STATE NETBALL PATHWAY: PERFORMANCE PROFILING AND BENCHMARKING.

The purpose of this study was to compare physical performance characteristics of netball players between participation levels and playing positions to provide a benchmark of testing results for developing athletes. Eighty female netball players (age = 20 ± 6 years; body mass = 67.3 ± 11.3 kg) spread across four participation levels (14 club players, 20 amateur players, 20 representative players and 26 sub-elite players) participated in the study. Measurements were collected from a battery of six netball-specific tests; countermovement jump, 10/5 reactive hop test, isometric mid-thigh pull, 20m sprint, 5-0-5 change of direction test, and the 30-15 IFT. Sub-elite players achieved significantly faster change of direction speeds compared with other participation levels for both the left (2.7 ± 0.2 s, p<0.001) and right side (2.7 ± 0.2 s, p<0.001). The sub-elite group also produced higher eccentric peak force (1633.4 ± 278.5 N, p<0.001) and concentric impulse (157.2 ± 22.3 N/s) compared to club level (146.4 ± 34.1 N/s, p=0.037), amateur (141.5 ± 18.9 N/s, p=0.032) and representative level (136.6 ± 15.4 N/s, p=0.001). Defenders produced significantly higher measures of peak power (2907.7 ± 505.8 W, p=0.016), concentric impulse (155.1 ± 24.6 N/s, p=0.015) and peak vertical force (1752.1 ± 313.3 N, p=0.002) compared to mid court players. Club level produced significantly lower scores (13.0 ± 1.2, p<0.001) in the 30-15 IFT compared to all other participation levels. The results suggest that change of direction speed, power production and aerobic capacity discriminate the higher level netballers from the lower levels. It is recommended that netball athletes can achieve a 30-15 score of 16.0 and peak power production > 1.8 W x bodyweight. ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR