Basketball Fun and Games - Keven A. Prusak

Basketball Fun and Games

by Keven A. Prusak

NEW, 144 pages

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About Basketball Fun and Games

By using Basketball Fun & Games: 50 Skill-Building Activities for Children, you can
• make learning basketball a positive experience for children,
• choose from 50 activities and games to build skills and tactical understanding and work toward the national standards,
• take the “kill” out of “drill” to put fun into learning what can be a complicated game,
• quickly locate developmentally appropriate games for 5- to 12-year-old children.

Teachers, coaches, and recreation leaders who are looking to increase the effectiveness of their teaching while making learning enjoyable need look no further. Basketball Fun & Games: 50 Skill-Building Activities for Children contains age- and developmentally appropriate activities that are the antidote to the “same old, same old” drills that take the fun out of learning basketball and fitness skills. And these activities are more than just appropriate; they’re engaging and creative, and they leave participants eager to come back for more.

Basketball Fun & Games: 50 Skill-Building Activities for Children is a time saver for those looking for fun ways to improve participants’ skills and fitness. It offers clear instruction, equipment lists, and tested tips. Plus, you can quickly locate the games and activities you need by using the game finder.

What does all this mean? It means you can
• use games and activities that are geared to meet specific age and developmental levels in children ages 5 to 12,
• minimize prep time while providing top-notch instruction,
• help kids strive to attain the National Standards for Physical Education, and
• choose from a variety of activities to maintain interest while building basketball skills and tactical understanding.

Activities and games are presented for warming up, ball handling, passing, shooting, multiple skills, and tactics and teamwork. Each activity and game indicates which national standards it applies to. In addition, the games and activities use modified rules to teach specific tactics. The step-by-step instructions, written by a teacher-coach with more than 18 years of experience in teaching basketball fundamentals at the elementary level, are time tested and time saving.

The result is that you can focus on teaching and participants can focus on having fun—while learning and developing along the way.

About Keven A. Prusak

Keven A. Prusak, PhD, is an assistant professor of physical education pedagogy at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. He has been working with youth for the past 18 years. Prusak's area of expertise is the study of motivation in physical education. He believes that physical education teachers and youth sport coaches should strive to create a positive and successful experience for all kids. As a professor of physical education, Prusak prepares teachers and coaches to teach in the public school setting.

Prusak received the 1990 Outstanding Teacher Award from the Box Elder School District and the 2002 Lawrence F. Locke Dissertation Award. He regularly makes presentations and conducts workshops for physical educators across the country.

About Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules. Basketball is one of the world's most popular and widely viewed sport.

A regulation basketball hoop consists of a rim 18 inches (45.7 cm) in diameter and 10 feet (3.05 m) high mounted to a backboard. A team can score a field goal by shooting the ball through the hoop during regular play. A field goal scores two points for the shooting team if a player is touching or closer to the hoop than the three-point line, and three points (a "3 pointer") if the player is "outside" the three-point line. The team with more points at the end of the game wins, but additional time (overtime) may be issued when the game ends with a tie. The ball can be advanced on the court by bouncing it while walking or running (dribbling) or passing it to a teammate. It is a violation (traveling) to walk with the ball, carry it, or to double dribble (to hold the ball and then resume dribbling).

Various violations are generally called "fouls". Disruptive physical contact (a personal foul) is penalized, and a free throw is usually awarded to an offensive player if he is fouled while shooting the ball. A technical foul may also be issued when certain infractions occur, most commonly for unsportsmanlike conduct on the part of a player or coach. A technical foul gives the opposing team a free throw.

Basketball has evolved many commonly used techniques of shooting, passing, and dribbling, as well as specialized player positions and offensive and defensive structures (player positioning) and techniques. Typically, the tallest members of a team will play "center", "small forward", or "power forward" positions, while shorter players or those who possess the best ball handling skills and speed play "point guard" or "shooting guard".

While competitive basketball is carefully regulated, numerous variations of basketball have developed for casual play. Competitive basketball is primarily an indoor sport played on carefully marked and maintained basketball courts, but less regulated variations are often played outdoors in both inner city and rural areas.

The strategies also evolve with the game. In the 1990s and early 2000s, teams played with more "isolation". Teams that had one superstar would let one player, usually the point guard or shooting guard, run most of the offense while the other four offensive players get out of his/her way. Nowadays, teams tend to play with more teamwork. The "Center" position has evolved to become more of a taller "Small Forward" position. Since teams play more teamwork, ball movement has evolved with the game, and more jump shots have been taken as a result.

There are two main defensive strategies: zone defense and man-to-man defense. In a zone defense, each player is assigned to guard a specific area of the court. In a man-to-man defense, each defensive player guards a specific opponent. Man-to-man defense is generally preferred at higher levels of competition, as it is intuitively easier to understand and avoids mismatches between players who play different positions. However, zone defenses are sometimes used in particular situations or simply to confuse the offense with an unexpected look.

Offensive plays are more varied, normally involving planned passes and movement by players without the ball. A quick movement by an offensive player without the ball to gain an advantageous position is a cut. A legal attempt by an offensive player to stop an opponent from guarding a teammate, by standing in the defender's way such that the teammate cuts next to him, is a screen or pick. The two plays are combined in the pick and roll, in which a player sets a pick and then "rolls" away from the pick towards the basket. Screens and cuts are very important in offensive plays; these allow the quick passes and teamwork which can lead to a successful basket. Teams almost always have several offensive plays planned to ensure their movement is not predictable. On court, the point guard is usually responsible for indicating which play will occur.

Defensive and offensive structures, and positions, are more emphasized in higher levels in basketball; it is these that a coach normally requests a time-out to discuss.

Basketball Fun and Games