Pilates For Handball

In early December 1891, Dr. James Naismith, a minister on the faculty of a college for YMCA professionals (today, Springfield College) in Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, sought a vigorous indoor game to keep his students occupied and at proper levels of fitness during the long New England winters. After rejecting other ideas as either too rough or poorly suited to walled-in gymnasiums, he wrote the basic rules and nailed a peach basket onto an 10-foot (3.05 m) elevated track. In contrast with modern basketball nets, this peach basket retained its bottom, so balls scored into the basket had to be poked out with a long dowel each time. A soccer ball was used to shoot goals.
Dr. Naismith’s handwritten diaries of the time indicate that he was nervous about this invention, which incorporated rules from a Canadian children’s game called “Duck on a Rock”, as many had failed before it. Dr. Naismith himself was originally from Canada.
Naismith’s new game is quite similar to the game of team handball, which had already been invented in the early 1890s.
The first official basketball game was played in the YMCA gymnasium on January 20, 1892 with nine players, on a court just half the size of a present-day National Basketball Association (NBA) court. “Basket ball”, the name suggested by one of Naismith’s students, was popular from the beginning.
Women’s basketball began in 1892 at Smith College when Senda Berenson, a physical education teacher, modified Naismith’s rules for women.
Basketball’s early adherents were dispatched to YMCAs throughout the United States, and it quickly spread through the USA and Canada. By 1895, it was well established at several women’s high schools. While the YMCA was responsible for initially developing and spreading the game, within a decade it discouraged the new sport, as rough play and rowdy crowds began to detract from the YMCA’s primary mission. However, other amateur sports clubs, colleges, and professional clubs quickly filled the void. In the years before World War I, the Amateur Athletic Union and the Intercollegiate Athletic Association (forerunner of the NCAA) vied for control over the rules for the game.
Basketball was originally played with a soccer ball. The first balls made specifically for basketball were brown, and it was only in the late 1950s that Tony Hinkle, searching for a ball that would be more visible to players and spectators alike, introduced the orange ball that is now in common use.
Dribbling, the bouncing of the ball up and down while moving, was not part of the original game except for the “bounce pass” to teammates. Passing the ball was the primary means of ball movement. Dribbling was eventually introduced but limited by the asymmetric shape of early balls. Dribbling only became a major part of the game around the 1950s as manufacturing improved the ball shape.
Basketball, netball, dodgeball, volleyball, and lacrosse are the only ball games which have been identified as being invented by North Americans. Other ball games, such as baseball and Canadian football, have Commonwealth of Nations, European, Asian or African connections.

The original beginning of the popular game of basketball has always been open to debate. Possibly missionaries in China invented it or the game could have just evolved from other ball orientated games. In the late 19th Century basketball had many similarities to team handball. Team handball required two teams of seven players to attempt to score by trying to throw a ball into a goal on the ground.
Around 1891 a Canadian minister working as one of the staff in a college for young professionals began to develop the sport of basketball. He was wondering what indoor sporting activity the students could practice to keep themselves fit and healthy in the wintertime. After researching various indoor sports that were around at the time suitable for a gymnasium he came to the conclusion he would be better off devising his own sporting activity.
He gathered together two peach baskets and wrote down a few basic rules. The peach baskets were nailed 10 feet high on opposite ends of the gym and he used sacks for nets. The students originally played with soccer balls and had to poke the ball out of the peach basket every time the ball went in.
On January 20th 1892 the players walked out onto court for the first official basketball game. The game was played in a YMCA gym on a court that was half the size of a regular modern day basketball court. Women also began to play the sport in the same year, as the sport was gaining popularity. As the early years went by the game rules were changed and refined into modern day rules. Initially the YMCA popularised the game of basketball but as it became more popular it attracted more rowdy crowds and occasional rough behaviour from the players, so it was slightly discouraged from the missions.
A brown ball was later used to replace the longstanding soccer ball. It was not until the 1950s that an orange ball was introduced to the game. This was designed with more bounce, and an increased visibility to the players and spectators. The game was now becoming very popular with its enthusiastic supporters. The art of dribbling the ball was then introduced, almost as a by-product of having an extra bouncy ball. Today basketball can be added to the list of games played world wide. It is also a game invented by North Americans, and to many an integral part of American culture.