Netball

Last night I played my first ever game of netball as a ring-in for some friends who have a team. They made me play centre, which I've heard is the hardest position to play because you have to run around the whole court defending and attacking. Needless to say, I was a bit overexcited at the start and just ran like crazy everywhere, following the ball. After about 10 minutes I realised that I was going to die if I kept that up :) Touch footy has given me a bit of fitness but netball is something else! Also I think I was meant to mark the opposition team's centre instead of being in the wrong place all of the time hehe. So I started doing that, and slowing down a bit, and then things started to get a bit better. I made some good passes and intercepts, some really bad ones, and I managed to do a couple of fouls by running into the other team's players. I guess that's what happens when you're used to playing touch footy where you're meant to get the other players :)

So yeah, it was a HEAP of running, and I think that netball is definitely the best game I've played for fitness. It's different to touch because in touch you are running a lot, but there are a lot of short breaks, not to mention that you can usually sub off and on pretty frequently. You do tend to get longer runs in touch football though when chasing someone who is going for a try, or trying to get one yourself.

I'm glad that I read a quick summary of the rules before playing. I think I knew the rules better than some of my team mates - not that it stopped me from accidentally breaking them a few times :)

So overall, netball is a really fun game to play, and great for fitness (playing as centre anyway, can't speak for the other positions).