Single Leg Stability Drill for Netball Players: Test Your Balance and Control
This one looks ridiculously simple until somebody starts shouting directions at you.
In this drill from Bill Parisi, founder of Parisi Speed School, athletes start balanced on one leg and have to react to a series of unpredictable movement commands. For netball players, there’s a lot to like about it.
How the single leg stability drill works
Players start standing on one leg with plenty of space around them.
The coach then calls out different directions and movements. In Bill’s session, the athletes react by jumping in the direction called while staying on the same leg.
Keep changing the instructions so players don’t know what is coming next.
That unpredictability is what makes the drill interesting. Instead of repeating a movement they’ve already planned, players have to listen, react, move and regain their balance each time.
Why is it useful for netball?
Think about how often you actually land perfectly square on two feet in a game.
Netball involves a huge amount of single-leg landing, changing direction, jumping, stopping and controlling your body quickly. You’re often doing it while watching the ball, reacting to another player or trying to make your next decision at the same time.
This drill adds some of that unpredictability without needing much equipment or a complicated set-up.
It can challenge your:
- single-leg stability
- balance
- landing control
- coordination
- reaction speed
- ability to control movement in different directions
That makes it a really easy netball strength and conditioning drill to add to a training session.
Where did you feel it?
At the end of the drill, Bill asks several athletes where they felt the exercise most. Answers include the ankle, calf and glute.
His idea is that this feedback can help highlight areas that may need more attention.
There is an important distinction here though. Feeling one area working particularly hard doesn’t automatically prove that muscle or joint is weak. Your body can use different strategies to complete the same movement, so treat it as useful feedback rather than a diagnosis.
If one side consistently feels much harder to control, you repeatedly lose balance in one direction or the same area always seems to be doing most of the work, that’s something worth paying attention to.
Try it with your netball squad
This could work really well as a short strength and conditioning block within training.
Have everyone spread out, start on one leg and gradually make the calls less predictable. Then switch legs and compare how each side feels.
You can also ask the players afterwards where they felt challenged and which movements were hardest to control.
No cones or elaborate circuit. Just one leg, a bit of space and a coach trying their best to catch everyone out.