In Shadows | Kuroko no Basket Fan Fiction

Author's Note + Netball Explained

Hello all!

So, I got into Kuroko no Basket some time ago, and I cannot tell you how much I fell in love with it. It's now tied as my favourite anime along with Zankyou no Terror. I am probably making a terrible mistake by publishing this before school finishes... but there are only three more weeks left, so I think I can manage this! I just couldn't resist not writing this idea for much longer. It's an idea that I've been excited to write for some time, especially since I was able to include my all-time favourite sport (and the only sport I'm really any good at XD) in this!

Before you ask, netball is a sport that's commonly played in Commonwealth countries (you can tell for netball is a Commonwealth Games sport and not an Olympic sport!) - countries such as Australia, New Zealand, England, Jamaica, South Africa, etc.. From taking to a number of my friends, I know some people in America, Canada etc. have never even heard of netball, so I'm guessing you'll be a little stumped reading and seeing this sport you've never heard of before in front of you! But don't worry, I'm going to start by explaining netball!

If you don't know what netball is and skip this explanation then ask me what the hell netball is later on, I'm just going to groan and ask you to come back to this page. Netball isn't a simple sport I can explain in a 2000 word limit comment!

And I'd get tired if I had to continually answer the same question xD

So, without further ado, here's an explanation of netball:

The Court

- The court is 30 by 15 metres, and is split into thirds. The centre third is called, well, the centre third, and the other two are called goal thirds because those are the where the goals area scored

- The "attacking" goal third is the direction your team is shooting, while the "defensive" goal third is the direction your opposition is shooting

- Within those thirds is a marked semicircle, known as the D. This is where the goal posts are located. Only within the D can goals be shot. Each shot scores one point

- Within the centre third, there's a small circle known as the "centre circle." This is where the Centre makes the pass to begin each new quarter, and the place where new plays are made after a goal has been scored. These are known as centre passes.

Each player only has a designated area of court they can play in

Positions

There are seven positions on a netball team, and they can only enter certain areas of court

- The Goal Shooter (GS), is the main goal shooter of the team. They can only play within their attacking goal third and the D

- The Goal Attack (GA), is the other player who can score goals for the team. They're allowed in their team's attacking third, the D, as well as the centre third. 

- The Wing Attack (WA), is a centre-court player and focuses on delivering the ball to the shooters in the D. They are allowed in the centre third as well as their team's attacking third, but cannot enter the D.

- The Centre (C) - is like the link of the team. They're allowed in both thirds and the centre thirds, but cannot enter either of the D's.

- The Wing Defence (WD) focuses on defending and shutting down the Wing Attack. They're allowed in the centre third and their team's defensive third, but not in the D.

- The Goal Defence (GD) focuses on defending and shutting down the Goal Attack. They're allowed in the centre third and their team's defensive third, including the D.

- The Goal Keeper (GK) focuses on defending and shutting down the Goal Shooter. They're allowed in their team's defensive third and the D.

(For those of you who are interested, I play GK and occasionally GD. My character plays the GA and GS positions. So anyone who does know netball and reads this and is a goal shooter/attack, I apologise in advance if I'm not good at writing attack!)

Rules

- Contact: contesting is allowing, but contact that interferes with the flow of the game is pulled up

- Obstruction: players must be 3 feet to defend

- Intimidation: no deliberately blocking a player by defending their face, of using techniques designed to deliberately put a player off

-  Stepping: you cannot run with the ball. When you land, one foot first followed by the other, the foot you landed on is known as your grounded foot. You cannot lift it off the ground until you release the ball. Your other foot can move to assist with turning and throwing. If you land with both feet, you can choose which one will be your grounded foot.

- Offside: if you enter an area of court not within your designated area of play

- Replay: you cannot bounce the ball

- Break: a centre pass starts of every time a quarter begins. Before then, all other players must be behind the line (exempting the opposition centre), to the goal thirds, and can only enter the when the centre is ready to make the pass and the umpire blows their whistle. If another player moves into the centre third to get the ball before the whistle blows, it is known as breaking. Similarly, you feet cannot be on the line separating the centre and goal thirds - you have to be fully behind the line

- Held Ball: can only hold the ball for three seconds

Penalties

- Free pass: if a player commits an offence that does not affect another player (eg, stepping, replay) then a free pass is awarded to the other team. The other team takes the ball without the offending player having to stand aside

- Penalty pass: a penalty pass is awarded when a player commits and offence that affects another player in some way, which is obstruction, contact and intimidation. The offending player will have to stand beside a player from the other team. It does not have to be the player they committed the offence against.

- Throw-in: if the ball is thrown out of court, the ball is awarded to the other team. They throw the ball in from the sidelines.

So, that's netball for all you guys. If you're still confused, watch the video on the side. Just ignore the part about the toss-up, since the rules have changed slightly since that video was made and toss-ups are hardly ever used, and "contest" is allowed between two players :)

If you're still confused, just pop me a question and I'll clear it all up the best I can!

This story will start around about the beginning of the second season, and it will include some parts from the manga, including the end since the third season isn't out just yet (March, hurry up XD) So there is a possibility of manga spoilers, if I finish the Yosen match before the third season begins .

Oh, and as for updates, they will come every Saturday!

Right, so that's about everything covered! Keep an eye out for the first chapter, which will be coming on Saturday!