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Choosing an appropriately sized basketball for junior players: An example of a principled approach towards equipment scaling in sport
Abstract   Peer reviewed

Choosing an appropriately sized basketball for junior players: An example of a principled approach towards equipment scaling in sport

Adam D Gorman, J Headrick, I Renshaw, Christopher McCormack and K Topp
Proceedings of the 14th Australasian Conference on Mathematics and Computers in Sport, pp.25-25
Australasian Conference on Mathematics and Computers in Sport (ANZIAM Mathsport 2018), 14th (Sunshine Coast, Australia, 25-Jul-2018–28-Jul-2018)
2018
url
http://www.anziam.org.au/tiki-download_file.php?fileId=115View
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Abstract

Human Movement and Sports Science
In simple terms, the notion of equipment scaling in junior sport involves matching the size of the playing equipment to the size of the child, with the general aim of not only improving skill acquisition, but also improving the child's overall playing experience (see Buszard, Reid, Masters, & Farrow, 2016). The purpose of the current research was to use anthropometric measures of the hand to identify an appropriately sized basketball for junior players. The hand dimensions of adult (M age = 28.66 years) and junior (M age = 11.55 years) male basketball players were used to create hand-to-ball-size ratios across five different sizes of basketball including size 3 to size 7 (the latter being the regulation size for adults). For the junior players, who were accustomed to using a size 6 ball in their regular competitions, the hand-to-ball-size ratio for the size 3 and 4 basketballs was the closest match to that of the adults' hand-to-ballsize ratio for the size 7 ball. The results from 3-on-3 gameplay also revealed that the size 3 and 4 basketballs elicited a greater number of 3-point shot attempts and more steals/intercepts compared to the larger balls. However, when asked to identify the size of basketball that they would prefer to use in future games, the junior players tended to select the size 5 and 6 balls. Collectively, the results provide evidence of the potential utility of anthropometric measures of the hand for equipment scaling, but highlight the need for equipment changes to be implemented across all age groups to allow sufficient time for children to become familiarised with that equipment.

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