In netball, passing isn’t one skill among many. It’s the only way the ball moves.
Players cannot run with the ball, cannot bounce it and regain possession, and must release it before re-grounding the landing foot. With three seconds to make a decision, every metre the ball travels is a pass someone had to make accurately, under pressure, at speed.
This guide covers the four passes, six drills you can run this week, and how to scale them.
The four passes
The shot, phase by phase
| Phase | What happens | Coaching cue |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Set | Balanced stance, ball on fingertips of the shooting hand, other hand steadying | “Ball high, elbow under” |
| 2. Load | Knee bend generating the power for the shot | “Power from the legs, not the arm” |
| 3. Release | Extension upward, ball leaves the fingertips with backspin | “High arc, soft hands” |
| 4. Follow through | Arm stays extended, wrist flexed, eyes on the ring | “Hold it until it drops” |
| Research points to a release angle around 60° from horizontal with 1–1.5 revolutions of backspin. | ||
Chest pass. Two hands, released from the sternum with thumbs behind the ball. Flat, fast, accurate over short to medium range. The default pass in most of the court.
Bounce pass. Released low, angled so the ball strikes the floor roughly two-thirds of the way to the receiver and arrives about waist height. Its job is getting under a defender’s arms, which is why it earns its keep in the goal circle.
Shoulder pass. One hand, released from beside the ear. The long-range option for switching play or driving down a sideline.
Overhead pass. Two hands above the head. Used to go over a tall defender rather than around them.
The selection matters as much as the execution. A flat chest pass through traffic in the circle is the most commonly intercepted ball in netball.
Where passes go wrong
Most bad passes are decided before the ball leaves the hands.
No step. Power comes from a forward step and a wrist snap, not from the arms alone. Passes without a step float, and floating passes get intercepted.
Looking at the ball. Dropping the chin telegraphs the pass and costs vision of the whole court.
Passing to the player, not the space. Receivers should be caught at the front of their stride, not standing still.
One-sided. Players who only pass strongly off their dominant side get shut down by defenders who work out which side to block.
Six drills
Five shooting drills at a glance
| Drill | Players | Trains |
|---|---|---|
| Clockface | 1–2 | Adjusting power for angle and distance |
| Feed, spin and strike | 3 | Catch, footwork and shot as one action |
| Pressure penalty | 2 | Holding technique under fatigue |
| Under the arms | 2 | Shooting with vision obstructed |
| Rebound and second shot | 4 | Contested rebounds and quick reset |
1. Quick hands
Setup: Pairs, one ball, three metres apart.
Run it: 30 seconds of chest passes at maximum speed, counting completions. Rest 30 seconds. Repeat with bounce passes, then shoulder passes off each hand.
Why: Builds hand speed and reaction with no tactical load. Good as a warm-up once the players are already moving.
Progression: Add a second ball moving in the opposite direction.
2. Chest to bounce split
Setup: Pairs, two balls, four metres apart, facing each other.
Run it: Both players hold a ball. On the call, one passes chest-height while the other passes a bounce pass at the same moment. Both catch, then swap which pass they’re making. Continue for 60 seconds.
Why: Forces players to give and receive different pass types simultaneously, which is closer to match reality than repeating one pass a hundred times.
Coaching point: If balls are colliding, the bounce pass is too flat or too late. Fix the release angle, not the timing.
3. Triangle feed
Setup: Trios, one ball, cones in a five-metre triangle.
Run it: Player passes and follows their pass to the next cone. Ball must be caught, landed legally, pivoted, and passed. Run it clockwise for two minutes, then reverse.
Why: Joins the catch, the pivot and the pass into one sequence, which is where most beginner errors sit.
Coaching point: Watch landing feet. Reversing direction forces players to pivot off their weaker side.
4. Three-player weave
Setup: Three players across the baseline, middle player with the ball.
Run it: Middle player passes wide, then runs behind the receiver. The receiver lands, pivots, passes to the third player, then runs behind them. Repeat down the court, finishing with a feed to the circle edge.
Why: Trains passing into space ahead of a moving target while maintaining team momentum down the court.
Important: This drill comes from basketball, where the receiver catches and keeps running. In netball that’s a stepping call. Insist on a legal landing and pivot at every catch, or you’re rehearsing an infringement — see our footwork guide.
5. Around the mark
Setup: Three attackers in a triangle, one defender in the middle, one ball.
Run it: Attackers move the ball between them while the defender applies legal pressure. Attackers may pivot and step wide with the non-landing foot to open a lane, but cannot move the landing foot.
Why: Trains the specific skill of creating a passing angle from a fixed pivot point.
Rules note: The defender must keep 0.9m between their nearer foot and the nearest part of the grounded foot of the player in possession. If the attacker pivots and the nearest part of the landing foot changes, the defender must adjust to maintain that distance. Enforce this — training against illegal pressure teaches nothing useful.
6. Ten passes
Setup: Five versus five in one third of the court. No posts, no shooting.
Run it: Attacking team scores a point for ten consecutive passes. Any turnover, dropped ball or footwork call resets the count to zero and hands over possession.
Why: This is where technique meets decision-making under fatigue, and it’s the closest thing to match conditions you can run without a full court.
Progression: Require alternating pass types, or add a rule that the same two players can’t pass to each other twice in a row.
What good feeding looks like
Feeds are the currency of a netball midcourt, and they’re measurable.
In the 2026 Commonwealth Games semi-final against England, Kate Heffernan produced 19 feeds and five deflections at centre. In the opening round of the 2026 ANZ Premiership, a Pulse training partner played the full match at wing attack and led the feeds with 23.
