How to Create Space in Netball
Creating space in netball: the movement, timing and body positioning principles behind getting free from a defender, tying together dodges, cuts and driving.
Creating space is about combining timing, change of pace and body positioning to get free from a marking defender — it's the umbrella skill behind dodges, front and back cuts, and driving into open court.
Creating space is less a single technique than a set of principles that show up across several specific skills — dodging, cutting, and driving into open court.
The core idea
A defender can only cover one thing at a time: your current position, your likely direction, or the ball. Creating space means exploiting the gap between what a defender expects and what you actually do — through a change of pace, a change of direction, or moving into space they aren't currently watching.
The building blocks
- Dodging — a fake step followed by a sharp change of direction, best in tight spaces.
- Front cuts — cutting in front of a defender who's playing off you.
- Back cuts — reversing behind a defender who's playing tight in front.
- Driving into space — attacking open court directly and with pace.
- Change of direction — the underlying footwork that makes all of the above sharp rather than rounded.
Reading the defender
Which movement works best depends on how you're being marked. A defender playing off you leaves room for a front cut or a straight drive; a defender playing tight invites a back cut or a dodge. Learning to read a defender's stance and weight distribution — rather than defaulting to the same move every time — is what separates a genuinely hard-to-mark player from a predictable one.
Timing over speed
None of these movements depend primarily on raw pace. A well-timed, sharp movement against a flat-footed or wrong-footed defender beats a fast but predictable one every time — which is why timing and change of pace matter more than top speed for most players.
Where to go next
Work through each specific movement — dodging, cutting and driving — then pair them with feeding the shooting circle to connect space creation with the pass that actually capitalises on it.
Coaching points
- Teach players to read their defender's body position before choosing a movement, rather than always defaulting to the same move.
- Reward decisive, committed movements in training — half-hearted cuts and dodges rarely work in a match.
- Build small-sided games that force constant space creation rather than isolated drill repetitions only.