Netball

Yes, another odd British sport, however a very important one, since it's the first one that has presented me with an opportunity to photograph my daughter in action on the pitch. I have bucketloads of sports photos of Ethan, but this has been my first chance to get some of Lydia.



Netball is essentially basketball with no dribbling and no backboard behind the net, plus a collection of other rules that restrict where players can go. At Lydia's level, there are five players on the court: Goal Attack, Goal Shooter, Goal Defense, Goal Keeper, and Center. The offensive players have to stay "up" (e.g. towards the section of the court that has the net they are shooting on) and the defensive players have to stay back. At this level they actually wear jerseys that have their position on them ("GA", "GK", etc) which made it much easier for clueless parents to figure out what was going on.



Because you can't dribble, it means that when someone on your team has the ball, you have to be running around constantly in order to give them a passing opportunity. I don't think the year 3 girls had quite figured this out, though, so there was a certain amount of standing around every now and then.



Interestingly enough, height doesn't really seem to make all that much difference. In fact the best player on Lydia's team was also the shortest. The key skill that they are all working on trying to figure out where to stand in order to intercept passes in the air (tricky business).

At Lydia's age they don't play against teams from other schools, so this was "House" netball, with teams drawn from each of the houses at St Faiths (Bentley, Latham, Chaucer, and Newton). The girls were very enthusiastic and energetic, so it was a lot of fun top watch. Very well attended, too: tons of parents turned out for the matches.