reaches the catcher on the full, both the catcher and the thrower step back. If it is dropped, both take a step forward. The winning pair is the one that has retreated the furthest. (Play with one or more pairs.)

A ball is thrown between two players.
If the ball reaches the catcher on the full, both the catcher and the thrower step back.
If it is dropped, both take a step forward.
The winning pair is the one that has retreated the furthest.
Vary the types of passes (chest, shoulder, lob).

L-O-N-G Throw - Playing for life activity card

Frogs and Lily Pads - Playing for Life Activity Card

Activity 4 - Frogs and lily pads

Equipment: 4 cones to mark a 10m x 10m square (the pond), hoops (lily pads)

How to play: Players continuously jump from the pond to lily pads using a one-foot takeoff and two-foot landing technique. Play in groups of 4–8.

Randomly distribute the hoops inside the pond.
Players jog in between jumping on lily pads or in pond and see how many they can land on in a given amount of time (e.g. 60 seconds).
If there is more than one frog on the lily pad, it will sink. If a player jumps onto a lily pad with another player already on it, the original player must immediately find another lily pad to jump onto.
Players may jump into the pond as well as onto the lily pads.
Introduce a tagger. Players must jump around the pond and avoid the tagger. Players are safe if they are standing on a lily pad, but as soon as another player jumps on that lily pad the original player must find a new one. If a player is tagged, they become the new tagger.

Modified small-sided games

It's time for competition!

Teams compete against each other in the game outlined below. You can use the 'Netball draw' as a guide to organise the competition, across the 4 sessions try to ensure each team has a fair number of games.

Allocate 3 points for a win, 2 points for a drawer and 1 point for a loss for each game played. Record results and points in the School sport program results spreadsheet.

Remember, to give students an update of the leader board each week.

Find the goal line

Equipment: 1 netball per game, bibs or sashes to identify teams

How to play: The team with the ball passes it among team-mates, aiming to get it over their goal line. All teammates must touch the ball at least once before the team scores. Running with the ball is not permitted.

Players are distributed as shown. One player from each team should be within stepping distance of their goal line.
Attacking team pass the ball from player to player.
Interceptors may run and try to intercept the ball without making body contact.
Netta rules apply