The Player Load Associated With Typical Activities in Elite Netball

Area of Science:

• Sports Science
• Biomechanics
• Netball Performance Analysis

Background:

• Previous netball player load research predominantly used subjective methods.
• Objective quantification of player load and its relation to specific activities in netball is lacking.
• Understanding how player activities contribute to positional load differences is unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To objectively quantify the player load associated with typical activities across all elite netball positions.
• To differentiate the load profiles of various netball playing positions.

Main Methods:

• Wearable accelerometers were used to measure player load during elite netball matches.
• Video analysis recorded the duration of 13 common netball activities.
• Player load data was time-aligned with activity data to determine activity-specific loads.

Main Results:

• Off-ball guarding yielded the highest player load per instance; jogging resulted in the greatest total match load.
• Non-locomotor activities contributed minimally to attacking positions' total load but significantly to defensive positions'.
• Specific positions showed distinct loads for jogging (Centers), running (Wing Attack, Wing Defense), shuffling (Goal Shooter, Wing Attack), and guarding (Wing Defense, Centers, Goal Keeper).

Conclusions:

• Player load contributions from locomotor and non-locomotor activities vary significantly by netball position.
• The impact of specific activities on total match load is position-dependent.
• Findings support the development of tailored, position-specific training programs in netball.