In Australia, Netball is a really common sport for girls to play. There are also lots of mixed social teams when people leave school, etc. Is it played or common in the US?

37 comments

  1. No, not common at all and until today I don’t remember ever even hearing of it

  3. never heard of it. It looks very similar to basketball though.

    I think the most common sports for girls in the US are probably soccer, volleyball, and basketball

  10. I heard netball was based on a misunderstanding of basketball. A teacher at a British girls’ school wrote to someone asking about how to play/teach basketball, she didn’t fully understand it, added some rules of her own, and the sport of netball came from that. (I loved netball at school!)

  11. I think I played it once or twice in middle or elementary school? Everyone thought it was dumb and went back to basketball or whatever as I recall.

  12. I’d never heard of netball till now tbh. We have girls basketball, soccer and field hockey for middle schoolers where I live. They also play softball and lacrosse locally.

  14. No, it’s not really a thing and it wouldn’t really be that practical. From what I can tell, it’s similar to basketball, but the “net” doesn’t have a backboard and the pole or whatever is directly beneath the rim, so it would require its own distinct infrastructure.

    Basically, you have to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for equipment just to play a more boring (in my opinion at least), nominally girls-only version of a sport that’s fairly ubiquitous here.

    To put that in perspective, with rugby, it’s somewhat easier to adapt to an American football field and it has enough of a niche following (importantly, among middle and upper-middle class folks) for there to be a small amount of rugby specific fields around the country. You can probably do the same for other niche/regional sports like Hurling or Aussie Rules that have niche followings among expats and curious middle class ppl who have an affinity for those countries.

  15. Never heard of it. My oldest daughter played soccer, my youngest played basketball, volleyball, and soccer until high school. She then decided not being sweaty and actually watching the games was better and became a cheerleader

  16. I’d never heard of this sport until the Olympics last summer. There were lots of posts like yours from people asking why no one seemed to have heard of it. You said it’s a common game for school kids. We play games in our PE classes that look similar. But those are just school games.

  17. Only because we played British sports for like 2 weeks in gym class. But I can’t tell you anything about it. I know it’s not the same but it just felt like offbrand basketball

  18. I had never heard of it prior to this post. Looks like it’s basketball, but with the original rules (more or less)?

    School age girls generally played soccer, softball, volleyball, basketball, and tennis where I grew up.

  20. I’m 35, born and raised in U.S. my whole life and this is the first time I’ve ever heard of it.

  21. I had to look it up. It is not at all common here. Girls and young women here usually play volleyball, basketball, tennis, softball and soccer, depending on what is popular in your specific school/area.

    We have a really strong sporting culture though so women compete in everything from downhill skiing to crew to hockey to Ultimate.

  22. Netball doesn’t really get played here, honestly it’s probably too similar to Basketball, a sport that is already wildly popular with both boys and girls, to ever really become popular here.

    As for sports that are common for girls and women to play here, it’s Soccer, Volleyball, Basketball, and Softball as the main ones.

    And for co-ed adult social teams, the main one is slow pitch softball

  23. After looking it up, I’d say basketball fills the same niche. Netball is pretty much unheard of but basketball is one of the biggest sports in the country. I’d say for girl’s and women’s sports, soccer is bigger than basketball but basketball is still popular. It’s also really common for communities to have basketball courts or at least a hoop set up for people to play pick-up games. More common in cities than in rural areas, but not unheard of in more rural areas.

  24. Never heard of it.

    If it weren’t for the fact that you’re from an English speaking country, my first assumption would have been that you were talking about volleyball or tennis rather than what’s apparently a distinct sport.

  27. From Wikipedia:

    >When defending a pass or shot players must be at least 90 centimetres (35 in) away from the player with the ball.

    Are you really not allowed to defend a shot at all? It seems like once the ball’s inside the shooting circle it’s practically a guaranteed point.

    Also, if you have to give the ball carrier such a wide berth, can you progress the ball down the floor by simply repeatedly handing it off to an adjacent teammate?

  29. It’s never played in the US, which is a real bummer, because it’s a lot of fun! I enjoyed it much more than basketball.

  32. I never heard of it or saw it played until I moved to South Africa. So, no, not common at all.

  34. I never heard of netball and as far as I have heard it doesn’t exist here. (Maybe some random place has it, but not most stares).
     

    Basketball, volleyball, are probably the 2 closest things. Since these two things exist and sort of fills the same need, it properly never took off.
     

    We see this same thing with nugbe and cricket in the usa. There are other similar sports that are more popular and sort of fill the same niche.

  35. Surprised nobody bringing up cheer and gymnastics as the most popular sports for girls

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