A COMPARISON INTO THE DIFFERENCE IN THE WAY IN WHICH NETBALL TEAMS GAIN POSSESSION BETWEEN SUPER LEAGUE NETBALL AND UNIVERSITY LEVEL NETBALL

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to distinguish whether there is a difference in the way in which netball teams gain possession between Super League netball and University Level netball. This study was conducted over a number of different games to ensure that there is a fair assumption of the outcome because different oppositions will vary. For this study a hand-notation system was devised and used. Operational definitions of the different styles for the present study are given. The system recorded variables including; Footwork, Held Ball, Replayed Ball, Offside, Over a Third, Contact, Thrown out of Court, Missed shot (went out for a backline), Unsuccessful Centre Pass, Clean Interception, Rebound, Whether the turnover lead to goal, Which Quarter the turnover occurred in and which player gained/lost possession. The Mann-Whitney U-Test was used to reveal any significant findings. A pilot study for each level of netball (Super League and University Level) was conducted to ensure that all possible variables. The reliability was measured for this study using inter-observer reliability. The findings provided evidence that more turnovers occur during the university level games than that of the super league level games also found was that super league teams score from significantly more of the turnovers than university teams, there were some significant differences throughout all of the variables used for this study. The lack of research within this field, along with the great insight that the present study has given, has left massive scope for future research from many different angles including; Shooting areas within the two leagues (measuring successful and unsuccessful shots). Considering relative contributions of all reasons previously suggested as the key differences between super league teams and university teams, The efficiency of the teams centre pass to goal and ratio (patterns of play) and reasons for the fitness levels between the two leagues-training methods game play etc.