5 Netball Shooter Training Tips

The tips below come from Pre-Season Pro, who shared five areas shooters can work on to make their accuracy more repeatable in match conditions. There are plenty of useful ideas here for individual players, coaches planning shooting sessions and anyone who wants their netball shooting training to feel a little more like the real thing.

A reliable shot needs more than a good release. Your legs, core and upper body all help you stay balanced, generate power and repeat the same movement late in a game.

That makes strength and conditioning a useful part of netball shooter training, particularly if you notice your technique starting to change once you get tired. Think beyond simply putting up hundreds of shots. Building the physical strength to keep your shooting position stable is just as important.

Try adding shooting after a fitness block, a series of hard drives or some repeated sprint work. You can also compare your shooting percentage when fresh with your percentage under fatigue. It gives you a much better idea of how well your technique holds up once the game gets harder.

For coaches, this is an easy way to make a normal netball shooting drill more game-specific without creating an entirely new session.

Matches are noisy, physical and unpredictable, so it makes sense to include some of that disruption in training.

Add a defender. Shoot after changing direction. Introduce movement before receiving the ball. If you normally play outdoors, practise in different conditions when it is safe to do so. The aim isn't to make every shot ridiculously difficult. It is to get used to finding your balance, resetting and shooting accurately when everything isn't perfect.

That is a much closer test of netball shooting accuracy than standing in the same spot taking completely uncontested shots.

'I shot pretty well tonight' isn't especially useful information.

Start recording your shooting percentage and you can see what is actually happening. Go a little deeper and the information becomes even more useful. Are you less accurate when tired? Do most misses fall short? Does your percentage change depending on where you receive the ball or the type of defence you're facing?

You don't need a complicated spreadsheet. A few simple numbers collected consistently can help you spot patterns and give your next shooting session a much clearer purpose.

This is another reason good netball shooter training doesn't have to involve holding a netball for the entire session. Strength work, controlled holds and filming a few shots towards the end of training can all help you see what changes as you get tired.