Netball: Possession Analysis 1.0

During our last lecture of Performance Analysis we have been asked to design a table to analyse the possession in netball.

I thought: "Cool! Eventually we begin to do practical stuffs!"

Yet, I have only a little concern. I have no idea how to play netball. Just a small detail.

In my country netball basically does not exist; the same goes for cricket for instance. So I decided to go to watch the training of one of the uni team.

After getting a vague idea how does this sport work, I came up with this table (click to enlarge):

I am considering all the output of the possession: shoot (miss or score) and losing ball (due to wrong pass or interception by an opponent). I am not counting the number of passes because it is irrelevant, unless there is a specific need, e.g. decrease the passes to get into opponent’s area.

Moreover, on the first column I am tracking down how the team got possession and the data concerned to rebounds is in the last two column.

Next image shows the table with some raw data in it. Bare in mind that is a “hand and paper” table. I just virtually recreate it for the purpose of this article.

I am going to explain how this table works.

Every line represents one possession and the output of that possession.

Column POSS.

If it is empty, it mean that the team get possession after a shot missed by the opposition, so they move the ball from their area or they keep possession after scoring. If they intercepted the ball, I put In; if they won a rebound in defence, I write down Re and I use Wr if they got the ball because the challengers missed the pass .

Column SHOOT\SCORE and SHOT\MISS

This one is very easy. If they score I put O and if they miss I put X under the right column.

Column WRONG\MISS and WRONG\INTER.

You will find an X under MISS if the team misses the pass. On the other column, you will find an X every time their passes are intercepted.

Still, there is one more output. If the pass is intercepted but the ball goes out (the team still keep possession). In this case, you will find X(F).

Column REBOUND\DEF and REBOUND\ATT

If the team win the rebound, I write O under the correct column (if it happens while attacking, under ATT and under DEF if it happens while defending); on the other hand, if they lose the rebound, I write X.

Apexes

You may have noticed that sometimes there is a number close to an X. I use this number (apex) to keep chronological information of the possession.

Let's have a look at the row 6. The team intercepts the ball and they manage to shoot but they miss (X¹); yet, they win the rebound (O²) and finally score (O³).

Let me know what do you think and how can I improve it.

One limit of this table is that is general and not specific to the single athlete; moreover, we do not know in which part of the court interceptions and missed passes take place.

I am going to watch more games (real one would be better; otherwise youtube is the place to be) to test it further more and to make some arrangement.