Stepping first....do your girls take the ball in the air and then land
which..once they land... immediately sets the grounded foot. If they only
shuffle towards the ball they will keep shuffling and get caught...it needs
to be a definite forward movement and then a soft landing onto one leg with
the second foot then grounded to steady them. Start with a queue of girls
and just throw a ball on a straight lead...they need to get comfortable with
the taking the ball in the air then landing. The pass is returned to the
thrower. Five times each but come back to it later the same session to see
what they have forgotten...or remembered.

Without seeing what they do...are they coming forward or are they bunched up
and trying to take the ball running backwards or toward their own goal? If
they do this then body momentum will carry them and they will step. Problem
here is the bunching and they need learn to play the position and not
bunch...you need to show them what is happening and why they need to have an
open court to be able to run into space. Get the wing attack in a position
on the defensive side of the centre circle...up near the wing defence
position / transverse line. Get the wing defence to pass to her as though
she has taken the ball on a turn-over. The WA ...if she is too far forward
will obviously not be able to come forward and will want to turn to go with
the ball.....have the ball thrown to her head high and see if she gets good
position. Repeat this but this time have the WA on the other side of the
circle with plenty of room to come forward...the player will soon realise it
is easier to take possession on the forward move. Do the exercise with all
of the players so they get the feel of how much easier it is coming forward.

The basic rule of the game is if you lead to the right then you land on your
right foot and turn to the right. (and conversely if you lead to the left
you land on the left and turn to the left) If you turn "inside the defender
is right there plus it puts extra strain on the knee. Accordingly it is also
vital to get them to work on this concept. A drill for this is, instead of
the straight lead, have all girls in a queue and get a player to lead at a
45 degree angle (left or right) and the ball is passed out in front. They
take the ball...on the outside foot (left or right depending on which side
they led to), pivot and throw a pass to a receiver standing back behind the
line of "workers" who then returns the ball to the original thrower. Pay
attention to which foot they land...it must be the correct one. You can
speed this up with a parent helping as the receiver..one each side / behind
the queue and you have two balls with passes going left and then right to
keep the girls moving.

Playing from behind...a bit harder.
A good attacker will always beat a good defender and the girls need to know
this. What I mean is..the attacker always has that half second element of
surprise on her side so unless the defender can read the attackers
mind...the attacker should be "out of the blocks" so to speak before the
defender reacts. Provided the ball is passed out in front of the leading
player and she does not hesitate there is no problem. It is the slow to
react / hesitation that cause the problem....is the player concerned too
timid?
The progression of above exercise with the 45 degree lead but no pivot /
pass is to add a defender who initially is only there to "scare" the
receiver. The girl leading must go hard at the ball as you know. Try it with
a "passive defender" and as the receiver gets more confident with a strong
lead, get the defender to work a bit harder at the intercept to the point
where it becomes fully competitive.
Is the other issue the timing of the lead...tendency of the youngsters is to
lead too early and they are left stranded. Leads should only be made..and
strongly...when the thrower is balanced and actually looking at the person
to whom the pass is to go.
Not sure how rich you are but you can get on the net and Gillian
Lee...Melbourne Phoenix coach...has a four DVD set on attacking / ball
handling / defending and training games. Address is www.cancoach.com.au
I use them with all sessions and I have progressed from U9's to current
U15's
Good Luck
Bruce Cameron
----- Original Message -----
From: "Lisa" <moo465@...>
To: <netballcoaching@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, October 08, 2006 10:00 AM
Subject: [netballcoaching] new under 11's i need help


> My girls this season have gone up to under 11's now I noticed
> yesterday that in 1 quarter they were picked up 9 times for
> stepping. The main problem is that they continually step the other
> is that all of a sudden the umpires continually are now picking them
> up for stepping when it should of been happening when they started.
>
> I need a good drill for their stepping and also yesterday at least 4
> of our girls still always play from behind, at training we always
> use the drill where they are the attacker but play as a defender but
> game time they stand behind their girl and especially 2 girls will
> go backwards then come forward but stop before they get the ball
> then the defender just gets in front and interceps, how can i teach
> them not to stop until they receive the ball.
> So they are the main two problems at this stage stepping and playing
> from behind and stopping to early, need more aggression or basically
> for them to believe they have to be first at the ball....
> any advice PLEASE
>
> REGARDS
> LISA
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