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Netball Passing Drills for Beginners

Learn how to make one-handed passes with ease and proficiency. It is a sure sign that you are "raising the bar" from beginner towards expert status. Take your game to the next level by mastering these popular netball passing drills. Skill tips include the shoulder throw technique, the lob, and the bounce pass in netball.

NETBALL PASSES: Learning netball’s basic passing drills and skills will help to sharpen your game.

It will also help you make quick passes that are decisive and effective in your next match.

Furthermore, practicing ball passing techniques with these teaching points is going to:

  1. Improve your movement around the court.
  2. Help you dummy opponents more often.
  3. Escalate your general prowess on the field.

Drilling and training tips for beginners should always include single hand and two handed ball skills. That’s because these throws get used excessively by all team members during a match.

Executing Good Netball Passes

Let’s consider the main netball coaching points of executing a good pass. The most proficient technique of ball passing in netball is not only produced by your hands and arms. Include these 5 passing skill tips to execute a good netball pass.

  1. A strong passer uses more than their body weight alone. They use balance, flexibility, agility, elbows, and fingers as well. All this momentum drives the ball with speed and accuracy.
  2. Netball passing drills gain most force and momentum by distributing your body weight. Firm distribution should be on both feet. As a rule, one foot is often positioned slightly in front of the other.
  3. Ball passes in netball occur best by pushing forward with both arms. Make a slight shift in body weight moving forward onto your leading foot. Netball is a game requiring equal strength. Even so, most players will favour one side of their body – usually the right-hand side.
  4. Doing one hand and two hand drill exercises will help to develop your weaker side. It will make you a stronger and more accurate passer and ball catcher.
  5. Be sure to use the popular B.E.E.F acronym if you are coaching netball passes for youngsters. Netta juniors will know what ‘BEEF’ stands for in netball passing drills. It stands for ‘Balance, Eyes, Elbow, Follow through’.

Chest Pass in Netball

Transferring the ball from your chest height (torso) is a chest pass in netball. Some players also called it the ‘flat pass‘.

The proper technique of a netball chest pass means the ball gets lobbed. It moves forward, chest to chest, or bounced on the court and back up to your teammate.

Start the pass with your elbows tucked in. Then, tuck in your thumbs and palms to make the shape of a ‘W’ at the back of the ball as you make a two handed throw.

The chest technique of passing in netball is best practiced in a pair. Some players would also use this drill as a warm up for accuracy.

Push the ball outwards as a single explosive thrust from your chest with both hands. The chest pass in netball works as well over short and long distances.

Bounce Pass in Netball

The best drill for netball bounce pass is often called the push pass. Bounce pass drills usually need three players to get the most from a practice session.

Two players execute low passes with fingers pointing downwards and thrusting the ball towards the receiver. The third acts and a defender. You only need a small area because as a rule the pass gets used in confined spaces on the court.

Netball Passing Drill: Lob Pass

As a rule, the lob pass is not the easiest one to execute. It requires power, speed, and pinpoint marksmanship aiming high up from the waist area.

It often works well over bigger distances lobbing the ball above outstretched arms. It is especially effective when making counter attacks. Lob drills are usually practiced between two players. They will make the exercise over a distance of one third of the court length.

Flick Passing Drills

The flick pass in netball is a swift dexterous ‘wristy‘ ball toss. It cunningly catches your opponent off guard more often than not. Practice the drill in a circle of players with one intercepting defender.

Toss the ball around until it gets intercepted. The one who gets possession then becomes the defender.

Shoulder Pass in Netball

The shoulder pass is a flat and hard powerful throw. This play is often used to speed up the tempo of the game. The goal of the shoulder pass in netball is to propel the ball using your most dominant hand.

You can perform shoulder pass drills between a pair of players or against a wall.

Netball Passes and Overhead Passing

The overhead pass is a high throw released from above the head height. Passing takes place while stepping forward through the shot.

Coaching Wall Drill Games

Wall drills are beneficial even for one person passing games or warm ups. You can still practice throwing skills and drills even if you do not have a playing partner.

Use tape to mark off several spots on the wall at different heights. Then, aim to hit the ball on the marked off spots using a combination of one and two handed throws. You can make this a little more testing by changing the distance you stand back from the wall.

Related Help Guides

Note: The short video clip contains some simple netball passing pair drills to help improve your real-time skills when you get on the court.

Netball Passes: Drills for Beginners in the United Kingdom