Netball
training program
Land safely, decelerate hard, and change direction with control — built around ACL injury prevention.
One month free, then A$24.99/month. Cancel any time. iPhone and iPad.
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 eight 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 |
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 →
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?
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.
One month free, then A$24.99/month. Cancel any time. iPhone and iPad.