Netball. Which is not Basketball.

Emma plays on an indoor Netball league with some teachers at Heretaunga and other area friends. The deal she and I made was that this week I would come to watch their game (and attempt to learn the sport) and then next week I would be a “sub” if needed. When Emma and I met up after school on Thursday she greeted me with “And Kelly (another teacher at Heretaunga) told you that you were playing tonight right?” Umm no. Kelly did not.

Throughout the night people kept saying “You are a basketball-er. You will be just fine.” But the following rules of Netball will trip any basketball-er up…

• ·      Netball is a non-contact sport. If you touch sometime the referee blows the whistle and calls “Contact” – which means you must “stand beside” and allow the person to either shoot or pass the ball.
• ·      There is no backboard.
• ·      There are three positions “Attack”, “Defense”, and “Center”. Depending on what position you are playing you can only be on certain parts of the court.
• ·      When an Attack has the ball within the circle you must stand back at least 3 meters. You may put your hands straight up in the air, but you cannot jump or block the shot.
• ·      Shot within the circle by an Attack is 1 point. Shot outside of the circle by an Attack or a Center is 2 points.
• ·      You have 3 seconds to pass the ball. You cannot dribble or move your feet.
• ·      An Attack has 3 seconds to shoot the ball. Which means as a Defense – you must stand there (3 meters away) while the Attack gets settled, prepares to shoot the ball, and shoots the ball.
• ·      REMEMBER – no contact. Not even on rebounds.

I had quite a few “contacts” called on me. And quite a few that the referee did not call. I started the game on Defense – because I was not half bad at playing defense on the basketball court – but quickly realized the non-contact aspect pretty much threw my entire game. I switched over to Center (which reminded me just how out of shape I am) – and spent the rest of the game picking off passes and feeding the Attack players.

Unfortunately, we lost miserably: 40-something to 20-something. BUT everyone agreed that I was allowed to come back and play next week. Next game: Monday at 5:40 pm!