Netball is a sport which is less than a century old.  This ball game first was first played in America at a Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) centre in 1891.  By 1901, the Ling Association in England published the first rule book calling this ball game " netball ". The word netball was used for this ball game because rings with a sleeve of netting were used.
Netball is thought of to be a fast, energetic game involving all 7 players equally,  involving each player to have mobility, speed and stamina. By 1962 an " All England Netball association was formed and as a result of this there are now many schools, clubs and teams.  Click Here to visit the All England Netball association web site.

Netball is played between two teams of seven players, each with different positions. The main aim of the game is to keep or gain possession of the ball, passing it to other members of the team towards the scoring area.  This is a non contact game and so players must not obstruct or contact other players, nor may they touch the ball held by another person. When each player has the ball, they must not hold the ball for more than 3 seconds, I.E. the pass or shot must be played within this time and also the player must only take one step in the direction that they so wish whilst in possession of the ball.

The game lasts for a duration of 1 hour which is broken up into four quarters of fifteen minutes each.  An interval is aloud to be taken after each quarter for a maximum of 3 minutes and at half time I.E. after 2 quarters have been played  a maximum of 10 minutes is aloud. Also after half time the teams change ends.

When a team scores a goal I.E. shoots the ball into the netball net, the game is restarted with a " centre pass " which is where a player throws the ball to a member of their team. Each centre pass is taken alternatively by each team. The players who take this pass are known as " centres " and when each centre pass is thrown, the other players, except for the defending centre, must be outside the centre third until the whistle is blown to start play. The netball court is divided into thirds and so whilst the game is being played, the ball must be touched in each third I.E. no player is aloud to throw the ball over a third of  the court. 

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