6 Beginner Netball Drills To Improve Your Agility, Defence and Stop Stepping

Rather than sticking to the same dreary drills over and over, turn netball practice into play with fun beginner netball drills to keep you motivated and competition-ready.

These netball drills will sharpen your on-court performance and reinforce footwork rules to play your best match. The agility, defence, speed and team-building skills you'll develop will naturally transfer from practice sessions to competitive play.

Beginner netball drills double up as netball warm-ups to prime muscles for team practice. Many are 2 player netball drills that do not require a netball, so all you need is a buddy to begin. 

River Dance

Type of netball drill: Dodge drill, footwork drill

Players: Pairs of 2

Stand face to face with your partner and hold onto to each other by the shoulders or arms. Both players must try to tag their partner’s feet with their own, without being tagged themselves. A variation would be to do so with hands behind backs.

Benefits: Practice fast, precise footwork and enhance coordination. 

Follow The Leader / Copycat

Type of netball drill: Footwork drill, agility drill

Players: 2 minimum

Designate one player as leader and the other(s) as follower(s). Stand facing each other, about 3 metres apart. If more than two players, the ‘followers’ can stand side by side.

On the spot, the leader performs foot movements like jogging, jumping, hoping on one foot or sliding from side to side and the followers simultaneously must perform the action. At any time, the leader can randomly change the foot movement to keep the follower alert and on their toes as they attempt to mirror the action. 

For an additional element of difficultly, this netball drill can be performed in pairs while moving down the court rather than on the spot – with the defending player or ‘follower’, trying to keep up with the attacking player or ‘leader’ as the latter changes direction and footwork.

Benefits: Improved reaction time and netball-specific footwork skills. Excellent as a warm-up before practice and play.

Red Rover Cross Over

Type of netball drill: Zone defence drill, dodge drill

Players: 2 minimum, ideal for small groups

1-3 defending players stand in the centre third of the court while the attacking players stand behind the goal line at the end of the court. After the cue “Red Rover Cross Over” is given by one of the defending players or coach, the attacking players must try to cross the opposite goal line or furthest transverse line in the case of young beginners. 

The defending players must tag the attacking players before they reach the other side of the court, while the attacking players try to evade them. The defending players can be limited to the centre third of the court for additional difficulty.

Benefits: Trains defending skills that can be applied to competitive play – allowing defending players to practice zone defence or ‘setting up a zone’ to restrict the space available to the attacking player. 

Ice Cream

Type of netball drill: Footwork drill to stop stepping

Players: 2 minimum

One player or coach will be in possession of a whistle while the other players jog around the court. The whistle blow signifies to the others to make a low jump. As the jumping players’ first foot or ‘landing foot’ makes contact with the ground, they must yell “ice” (imagine that the landing foot is stuck in ‘ice’ to avoid the temptation to step). As their second foot contacts the ground, they must yell “cream”.

The initial landing or “ice” foot must stay grounded – to be used as a pivot point only. The other foot or “cream” foot can be moved to maintain balance. Another blow of the whistle signifies to continue jogging and repeat the process.

To increase difficultly, players can throw a ball to themselves and practice catching it upon landing with the “ice” and “cream” method.

Benefits: Builds awareness of proprioception (position of body in space) to encourage more deliberate landings and proper footwork. The goal is to avoid stepping with the initial landing foot when in possession of the ball. This footwork drill also improves balance skills.

Rob The Nest

Type of netball drill: Speed drill, fitness drill, warm-up drill

Players: Ideal for larger groups

Divide players into teams, ideally 4 teams (1 team based in each corner of the court). Place the ‘eggs’ at the centre circle of the court or ‘nest’. The ‘eggs’ can be symbolised by bean bags tennis balls or other objects, but preferably not netballs to avoid encouraging beginners to run with them during practice or official matches.

The nest can be symbolised by a hula hoop if desired (this will also prevent balls from rolling away). Each team starts at their designated corner of the court. One person from each team must run to the centre of the court, retrieve an ‘egg’ and return it to their team zone (signified by a hula hoop or cone).

Once they return, the next team member may dash for another ‘egg’ once tagged by the team member in play, taking turns to repeat the process as a relay.

When all the ‘eggs’ have been robbed from the centre of the court, teams can steal the 'eggs' from the zones of their rival teams until time runs out. The teams with the most ‘eggs’ wins.

Can also be played on the centre third of the court rather than using the entire court to minimise running distance for beginners. 

Benefits: This group netball drill helps develop speed and emphasises the value of team work on the court.

Jailbreak

Type of netball drill: Defence drill, attack drill, agility drill

Players: Ideal for small groups (about 4 players per team)

Set up a 10 x 10m perimeter with 4 cones to mark the corners of the square. Divide evenly into two teams, an attacking team and a defending team (if dealing with uneven numbers, allocate the extra player to the defending team).

Create two concentric circles in the centre of the square – the attacking team forming the inner circle, and the defending team forming the outer circle. The attacking team runs clockwise and the defending team runs anti-clockwise, maintaining the circle formation.

On the cue “Jailbreak” given by the coach or another player, the attacking team must try and escape the outer circle of defenders and reach the outside of the square perimeter without being tagged.

Points are allocated to the attackers based on how many of their team ‘escape’ and defenders based on how many jailbreakers/attackers are tagged before reaching outside the square perimeter.

Benefits: Sharpens defending and attacking movement skills. Improves agility, dodging skills and encourages fast footwork.