Netball gives each of seven players a zoned court role
Netball puts two sides of seven on a rectangular court, each trying to shoot through a 380 mm ring perched on a 3.05 m post with no backboard. Every player's bib names a position that fences them into certain zones, and only two players per team may shoot at all.
The zones began as a mistake. New Orleans sports teacher Clara Baer wrote to James Naismith for the rules of basketball, invented in 1891 and first played by nine-a-side teams throwing a football into peach baskets. His court diagram included lines showing where players might best patrol, but Baer read them as boundaries players could not cross. Her version, with restricted areas, was written into women's basketball rules in 1899 and spread, eventually becoming a separate sport. Around the same time, in 1892, Senda Berenson drafted her own women's rules that led to women's basketball.
The court measures 30.5 by 15.25 metres, split into thirds, with a semicircular shooting circle of 4.9 metre radius at each end. Games last four 15-minute quarters. A player may hold the ball only three seconds and must release it before the landing foot touches down again, and the ball must be handled in every third as it moves. Defenders must stand at least 90 centimetres from the ball carrier, and stepping into a forbidden zone is offside, giving the opponents a free pass. Only the centre can roam everywhere except the shooting circles.
Each quarter, and after every goal, a centre pass restarts play from the middle of the court, alternating between teams no matter who scored. When the whistle blows, four players per side may move into the centre third, where the pass must be caught or touched.
One of the few sports designed only for women and girls, netball is played by more than 20 million people in over 80 countries, mostly across the Commonwealth. The world championships and Commonwealth Games come every four years, the Quad and Fast5 series annually. World Netball gained Olympic recognition in 1995, though the sport has never appeared at the Games.
Source: Netball
