Netball Glossary

Quick definitions for the terms you'll hear most often around a netball court. Where we've published a full guide on a term, its definition links through to it.

Advantage: Letting play continue after an infringement because stopping it would disadvantage the non-infringing team. The umpire calls and signals it while play carries on. Never applied to foul play.
Back cut: Moving behind a defender who is marking you from in front, into the space they've left, usually for a pass over the top.
Bounce pass: A pass bounced about two-thirds of the way to the receiver, usually to get under a defender's raised arms.
Breaking: Entering the centre third before the whistle at a centre pass. Only the two Centres may be in the centre third before play starts.
Centre pass: The pass that starts play at the beginning of each quarter and after every goal, taken alternately by the two Centres from the centre circle.
Contact: Illegal physical interference with an opponent that affects their play — including putting your hands on a ball they're holding.
Defensive lift: Allowed since 2024: a defender may be lifted by a teammate to defend a player with the ball, as long as each defender's grounded foot is at least 0.9m from the landing foot.
Dodge: A short, sharp step one way, then a push-off the other, to wrong-foot a marking defender.
Extra time: Two halves of up to seven minutes, played when scores are level and a winner is required. If still level, play continues until one team leads by two goals.
Feeding: Passing the ball into the goal circle to a shooter.
Footwork: The rule governing how a player may move their feet once they have caught the ball.
Free pass: The restart awarded for most infringements, taken from where the infringement occurred. No one may shoot from a free pass.
Front cut: Cutting across in front of a defender who is level with or behind you, towards the ball.
Goal circle: The 4.9m-radius semicircle at each end. Goals can only be scored by the Goal Shooter or Goal Attack shooting from inside it, and only GS, GA, GK and GD may enter it.
Held ball: Holding the ball for longer than three seconds without passing or shooting.
Interception: Catching or deflecting an opponent's pass.
Intimidation: Behaviour designed to distract an opponent to gain an unfair advantage — for example waving your arms erratically or covering their eyes. A form of unfair play.
Landing foot: The foot a player first lands on after catching the ball (or, after a two-foot landing, the foot not moved first). It can be pivoted on or lifted, but not dragged or re-grounded before the ball is released.
Lead: A sharp run into space to receive a pass — straight at the thrower, or diagonally to the free side away from the defender.
Lob pass: A high pass whose arc peaks over the defender in front of the receiver, dropping into the space ahead of them.
Obstruction: Trying to defend a player with the ball from less than 0.9m away, or using your arms away from your body to block an opponent's movement within 0.9m.
Offside: Entering an area of the court your position isn't allowed in. Touching, but not crossing, the line isn't offside, and you may reach or lean over into the area as long as you don't touch the ground there.
Ordering off: The most serious game management action: the player takes no further part in the match, and the team plays a player short for four minutes of playing time.
Out of court: When the ball touches the ground or anything outside the court, or a player holding it is touching the ground outside. The lines are part of the court.
Over a third: Passing the ball over a whole third without it being caught or touched by a player in that third.
Penalty pass: The sanction for a major infringement such as contact or obstruction. The infringer stands out of play until the ball is released; a shooter in the circle may shoot.
Pivoting: Turning on the ball of the landing foot, stepping round with the other foot, to face a new direction. The landing foot may be lifted, but the ball must be released before it touches the ground again.
Possession: An umpire's call when two opponents get the ball in quick succession: play continues with the player who had it first, and the other must quickly take their hands off.
Rebound: Winning the ball after a missed shot. A shooter may catch their own miss only if it has touched the goalpost or ring.
Replayed ball: Batting or bouncing the ball more than the rules allow before gaining possession — for example, batting it twice and then catching it.
Repossession: Touching the ball again after releasing it, before it has touched another player or rebounded off the goalpost.
Short pass: A pass with no room for an opponent to deflect or intercept the ball between the passer and the receiver.
Stoppage: When the umpire holds time — for example for an injury, illness, blood or an emergency.
Suspension: A game management action: the player sits out for two minutes of playing time, and the team plays a player short.
Tactical change: A substitution or team change. Allowed at intervals, during a stoppage for injury, illness or blood, and — since 2024 — straight after a goal if an on-court player asks the umpire to hold time.
Third: One of the three equal sections the netball court is divided into: the centre third and the two goal thirds (often called the attacking and defensive thirds).
Throw-in: The restart used when the ball goes out of court, taken from outside the court with at least one foot within 15cm of the line.
Transverse line: Either of the two lines across the court that divide it into thirds.
Warning: A formal game management action telling a player that suspension will follow if they carry on. Only one is allowed per player per match.
Zone defence: A team defence in which players cover areas of the court rather than individual opponents, filling the spaces the attack wants to pass into.