.Hu SCIENTIFIC BASKETBALL By NAT HOLMAN INSTRUCTOR, COLLEGE OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK DEPARTMENT OF HYGIENE AND PHYSICAL EDUCATION ^7 / INCRA PUBLIC HING COMPANY / V DEDICATED TO MY BROTHERS CONTENTS Introduction 5 Handling the Ball 11 Goal Shooting lg Playing the Offense 28 Playing the Defense 40 Plays „ \ mmm 53 Questionable Tricks of the Game 78 Signals g5 Training go, Hints to Players 93 Great Players and Reasons for Their Greatness 100 Hints to Coaches 113 Herald Square Press, N. Y. INTRODUCTION RECENT years the game of basketball has made tre- INmendous strides. From the sport of a mere handful of people in the public schools and gymnasiums of the Young Men's Christian Association, basketball has progressed rapidly both in the nature of the game and in the interest which it has provoked among the sport-loving public, until today it occupies the position of the most popular indoor game on the winter program. Thousands upon thousands of young men and women in the schools, colleges, play-grounds, and athletic. associations have adopted basketball whole-heartedly while innumerable amateur and professional teams are en- gaged annually thru the winter months in private and or- ganized competition. Whether this increased interest in the game has been the result of the compulsory athletics prescribed at the army can- tonments during the war or the wider activities of the Ama- teur Athletic Union and the Western Conferences and Inter- collegiate Leagues is difficult to say. Suffice it to say, how- ever, that basketball has come to stay. Combining the ag- gressiveness and team-play of football, the speed and fascin- ation of ice-hockey and the grace and skill of baseball, this splendid indoor game has within the short span of a half dozen years reached a state of popularity where ten thousand people will gather to witness a single contest on the court. But so radical a development in the size of its public, players and spectators, cannot attend a sport without an accompanying change in the nature of the game. Every activity in which man engages in sufficient numbers under- goes periodic evolutions. Baseball is a vastly different game today and is played in a decidedly superior manner than it was a generation and a half ago. A spectator of a football match a generation ago would hardly recognize in the grid- iron game of today the same pastime which he had witnessed at the beginning of the twentieth century. So also has bas- ketball changed with time though not perhaps in quite as large a measure. Within recent years the tendency has been to eradicate the rougher elements of basketball. As a result, dribbling, which not so long ago played a prominent part in a team's offensive play when players were permitted to turn, change their direc- 5 ; tion any number of times, and still maintain possession of the ball, has diminished considerably in importance to basketball players under amateur rules. The limitations placed upon dribbling worked not a little change in the entire character of the game. It tended to decrease appreciably the amount of individualism in players which still pervades the professional game of basketball where promiscuous, two-hand dribbling is permitted, and to direct the primary elements of the game to passing and concentrated team-work. Wherever basket- ball is played today, emphasis is laid principally upon co- operation and organization of team-play for the better inter- ests of the whole. Coaches aim to develop combinations which will work as smoothly as well-oiled machines. If a team is so fortunate as to possess a sensational shooter, the offensive of the machine is planned so as to enable that player to func- tion to best advantage. Individual playing, rash, indiscreet dribbling, and aimless, indiscriminate shooting have yielded to organized, concerted action. With the increasing interest in basketball as the game advanced in years came a wider experimentation in different styles of play. Where leagues and tournaments are formed and championship series for cups are played, teams invariably' make an annual house cleaning. Reviewing their record and making comparisons, they manage to find that in this manner their defense was inefficient, that by use of other formations their offense might have been strengthened, and generally invent new systems or experiment with those essayed by other teams. The game has consequently advanced. With every season it has grown more scientific, more complex, and more difficult to master. On the offensive, teams have attempted systems built around dribbling, others around long distance shooting and wholesale following up of shots ; some have specialized in the long passing game ; others have made use of no special system whatever but have relied upon individual strength. But in general the tendency of late has been to de- velop the short, conservative passing game. Concerning styles of defensive play there have been even wider differences of opinion and greater experimentation. Many have advocated and made use of the "zone" defensive some the "first man thru" system ; others have believed in taking one's nearest unguarded opponent. In recent years, the system which has rapidly gained in favor is the five-man style of defense in which each player is responsible through- out the game, with but few exceptions, for the guarding of his opponent. The five-man game has always been in use in 6 professional circles and has only recently come over to the amateur class where it has met with only mediocre success owing to lack of experience and capable teaching. It seems inexplicable at first consideration of the subject why the amateur basketball player, as represented on the college and larger athletic club teams, is so much inferior to the man who makes the game of basketball a profession. We occasionally witness the graduation of a college baseball star right into the ranks of the Big Leagues and also note that the majority of the professional football elevens are recruited from amongst college stars of the so-called All-American cali- bre. This sort of thing does not exist in basketball. I have never seen a college player in all my years of association with collegiate basketball who has had the ability, the polish, the experience required of a successful professional player. A great many collegiate court stars have the potential ability of great basketball players, but at the very height of their amateur game they seem to lack the fundamental groundwork which professional men carry on to the court with them. I do not mean to stress the professional game because of any conception of a superiority of that game over amateur basketball, which would not be true if I did think so, but merely to point out that the highest possibilities of basket- ball have not been exhausted in amateur circles whereas the professional player has developed his game to a greater degree of perfection. There are several reasons which may be advanced to explain this phenomenon. The first, and per- haps the most important of these reasons, is founded upon the commercial element of the professional game which requires that a player be just so much better than the next man, or at least his equal, to retain his job. This factor tends to induce in each conscientious player a closer analysis of his game. It leads him to seek pointers from older and more experienced men. He carefully scrutinizes the styles and practices of the stars. In his subsequent games he attempts to put those new ideas into his own game, to experiment, to improve. The professional basketball player is consequently a far better de- fensive man than the amateur. He must prevent his oppo- nent from outscoring him in order to keep in'the game, and therefore seeks every possible pointer which will increase his efficiency. It leads him to study his opponent more care- fully and in less time than the college player who lacks the experience and training. He is quick to take advantages and careful not to repeat mistakes. He must do all these things because it is his livelihood, his business, his profession. One 1 may inquire why a college trained football team is so nearly on a par with the professionally-trained eleven while the col- lege basketball team lags so far behind the professionals. The answer is that basketball is not considered important enough to give the time and attention and the study which football receives. Another important factor to the advantage of the profes- sional player which makes him a so much more capable per- former than the college man is the matter of competition and experience. In the height of the basketball season, from December to March, the average professional player of any ability is engaged in about four games each week. Some of the better players, the stars, whose services are in demand by many teams, often play every night in the week. This constant competition against men of one's own calibre or better, this almost daily practising' of new tricks and moves and pointers in actual competition, has a most advantageous effect upon a man's game. The college player goes through his daily routine practice against the scrub team which is often composed of an inferior group of players who give the varsity little oppo- sition of any beneficial nature. As the result of his great number of cage battles, the professional gains in both confi- dence and experience and consequently improves his game. The college player as a rule engages in but one match a week or two at the most, and spends the rest of his days in the sea- # son practising on his own gymnasium floor.