netball defensive drill, netball zone, netball court

Zone Out

Defensive Drill

Resources: 2 thirds of a netball court

Drill description:
Split your players into groups of two. One to attack – one to defend.
Defenders will line up along the middle transverse line between the 2 thirds.
Attackers will line up along the base line, matched up as a pair with 1 defender.
Attackers will run at defenders 2 at a time, from varied positions along the base line. It is up to the coach to select and call on 2 attackers.
The other players will wait to the side of the court until they are called upon.
The Defenders are to Zone the Attackers from getting into the area behind them.
Repeat the steps until all persons have had a turn, and change roles.

Coaching Points:
Ensure contact is monitored from both Attackers and Defenders.
If there are more courts, more players can go at once.
Be careful of too many people working this drill in a small place.

Variations:
Players can all be Attackers and one person is the Defender. After zoning several people, they join the end of the line of Attackers and someone else becomes the Defender. So on until everyone has had a substantial try at Zoning, perhaps giving the Defenders longer.
This can be utilised around the goal ring between Goal Attacking players and Goal Defending players.
As opposed to a one-on-one scenario, players can adopt a complete zone along the line and take on the Attacking player whom ever is closer at the time.

Progression:
This drill should help players develop Zoning skills. The focus of having 2 persons moving in the same area helps give more of a game feel. By this it’s more realistic that only having one on one as 2 defenders or more may be zoning in an actual game.
The idea is to get the basic skill perfected and then move on to the full complete zone, where a player will zone another and then if need be stay in their area and zone a different player who may come their way.