best way to teach defending a lob pass.

Janet Coach, Australia

Lyn, I take you are talking about a lob into goals?  I have average height defenders who struggle against tall goalers and encourage them to (1) keep goalers as far out in the circle as they can to force a long shot (2) if the block is broken, try to force close to goal line to limit space to catch, force error then try for intercept (3) go up for intercept/tip with one hand to gain more elevation. Also C & WD need to work hard at keeping pressure on the pass into goals and try to increase the angle of the pass in.  This has worked well for us mostly but sometimes the height difference is just too much to overcome and I give them personal goals to achieve to keep them trying.

Lee-annes NetballCoach, Australia

you cant defend a lob if you have short players compared to tall shooters.  the best defence, as janet has pointed out, is to keep the shooters as close to the outside of the circle as possible to make them shoot from distance and hope to get the rebound.  to do this you need to make sure your players can zone from behind keeping their body between the shooter and goal ring at all times and pressure the pass and shot.

i am a short defence (being only 163cm), but i find this my best chance and defence against tall players.  that double teaming (both of your defence players defending the shooter until the GA comes running in then you go back to 1 on 1 defence).  that may help too.  one in front and one behind to help unnerve them.

good luck

Allie CollyerCoach, Australia

I agree with Lee-anne's answer. My daughter is 15 and was very tall for her age until a year or so ago. She played mostly defence as a result of being tall but now all the girls are overtaking her. She has really adjusted her game and does really well on tall GS players. Her strategy is to keep on her toes all the time and use body on body to unnerve them and to pressure any pass. She lets the GS go out of the circle and then as Lee-anne said, she zones the shooter out and gets her body inbetween her player and the post. She has restricted her opponent to less than 5 goals in quite a few games which is amazing in the level she is playing.

It can be done, it just takes more thinking and a positive attitude that no player is unbeatable %3A)