What is Netball?

If you tell people in the Netherlands you are playing netball, most will ask you ‘’what is netball?’’. The sport is still largely unknown within the Netherlands but on a global level it’s being played by over 20 million people in more than 80 countries!

Netball originally emerged from basketball and was created in 1899 by mistake, when a sports teacher from New Orleans misunderstood the then recently established rules on basketball (created in 1891) and developed a type of basketball with slightly different rules. After a few years of growth of the sport, the first codified rules of netball were published in 1901. From the start it was played by women and quickly became a popular women’s sport in Commonwealth countries, such as the UK, Australia and New Zealand.

Today, netball is mostly played by women, but is rapidly growing as a mixed sport where mixed genders form teams together.

Netball Netherlands was established in 2020 with the purpose of supporting the development of our skillful, tactical, and fast game across the Netherlands.

Thank you to Netball Australia & Melbourne Vixens for the video

The Netball court

A netball court is 30.5m long and 15.25m wide. The longer sides are called the side lines and the shorter sides the goal lines. The court is divided into three equal parts, a centre third and two goal thirds. These sections are marked by two transverse lines parallel to the goal lines.
The goal posts are round, 3.05m high and placed at the midpoint of each goal line.

Netball positions

GS (goal shooter) – is allowed to shoot, and only allowed in the goal third.
GA (goal attack) – is also allowed to shoot but is allowed in the goal third and centre third.
WA (wing attack) – is allowed in the goal third (not goal circle) and centre third, and has to feed the ball into the goal circle.
C (centre) – is allowed everywhere apart from the goal circles. Its job is to move the ball down the court.
WD (wing defence) – is allowed in the centre third and goal third (not goal circle). Marks the WA trying to stop the WA from the getting the ball (defending).
GD (goal defence) – is allowed in the goal third, including goal circle and in the centre third. Marks the GA defending the ball and trying to not let the GA shoot.
GK (goal keeper) – is only allowed in the goal third, marking the GS to stop the GS from shooting.