Activity profiles of the Australian female netball team players during international competition: Implications for training practice

Abstract

In elite sport, to remain competitive at the international level, it is critical to understand the game demands on players to ensure sport specific training programmes are designed for optimal athlete preparation and conditioning. In netball, recent research examining the activity patterns of players at the elite level is lacking, with only one study undertaken on this level of competition in the past 30 years. Therefore, the aim of this study was to provide coaches with up to date knowledge of player activity patterns as a basis for the design of optimal sport specific training programmes. The Australian female netball team were analysed using video footage of three international test matches. Player activity was categorised into five movement and eight game-based activities; and further classified as work or rest. Results suggest that differences in the current game exist when compared to the previous analysis. Positional differences were also found with regard to player activity confirming the need for an individualised component of training based on player position.

Activity profiles in adolescent netball: A combination of global positioning system technology and time-motion analysis

“…Overall, the frequency and duration of movements from the time-motion analysis were comparable to a study of Australian international netballers (Fox et al, 2013). This could be expected due to the consistent court size and positional constraints on movement found in netball.…”

“…For this reason video-based time-motion analysis is still the preferred method to classify the intensity of movement in netball. The mean frequency and duration of activity from the time-motion analysis of adolescent netballers was comparable to that of elite netballers (Fox et al, 2013). This similarity may be due to the consistent court size and positional constraints on movement found in netball.…”

“…The following movement classifications were used for both the GPS and time-motion analysis data: Standing, Walking, Jogging, Running, Sprinting and Shuffling. These movement classifications are well established having been used in a number of studies of netball: Otago (1983), Steele & Chad (1992), Davidson & Trewartha (2008) and Fox et al (2013).…”

“…Studies have instead focused on time-motion analysis where player movements are subjectively classified into various categories based on movement intensity. These timemotion analysis studies have focused on senior level netball (Davidson & Trewartha, 2008;Fox et al, 2013), which means the demands of adolescent netball remain relatively unknown.…”

Physical Profiles of Regional Academy Netball Players

“…1 These differences are likely due to the differing roles of the aforementioned positions combined with positional restrictions during play relating to which areas of the court individual players can play in. Activity profiles of international netball suggests that all players are constantly performing high-intensity movement patterns (shuffling, running, sprinting, jumping) 2 , therefore the ability to perform repeated high-intensity bouts and resist fatigue appears to be an important factor in netball performance. Consequently, it is important to optimise the assessment, preparation, and monitoring of physical characteristics for netball, to optimise performance and development.…”