Netball
training program
Land safely, decelerate hard, and change direction with control — built around ACL injury prevention.
Your first month is free, with nothing to pay today. Then A$24.99/month, cancel any time. On the App Store and Google Play.
Train Smart’s netball program is a complete weekly strength and conditioning plan periodised to the Australian netball season — pre-season January – February, competition March – August. It trains landing mechanics, deceleration and change of direction, builds the week around your team nights and game day, prescribes a weight in kilos for every working set, and retests you every four weeks on Max push-ups and Standing vertical jump, plus the conditioning benchmark your running plan is built around.
Chasing selection? The netball pathway in Australia — what each level tests, and what separates the athletes who move up.
Why this program exists
The footwork rule means you decelerate and land on a court that gives you nothing back, hundreds of times a game. Netball has one of the highest ACL injury rates in women’s sport, and most gym programs written for netballers are just a generic leg day.
This program is built around landing and change of direction rather than around load. Deceleration, single-leg control and landing mechanics come first; upper-body strength is trained for the pass and the intercept, which is why the battery measures overhead press and push-ups rather than a bench press.
A default netball week
This is the sport’s own template — the starting point before it is fitted to your days, your equipment and your season. Team nights and game day are protected; everything else moves to the days you are free.
What netball is won with
These are the qualities the program is built to develop, in priority order. They come from the sport, not from a generic template.
- Landing mechanics (ACL prevention)
- Deceleration
- Change of direction
- Upper-body passing power
| Session | Type | Duration | Focus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strength + Landing | Gym | 50–60 min | Knee-safe landing + single-leg strength |
| Court Movement | Conditioning | 30–40 min | Decel + repeat efforts |
| Full Body Power | Gym | 45–55 min | Passing power + change of direction |
| Skills + Team | Skills | — | Sport practice |
The season changes the program
A winter competition with a short summer build.
- Pre-season
- January – February — set volume ×1.2. Build the engine and the strength base.
- In-season
- March – August — set volume ×0.7, prescribed weights hold. Maintain, don’t drain.
- Off-season
- September – December — baseline volume. Rebuild general strength and fix the niggles.
- Block structure
- Four-week blocks: three weeks accumulating, one week deload. The block’s character changes across the year rather than repeating.
- Game day
- Protected. The day before gets a 20-minute explosive primer with no running, no heavy legs and no prehab block bolted on.
The netball testing battery
Five numbers, re-run every four weeks. Chosen to match what netball programs actually measure — and the results re-price your training weights and reset your conditioning paces.
| Test | Measures | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery 1 | Repeat-effort capacity with recovery, which is how a game is actually played. | level |
| Max push-ups | Pressing endurance and trunk control with no kit required. | reps |
| Overhead press 1RM | Overhead strength for the pass, the intercept and the contest. | kg |
| Standing vertical jump | Lower-body power in its purest form, and the cheapest fatigue check you own. | cm |
| Single-leg hop for distance | One-leg power and the left-right gap that predicts injury better than either leg alone. | cm |
What is actually in a netball program
Every movement below appears in the sessions above, with the coaching cues the app shows you, the sets and reps it is prescribed at, and ranked alternatives if you cannot do it. The weight is calculated from your own last top set.
| Movement | Appears in | Why it is there | Trains |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cable External Rotation — end-range hold | Full Body Power | The rotator cuff loaded where it actually fails — at the end of the range, decelerating the arm after the ball has gone | Shoulders |
| Front Squat | Full Body Power | Quad and trunk strength in the upright posture sport actually loads | Quads · Glutes |
| Incline DB Press | Full Body Power | Upper strength for shielding the ball | Chest · Triceps |
| Lateral Bound → Stick | Full Body Power | Controlled change of direction | Quads · Glutes · Calves |
| Weighted Side Plank — long hold | Full Body Power | Lateral trunk endurance under load — the side that gives way in a fast bowler's side strain and in every one-armed carry | Abs / Core |
| Drop Landing → Stick | Strength + Landing | Trains the safe landing that prevents ACL tears | Quads · Glutes · Calves |
| Goblet Squat | Strength + Landing | Base leg strength | Quads · Glutes |
| Loaded Ankle Dorsiflexion Hold | Strength + Landing | Ankle range decides whether the knee or the ankle absorbs a landing — and it is the first thing to stiffen after an ankle sprain | Calves |
| Nordic Curl | Strength + Landing | Hamstring injury prevention — the #1 AFL injury | Hamstrings |
| Romanian Deadlift | Strength + Landing | Posterior chain for driving legs | Hamstrings · Glutes · Back |
| Single-Leg Calf Raise — bottom hold | Strength + Landing | Achilles and calf capacity at full stretch — the position that decides whether a sprint start or a landing hurts | Calves |
| Single-Leg Hop → Stick | Strength + Landing | Single-leg landing control on the catch | Quads · Glutes · Calves |
| Tibialis Raise — end-range hold | Strength + Landing | The front of the shin, which decelerates every foot strike and every stop — the muscle behind shin splints and the one nobody trains | Calves |
| Trap Bar Jump | Strength + Landing | A loaded jump — peak power output with no barbell skill to learn first | Quads · Glutes · Calves |
Staying available
The prehab block is matched to the region of the session it sits in and to the tissue this sport actually punishes — not a generic mobility flow bolted to the front.
Prehab only works if it happens, and the reason it usually does not is that it has nothing to do with the session it is attached to. Rotating a pool by session number puts shoulder work before a squat day and Copenhagen planks before a bench press. Technically covered; nobody does it.
In Train Smart each movement is classified by the region it protects and matched to the session, and the pool rotates across the week so you cover all of it rather than doing the same three moves three times.
More on prehab that people actually do →
What the free month covers, and what comes after
The first month is one complete four-week block — three building weeks and a deload. The first retest comes after that block, and it is the first time the program measures what your training did.
- Week 1
- Testing session on the netball battery. Your starting weights and paces come from it.
- Weeks 1–3
- The first block builds. Hit your reps and the weight goes up on its own.
- Week 4
- Deload — the week the previous three become fitness.
- Week 5
- Retest. The results re-price your weights and reset your conditioning paces.
- Weeks 5–8
- Block two changes shape, priced from the top sets you just did and the numbers you just tested.
Netball training questions
What does the Train Smart netball program include?
When is netball pre-season?
Can I follow this program if I only train twice a week?
What tests does the netball program use?
Do I need a full gym?
Related
Get your netball program
Pick netball, answer eight questions, and your week is built — around your team nights, your game and the days you can actually train.
Your first month is free, with nothing to pay today. Then A$24.99/month, cancel any time. On the App Store and Google Play.
- Install itFree to download on iPhone and Android.
- Tell it how you playYour sport, your season, the nights you train and the kit you have. No account needed.
- See your week, then start freeYour program is built before you pay anything. Start the free month to unlock it, and cancel any time in your store settings.