Indoor netball is a team sport that was derived from netball and is exclusively played indoors. The sport originated with an intent to fasten the pace of netball games, which most considered was too slow.
The sport is played on a field that is of the same size as a netball field, with goalposts and hoops on both ends, but the playing area is surrounded by a net on all sides including the top. Since the net prevents the ball from ever going out, there are no out-of-bounds and no play stoppages which results in fast-paced games.
Matches are played for four ten minute periods, same as that of netball. The objective and the rules of the sport are exactly the same a netball, where teams try to move the ball toward the opponent's goal post and score goals by throwing the ball through the hoop. The team with the most points at the end of the match wins.
Indoor netball is played in different formats, 6 member or seven member - depending on the number of players allowed per team, and single-gender or mix-gender - depending on the gender of players that makeup the team.
Though the sport is faster, it is not as popular as netball, and is currently played in only a few countries. The Indoor Netball World Cup is the only major international tournament conducted for the sport.
Similar Sports
- Netball — a team game with seven players on a side, similar to basketball except that players are restricted to certain sections of the court, and a player receiving the ball must stand still until they have passed it to another player.
- Walking Netball — a version of netball in which players are only allowed to walk during game play, developed for older people to keep active.
- Beach Netball — played in the sand on a half court.
- Fast5 — a variation of netball, formerly known as Fastnet, with only 5 players per team.
Related Pages
- Complete list of sports
- The Encyclopedia of Sports