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'''Netball''' is a team sport that is played on a court with seven players on each side.
'''Netball''' is a team sport that is played on a court with seven players on each side.
==History==
==History==
[[James Naismith]] invented [[basketball]] in 1891 in [[Springfield, Massachusetts]]. At the time, he did not standardize the number of players on each side, but allowed a variable number to accommodate the number of players present. Basketball quickly spread to London, England in 1893, where some people questioned its suitability for women and their clothing. Netball as a sport separate from basketball traces back to [[Martina Bergman-Österberg]] who introduced it in 1893 to her female students at the Physical Training College in [[Hampstead]], London.<ref>McIntosh, Peter C. (1968). Physical Education in England Since 1800. London: Bell. ISBN 071350689X. OCLC 41636 p. 292</ref> In 1901, the Ling Association (later the Physical Education Association of the United Kingdom) published the first codified rules of netball.<ref>Taylor, Tracy (November 2001). "Gendering Sport: The Development of Netball in Australia". ''Sporting Traditions, Journal of the Australian Society for Sports History'' '''18''' (1): 57–74.</ref> Although netball spread to some Commonwealth countries, it never gained the popularity of basketball. Different nations used different rules for the game. In 1957, International Federation of Netball and Women's Basketball (later the International Federation of Netball Associations (IFNA)) was formed to administer the sport worldwide under standardized rules.<ref>{{Cite web |author=International Federation of Netball Associations |title=About IFNA |url=http://www.netball.org/ifna.aspx |accessdate=2011-06-28}}</ref> In order to obtain funding, the IFNA then lobbied the [[International Olympic Committee]] (IOC) for two decades to seek recognition. In 1995, the IOC recognized the IFNA as an international sports federation, although that step does not make netball an Olympic sport.
[[James Naismith]] invented [[basketball]] in 1891 in [[Springfield, Massachusetts]]. At the time, he did not standardize the number of players on each side, but allowed a variable number to accommodate the number of players present. Basketball quickly spread to London, England in 1893, where some people questioned its suitability for women and their clothing. Netball as a sport separate from basketball traces back to [[Martina Bergman-Österberg]] who introduced it in 1893 to her female students at the Physical Training College in [[Hampstead]], London.<ref>McIntosh, Peter C. (1968). Physical Education in England Since 1800. London: Bell. ISBN 071350689X. OCLC 41636 p. 292</ref> In 1901, the Ling Association (later the Physical Education Association of the United Kingdom) published the first codified rules of netball.<ref>Taylor, Tracy (November 2001). "Gendering Sport: The Development of Netball in Australia". ''Sporting Traditions, Journal of the Australian Society for Sports History'' '''18''' (1): 57–74.</ref> Although netball spread to some Commonwealth countries, it never gained the popularity of basketball in other locales. Initially, the different nations used different rules for the sport. In 1957, International Federation of Netball and Women's Basketball (later the International Federation of Netball Associations (IFNA)) was formed to administer the sport worldwide under standardized rules.<ref>{{Cite web |author=International Federation of Netball Associations |title=About IFNA |url=http://www.netball.org/ifna.aspx |accessdate=2011-06-28}}</ref> In order to obtain funding, the IFNA then lobbied the [[International Olympic Committee]] (IOC) for two decades to seek recognition. In 1995, the IOC recognized the IFNA as an international sports federation, although that step does not make netball an Olympic sport.
==International Competition==
Unquestionably, the two top netball playing nations have been Australia and New Zealand. They are the only two nations to have won the Netball World Championships outright, and neither team has lost to any other team since 1995. Other nations that play and have enjoyed a modicum of success include [[England]], [[South Africa]], [[Jamaica]] and [[Trinidad and Tobago]]. The game has been played at the Commonwealth Games since 1998. Although the game has been nominally professional since the early 1980's, its first significant steps toward professionalism occurred with the introduction of the Trans-Tasman ANZ Cup, which is played for between 5 franchises in each of Australia and New Zealand.
==Rules==
==Rules==
A netball court is 50 feet wide and 100 feet long and is divided into three zones. Hoops and nets are placed 10 feet above the court without backboards, and there is a 16 foot radius shooting circle around each goal. At any time, seven players are allowed on the court for each team, and each player is declared to have a specific position. Each player wears a bib which shows an abbreviation of his or her position. The seven positions are Goal Keep (GK), Goal Defence (GD), Wing Defence (WD), Center (C), Wing Attack (WA), Goal Attack (GA) and Goal Shoot (GS). The rules do not allow players with the ball to move. The ball is advanced toward the goals by passing from player to player.
A netball court is 50 feet wide and 100 feet long and is divided into three zones. Hoops and nets are placed 10 feet above the court without backboards, and there is a 16 foot radius shooting circle around each goal. At any time, seven players are allowed on the court for each team, and each player is declared to have a specific position. Each player wears a bib which shows an abbreviation of his or her position. The seven positions are Goal Keep (GK), Goal Defence (GD), Wing Defence (WD), Center (C), Wing Attack (WA), Goal Attack (GA) and Goal Shoot (GS). The rules do not allow players with the ball to move. The ball is advanced toward the goals by passing from player to player.