subject: Learning About Basketball [print this page] Basketball is one of the world's fastest growing sports. People in many countries are beginning to learn this fun and exciting game.
Basketball was invented in December 1981 by James Naismith. He was a gym teacher in Springfield, Massachusetts, and was trying to create a game that his students could play indoors.
He put up two peach baskets on the railings on either side of the gym. The students used a soccer ball as the ball.
Naismith outlined 13 original rules, but the game soon became popular enough that many new rules had to be established to create uniformity when playing the sport. The rules have continued to evolve, resulting in the game of basketball that we are familiar with today.
Beginners must learn these rules and practice them at first, but over time they become habit and second nature to the players. For example, a beginner may not be able to dribble and run at the same time, so he may get whistled for travelling with the ball, but a professional can dribble very well without putting much thought or effort into it.
One of the important rules is that a player cannot physically hurt a player on another team. This is called a foul and the usual penalty is that the fouled player gets to shoot free throws.
If a player fouls too many times, they can get kicked out of the game. This keeps players from fouling on purpose or trying to injure the other team.
There is another type of foul called a technical foul. A technical foul is usually given for unsportsmanlike conduct, and usually two of these will get a player kicked out of the game.
There are many other rules to keep the game competitive and exciting, and knowledgeable players learn these rules so that they can have an advantage over their opponents. Penalties for not following the guidelines can be harsh and change the flow of the game.
Just like any other game, the point is to score more than your opponent and win. But basketball is very complex, and there are many strategies that should be used to get this outcome.
The two main sections of a team's gameplan are offense and defense. On offense, teams often have many plays that they can run to try to score against the other team.
On defense, each player must stop an opposing player from scoring, while at the same time trying to help any teammates that might not be doing so well. If one player is not playing good defense, the whole team will suffer because of it.
On offense, there are three basic shots that can be made, each worth a different amount of points. There are free throws, which are taken after getting fouled, and these are easy to make but are only worth 1 point each.
There are two pointers, which are shots made from close to the basket during normal gameplay. There are also three pointers, which must be taken from behind the three-point line, which is farther away from the basket.
There are also many different positions that must be played by players with different skill sets. The five main positions are point guard, shooting guard, small forward, power forward, and center.
The point guard is the guy in charge of controlling the ball and setting up the plays. He can kind of be compared to the quarterback on a football team.
The shooting guard is usually the scoring specialist on the team. They must be very skilled at shooting and driving the ball to the basket.
The small forward is kind of a wild card. Some are good at scoring, some are excellent defenders, and many can do a combination of everything, sometimes even migrating to a shooting guard or power forward position.
The power forward is a bigger guy who specializes in scoring close to the basket. They are many times interchangeable with centers.
Centers are often the tallest guys on the court and are expected as such to get a lot of rebounds and play excellent defense around the opponent's basket. A powerful center can prove to be an unstoppable force that can carry an entire team.
There are so many facets of the game of basketball, it can take many years to learn all of them. But as it becomes more popular and widespread, people of all ages will grow to love the game and all its aspects.
