Basketball

At the White House Clinic, we are proud to be partnered with Sheffield's premier Basketball team, the B.Braun Sheffield Sharks.

Basketball is a team sport involving 5 v 5 game play over four 10 mins quarters. Shooting a ball though a hoop with the aim to score more points than your opponents. The ball must be moved by either passing or dribbling and you cannot hold the ball in two hands and then begin dribbling again.

Although there is 40 mins of playing time a game can generally last anywhere between 1.5-2 hours as the clock will stop for example for a time-out, when a foul is called or when the ball goes out of bounds. There are no draws in basketball, if the game is tied at the end of the 4th quarter, then there will be an overtime period. If the game is still tied at the end of this period, then there will be another overtime period, and this will continue until there is a winner. Only 10 players can be on the court at a time (5 for each team) but substitutions can be made as many times as the coach decides throughout the game. Players must wait for a break in play and the clock is stopped to be able to make a substitution. Of course, there are many, many more technical rules and these often vary slightly across different leagues and so that’s a lot to get into here. The British Basketball League has a section on their website that details all the rules if you are up for some further reading.

The nature of the sport is fast paced and very explosive, requiring a lot of strength and power from the body.  Although classed by rule as a non-contact sport, there is rather a lot of contact involved. This paves the way for several possible injuries to occur. Most commonly to the knees, fingers, shoulders and with ankle and foot injuries heading the top of the list accounting for nearly half of all basketball injuries. There are preventative measures to take to lower the risk of such injuries occurring. Proper strength training, prehab, proprioceptive work and a good diet will all reduce the risk.