In our maths in sport input we had the opportunity to either take a sport that already exists and improve it somehow, or make up our own sport with its own rules. My group decided we would try to improve on a sport that already exists, and therefore I suggested netball, which is my favourite sport. I started to consider the rules of netball, and it was here I realised how many mathematical concepts were involved.

Dimensions of the Court:

A netball court is split into thirds, which are each 10.14 metres long, making the whole court 30.5 metres (100ft) long. This is just a bit longer than a basketball court.The centre circle in the middle of the court is 3 feet in diameter which is also the exact distance a player needs to be from their opponent when marking them when they have the ball. The semi – circles (shooting circles) at either end of the court are 32ft in diameter and have a radius of 16ft.

When a player’s opponent has the ball and is ready to make a pass, that player can mark with her hands up in order to try and defend the pass. However, the defending player must be at least 3 feet away from the player with the ball, otherwise the umpire will pull her up for obstruction.

Taking this to a teaching level, I feel that this would be an ideal way of introducing topics like area, perimeter, circumference, diameter and radius of a circle. By linking the topics to things that the pupils enjoy (favourite sports), it will encourage them to make their own links and connections between maths and wider society.

Ball Size:

A netball is around 8.9 inches in diameter and 27 – 28 inches in circumference and compared to a football this is ever so slightly bigger. A netball weighs between 14 and 16 oz (397-454 grams) which is around the same as a football but far lighter than a basketball.

An average females hand length is 6.77 inches, which is almost a quarter of the circumference of a netball. This could mean that it takes great hand-eye coordination and skill to be able to catch a netball with one hand which players quite often have to do.

Timings:

A netball match is 60 minutes long and is split into quarters, which are each 15 minutes long. Their is a 3 minute break between the first and second and third and fourth quarters but a 5 minute break at half time, for a team talk and a rest for players. This means that there are 900 seconds in a quarter of a netball match (15×60) and therefore 3,600 seconds in a full game of netball ((15×60)x4) (not including breaks).

Once a player has caught the ball, they have 3 seconds to pass it on again or score a goal. If they fail to pass to another player on their team within this time, a penalty is given to the other team.

Height of Players:

Netballers are preferably tall in height, as sports with a hanging net in the air usually require tall players. For a sport like netball, a coach should really find players with great height and strong build in order to intercept and defend passes. However, shorter players often have better quickness and agility, which is key for some attacking positions in netball. The average height of netball players is usually between 1.7 metres and 1.9 metres, which is well above the average height of a Scottish female (5ft3 – 1.6 metres).The height of a netball post is 10ft, therefore a shooter who is tall will have a much better chance of getting the ball in the net than a player that is shorter, hence the preference for tall players.

Conclusion:

Again, this module has allowed me to look at the mathematical side of something that I would never have linked to maths before. Taking one of my passions (netball) and analysing it from a mathematical perspective has allowed me to dip into all sorts of maths topics (area, perimeter, height, length, breadth, time, speed and the measurements of a circle). This highlights Liping Ma’s principles of connectedness (making simple connections with topics and wider parts of society) and basic ideas (taking simple concepts like length, breadth, height, width and using it in a more complex yet still relatable concept like sport). In terms of developing my understanding of mathematics, it could help to look at the mathematics in sports that I don’t play regularly, which could be more of a challenge and allow me to give netball something to be compared to.