Numerical model

The numerical model conducted consisted of quantitative data that then was able to be analysed in terms of looking at the technique and finding areas which could possibly be improved. It is an effective way to use this type of analysis as we are able to advise the athlete to make changes in the way they perform a technique which will help maximise efficiency and consistency. I used an analytic software called Kinovea which enabled me to record techniques with the use of a scaling factor to gather information to do with angles, heights and distances. For the numerical aspects, I chose to analyse the height of release, angle of release and angle of elbow.

In the photo above it shows the starting position. You can see that the athlete is standing with the typical netball shooting stance. We can see that the player has their body stood upright with a slight bend in the knee, but most importantly the elbows have a slight bend and the ball is placed above the head. Orkneysports (2014), state that the perfect start to a shot starts with the stance. “Elbows and wrists point straight in the direction of the ball, netball held above the head, shooting hand has the ball resting on top of the finger pads, slight tilt in the head back and knees and elbows forwards”. My athlete shows to be (1.62m) and the first angle of the elbow shows to be (92 degrees). A journal to back up the data collected was from Julie.R.Steel (1990) “ The starting elbow angle before the ball was released should be between 90-104 degrees.  The reason for this is to avoid excessive hyperextension in the wrist which will stabilise the ball and make the shot more accurate as well as improving sporting performance.”

The athlete begins to get into the preparation phase with their knees bent to (90 degrees), their elbows close to (84 degrees) more to gain more balance as the knees start to bend further out. This shows that she is able to change her body position in order to prepare properly for the shot and execution phase. A study from steel 1993, suggested that the ball should be placed and released from above the head which then would enable the execution of the shot to be successful. As the elbow angle is 84 degrees, it shows that the ball is situated above the head which enables the athlete to gain power and force when straightening out the body for the execution phase.

In this stage of the shot, as the ball is being released, the angle of release is at 112 degrees. Literature states that “the optimal angle of release should be around 60-90 degrees” Knusdone, D. (2007). This shows that this athlete’s angle of release is slightly over and this could be due to why they perform unsuccessful shots. From this we are able to see where the athlete can improve by decreasing the angle of release in order to increase the shooting ratio. Hay (1993) suggests that “an angle of entry of 90 degrees provides a margin for error of +-10.5 yet when the angle of entry is 32 degrees there is a 0.0 margin for error.”

On this last frame, it shows the athlete in the final stages of releasing the ball. From here I am able to analyse the height of release. The shot shows that it has been released 2m away from the ground. From recent studies, Hay 1993 stated that jump shots can be released from heights as low as 2.5m and set shots even lower. As you can see from the image above, the athlete only shows to have the height of release of 2m which is 0.5m below recommended. Although the athlete has extended their elbows and knees, to a point, they are not fully extended. This could be one of the reasons that the athlete finds to control a shot successfully. Also, the athlete measures up to be 1.62m tall which for a shooter isn’t that tall enough. Research shows that the to improve the height of release the athlete will need to “increase the degree of extension at the knees and elbows of the shooting arm and increasing the height the shooter pushed off the ground at release’. (Elliott & Smith 1983a)”. Another piece of research linked to the height of release and Releasing the ball from a “higher height will shorten the path the ball has to travel and therefore reduce the chance of the ball being intercepted (Blazevich, 2010)”. This means that the taller the shooter is, the more of an advantage they have in terms of not having to put much force behind the ball. Also the taller an athlete is, the distance that the ball has to travel is reduced. On average, a netball shooter ranges from 5 foot 10 inches to 6 foot 2 inches. MY athlete is only around 5 foot 6 inches so this means that the force that she needs to place behind the ball is greater, and the distance that is needed to be travelled is also quite a lot more than the average shooter.