Info about Basketball
Basketball: Sport that Calls forth Agility and Strength
Basketball is one of the most popular games in the world. It is a team sport played with a ball in a specially prepared place. Each team consists of five players. The game is played in a rectangular area. At both sides of the rectangle there will be boards fixed on a pillar. The board has a ring. The aim of the game is to put a ball into the ring while the opposing team tries to prevent it. The ball is passed by throwing it to the team members. The ball cannot be carried in hand. It has to be dribbled as the players move. Once the ball is caught in hand it cannot be dribbled any more but will have to thrown to the fellow team mate.
In a basketball game depending on the position where you put ball into the net there are varying scores patterns. If the ball is thrown from outside the specially demarked zone called three point line the team gets two points. If it is scored from the three point zone the team gets three points. The winner is decided based on the number of points scored by each team. The basketball ring or hoop has a diameter of 18 inches and it is fixed on backboard at 10 feet from the ground. The ground should be suited for bouncing the ball. So the ground has to be fairly smooth and strong to enable proper bouncing. Fouls in the game is penalized by awarding free throws to the team that was victim of the foul.
Among the many games that are popular today it is one game that makes heavy demands on the stamina of the player. Because of the small size of the court and relatively limited number of players it is a very fast game. The game includes throwing, dribbling and shooting.
The game is historically connected with the YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association). They are the ones which made the game popular all over the world. Where ever there is a YMCA you can be sure that you have an opportunity to play the game. The game is US in origin but the game is played in many countries. Though the game started as something for men, eventfully women also started playing this game.
When the basketball game was launched the same ball used for football was used for this too. Earlier basketballs were brown in color. Not the balls are orange in color. This is because the color was visible to the players as well as to the spectators alike. This is a game in which the United States have been maintaining predominance. However, recently other nations have learned the skill and the American dominance in the game is somewhat challenged. It is very normal that other countries win World Basketball Championships.
Basketball needs only a small area for playing the game and the only equipments needed are the ball and the two rings and back boards. In this area 10 people can comfortable play. In the years to come the popularity of the game is likely to increase.