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Netball season is almost back! Let’s ensure our junior netballers are warming up effectively to reduce injury risk and optimise performance.

If you are unsure of any of these exercises, book in with PROmotion’s netball guru herself, Alice!

Warm ups are essential for all sports and ages and in particular for young athletes as they can become vulnerable to injury during growth periods. In addition, females are at a higher risk of injury whilst playing sport, particularly injury to the Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) in the knee. Netball is a fast paced game requiring repeated workloads involving change of direction, change of pace, unexpected movements and high impact landings. Therefore, it is important that an adequate warm-up is completed to reduce risk of injury. Physiotherapists at PROmotion can assist in the prevention and treatment of these injuries.

Netball Australia has created a Knee Program for Juniors (ages 11-14), recreational players and for elite players which has some great exercise ideas you could use for training and game day warm ups. It is recommended that Junior netballers complete the program a minimum of twice per week to truly benefit.

Netball warm ups are usually broken up into a few key areas including footwork, agility, strength and landing drills, each with a specific purpose.

Footwork / Running

  • Prepares the body for movement
  • Completed at the start of the warm up

Strength

  • Targets muscles that help maintain a stable base of support
  • It is recommended that strength exercises are also completed independently outside of warm ups

Agility

  • Aim is to prepare the body for the unexpected movements such as deceleration that occur during netball

Landing

  • Improves ability to be able to land on a double or single leg safely as well as absorbing force in challenging netball specific environments
It is important to aim for variety in warms ups to keep athletes enthusiastic and motivated! Below is an example of a netball warm up which I would typically do throughout the week. It is by no means the only warm up out there and there are multiple exercises you can choose from week to week!

Running and Foot work: (all done to half way and back)

  • Jogging x 2
  • Bum flicks
  • High knees
  • High skips up and low skips back
  • Side stepping

Dynamic stretches

  • Walking lunges with a twist
  • Walking hamstring stretch
  • Walking single leg RDL

Strength

  • Squats x 5
  • Squat jumps on the spot x 5
  • Side lunge to curtsey squat x 4 each leg

Landings: Focus on soft landings

  • Double leg jump forwards x 3
  • Single leg zig-zag hops forward x 5 each leg
  • Single leg hop forwards straight into a vertical jump and stick x 2 each leg
  • Partner push and jump: Double leg jump straight up and have your partner give you a little push as you land to create more of a challenge to your landing.

Agility / Speed: Start at the baseline for each exercise

  • Build up sprints: jog through first third, 80% sprint through middle, jog last third x 2
  • Sprint up to the top of the circle and back to the baseline, stopping on the baseline x 2
  • Fast feet on the spot for 10 secs then sprint forwards to the transverse line x 2
  • Side step out to the top of the circle and sprint back to baseline x 1 each side

Reference

  • The Knee Program – Netball Australia (2018) ACL Netball. Available at: https://knee.netball.com.au/ (Accessed: 18 January 2024).
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