Netball Crazy

Get active and play NETBALL!

History of Netball

In 1891, a 30-year-old Canadian, James Naismith, moved to Springfield, Massachusetts in the USA. He had invented men’s basketball  in the 1890 . Then he was asked by Boston YMCA to think of a women's version of the game basketball . Because of that the miniature form of Netball game was formed.
The game was then brought to Australia and to many other countries, by English school teachers in the early 1900's.
Women liked the game but they found that the long passes were difficult to execute in the game because of their limited strength. So, the ladies decided to adapt the game to suit their skills. They divided the court into three sections called thirds and introduced a rule that the ball must be caught or touched at least once in each third. No one was allowed to run with the ball and they also established restricted playing areas for each position. They got rid of the backboard and decreased  the goal ring in size to suit the smaller soccer ball . This created "NETBALL".
The game of netball was also known as Woman's Basketball. However in 1970, the name of the game was changed to “Netball” by the All Australia Women’s Basketball Association. The Association also became known as the All Australia Netball Association.

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