Abstract
BackgroundNetball is the one of the most popular women’s sports in the world. Since gaining professional status in 2008 there has been a rapid growth in research in the applied sports science and medicine of the sport. A scoping review of the area would provide practitioners and researchers with an overview of the current scientific literature to support on-court performance, player welfare and reduce injury.ObjectiveThe primary objective was to identify the current research on the applied sports science and medicine of netball. Additionally, the article provides a brief summary of the research in each topic of sports science and medicine in netball and identifies gaps in the current research.MethodsSystematic searches of PubMed, SPORTDiscus, MEDLINE and CINAHL were undertaken from earliest record to Dec 2020 and reference lists were manually searched. The PRISMA-ScR protocol was followed. Studies were eligible for inclusion if they investigated netball as a sport or the applied sport science and medicine of netball athletes.Results962 studies were identified in the initial search, 150 of which met the inclusion criteria. Injury was the most highly investigated sport science and medicine topic (n = 45), followed by physical qualities (n = 37), match characteristics (n = 24), biomechanics (n = 15), psychology (n = 13), fatigue and recovery (n = 9), training load (n = 4) and nutrition (n = 3). A range of cohorts were used from school to elite and international standards. All cohorts were female netballers, except for one study. A rapid growth in studies over recent years was demonstrated with 65% of studies published in the last decade. There still remains gaps in the literature, with a low evidence base for nutrition, training load and fatigue and recovery.ConclusionThis scoping review summarises the current evidence base and key findings that can be used in practice to enhance the applied sport science and medical support to netball athletes across a range of playing standards, and support the growth of the sport. It is evident that netball as a sport is still under-researched.
Highlights
Netball is one of the most popular women’s sports in the world, with 20 million participants across 80 countries, and 70 National Netball Associations affiliated to the International Netball Federation (INF) across Africa, Asia, America, Europe and Oceania [1]
The traditional game of netball is played with seven positions: goal shooter (GS), goal attack (GA), wing attack (WA), center (C), wing defence (WD), goal defence (GD) and goal keeper (GK), on a 15.25 × 30.50 m court divided into thirds [16, 17]
The 150 studies included in the review covered eight sport science and medicine topics: biomechanics (n = 15, 10%), fatigue and recovery (n = 9, 6%), injury (n = 45, 30%), match characteristics (n = 24, 16%), nutrition (n = 3, 2%), physical qualities (n = 37, 25%), psychology (n = 13, 9%), and training load (n = 4, 3%) (Fig. 2)
Summary
Netball is one of the most popular women’s sports in the world, with 20 million participants across 80 countries, and 70 National Netball Associations affiliated to the International Netball Federation (INF) across Africa, Asia, America, Europe and Oceania [1]. Since gaining professional status in 2008 there has been a rapid growth in research in the applied sports science and medicine of the sport. Objective The primary objective was to identify the current research on the applied sports science and medicine of netball. The article provides a brief summary of the research in each topic of sports science and medicine in netball and identifies gaps in the current research. Conclusion This scoping review summarises the current evidence base and key findings that can be used in practice to enhance the applied sport science and medical support to netball athletes across a range of playing standards, and support the growth of the sport. It is evident that netball as a sport is still under-researched
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