5 Netball Drills For Passing & Shooting With Accuracy

Now that you know how to practice netball passes at home and how to improve your goal shooting with our top netball tips, it’s time to put these netball skills into play to refine your technique.

Whether you’re looking for netball passing and shooting drills to warm-up before diving into team practice or to sharpen your accuracy, increase your reaction time and overall speed, these netball drills have you covered. 

Keeping in mind that netball is a fast-paced team sport, we’ve included beginner netball drills that are ideal for pairs, small groups and up to large groups. 

Passing & Catching In Pairs

Players: 2 players per team

This is a simple passing drill to warm up and concentrate specifically on your passing and receiving skills. Each player in a pair stands 2 - 3 metres away from each other. Pairs pass the netball to one another, focussing on accuracy in passing and receiving. Practice chest passes, shoulder passes and bounce passes.

Variations:

1. Count how many passes you can pass to each other without the receiver missing any. Put in a time limit (e.g. 1 minute) to add an element of pressure. Practice passing from short, mid and long distances.
2. With every 10 passes successfully received, each member of the pair takes one step back to increase the distance between them. With the longer distance you must strategise which netball pass is the most appropriate to complete the exercise without dropping the netball. If the netball is dropped, each player must take a step forward. Compete with other pairs with the winning pair being the one that is the furthest distance apart after a time limit.

Shooter and Feeder

Players: 2 players

Shooter and Feeder is a basic netball drill to sharpen shooting skills. Players place 10 numbered cones randomly in the goal circle. The shooter begins at cone number 1 and aims to shoot the netball into the goalpost at that distance.

The feeder retrieves any missed shots and passes the netball back to the shooter to try again. Only once the shooter has successfully made a goal can they move to the next cone and repeat. The goal is to progress from cones 1 to 10 quickly and with taking minimal shots. The time it takes for each shooter to successfully complete the course can be recorded for a competitive twist.

Variation:

Include a third player to act as defender. The defender’s role is to block the shooter with outstretched arms, training the shooter to practice shooting technique under pressure while increasing difficultly.

Golden Child

Players: 8 – 12 players

Golden Child is played in the goal third and is designed to improve shooting accuracy and well as overall speed, agility and teamwork.

Players are separated into two even teams – the running team and the shooting team. The running team lines up outside the goal third. The shooting team lines up in front of the goal post behind a cone.

On the whistle, the first player in the shooting team tries to shoot a goal then returns to the back of the line for the next player to take a shot and so on. When a player successfully shoots a goal, the whistle is blown and the first player in the running team may begin to run around the goal third. The runner aims to have an explosive push-off from the starting point.

The goal is for the runner to complete a circuit of the goal third and reach the starting point before the opposing team has successfully had another goal, earning their team a point.

The shooting team continues to take turns shooting until a goal is successful and then they shout “freeze”. The runner must stop in place and the next runner in line begins their circuit around the goal third and so on until all but the last runner has had a turn running.

The ‘Golden Child’ being the last runner is able to tag their teammates to ‘unfreeze’ them as they run around the goal third. All runners aim to make it back to the starting point before the next goal is successfully shot by the shooting team. If they successfully shoot a goal while the ‘Golden Child’ is running, the shooting team wins and the teams reverse rolls.

Variations:

1.  On the whistle, the first shooting team player takes a turn shooting and the first running team player begins sprinting around the circuit of the goal third. Like a running relay, only once the runner makes it back to the starting point can the next runner start sprinting around the circuit and so on. The goal is for the shooting team to have all players successfully shoot a goal before all of the running team have made it back to their starting point.
2. On the whistle, all runners take a turn running around the goal third. The shooting team keeps track of how many goals they’ve successfully achieved in the time it takes for all runners to complete the circuit and then the teams reverse rolls.
3.  When all of the shooting team have successfully shot a goal at a shorter distance, increase the distance between the shooting players and the goalpost to increase difficultly.

Cut The Cake

Players: Up to 10 players

Players stand in a circle with one player in the centre. The player in the centre is the passing player and begins with the netball. They must pass the netball to a player in the outside circle then run to defend them as if they are on the opposing team.

The player to the right of the player that received the pass sprints to the centre of the circle. The player that received the pass throws the ball to the new player in the centre, with the defender attempting to intercept the ball with outstretched arms.

Repeat with all players taking a turn passing in the centre and as a defender. Focus on correct passing technique. Practice with chest passes, shoulder passes, bounce passes and lobs.

Variations:

1. For an additional element of difficulty, get the receiving players in the outside circle to step back to increase the distance between them and the passing player in the centre.
2. To decrease difficulty, remove the role of defender to concentrate purely on passing and receiving technique (see Dizzy Passing).

Dizzy Passing

Players: Up to 10 players

Players stand in a circle with one player in the centre. The player in the centre is the passing player and begins with the netball. The passing player throws the netball to a player in the outside circle.

The receiving player passes back to the player in the centre of the circle. The process repeats with the passing player throwing to the next receiver in the outside circle until a full rotation of the circle is complete and all players have successfully received and passed the ball.

On each rotation, focus on increasing ball speed while maintaining throwing precision. The passing player in the centre must pivot to face each player when passing the ball. 

Variations:

1. The passing player in the centre of the circle throws to a player in the outside circle. The receiving player passes back to the player in the centre of the circle then runs around the circle. In each gap between players in the outside circle, the runner stops to receive a pass from the player in the centre, keeping the no stepping rule in mind. They return the pass to the player in the centre before running to the next gap in the circle. The player in the centre must pivot to face the direction of the runner, ready to pass the ball at each gap in the circle. Repeat until the runner is back at their starting position and allow each player to take a turn as the runner and passing player. 
2. One player runs around the circle of players while the other players pass the netball consecutively around the circle with speed. The idea is to ‘race' the netball and runner around the circle, attempting to beat the runner back to their starting position. Repeat with all players taking a turn as the runner.

For more netball drills to set your team above the pack, see 3 Beginner Netball Drills For Creating Space and 6 Beginner Netball Drills To Improve Your Agility, Defence and Stop Stepping.

For solo netball drills see 6 Netball Drills You Can Do At Home.

Happy passing and shooting!