How to Play Netball
A complete beginner's overview of how netball works: the court, teams, positions, scoring and basic rules in one place.
Netball is played by two teams of seven, each player restricted to specific areas of the court by their position, passing a ball down the court by hand to score goals by shooting it through a raised hoop.
Netball is a fast, non-contact team sport played mostly by passing a ball by hand between teammates, working it down the court to shoot goals. Here's how a match fits together.
Teams and positions
Each team fields seven players, and every player is assigned one of seven positions: Goal Shooter (GS), Goal Attack (GA), Wing Attack (WA), Centre (C), Wing Defence (WD), Goal Defence (GD) and Goal Keeper (GK).
Each position is only allowed into certain areas of the court — no player can go everywhere. That's the single biggest thing to understand early: read the seven positions explained for what each one does and where it can go.
The court
The court is a rectangle divided into three equal sections — the defensive third, centre third and attacking third — with a shooting circle at each end. See the netball court explained for a full diagram and the exact dimensions.
The aim of the game
The aim is simple: score more goals than the other team by shooting the ball through your attacking goal hoop. What makes netball distinctive is how tightly the rules control player movement — no running with the ball, no dribbling, and each position confined to particular thirds of the court.
Moving the ball
There's no dribbling in netball. Players move the ball only by passing it — a chest pass, shoulder pass or bounce pass are the most common. Once you catch the ball, strict footwork rules govern how you can move: broadly, you land on one or two feet, and once you've grounded a landing foot you can't drag or re-ground it while holding the ball. See footwork for the full rule with examples.
You also can't hold the ball for more than three seconds without passing or shooting, and opponents have to stay at least 0.9m away from whoever is holding the ball — see contact and obstruction for what that means in practice.
Scoring
Only the Goal Shooter and Goal Attack are allowed to shoot, and only from inside their attacking goal circle. A successful shot is worth one goal. See how is netball scored? for the full detail.
What to learn next
A good order to keep reading:
- The netball court explained
- The 7 netball positions explained
- Netball rules for beginners
- How is netball scored?
If you're a parent working out what your child's position means, the parent's guide to netball is written specifically for you.