Coaches’ and referees’ evaluation of the importance of the rules at the initiation stage of basketball

Abstract

The rules and regulations affect sport practice tactics and techniques. Therefore, for a player to eventually master the game of basketball, the player should also understand its internal logic. In this study, the opinions of coaches and referees about the rules that they believe to be most important when teaching basketball at the initiation stage were assessed, and an analysis of the differences between these two groups was done. The study’s sample was composed of 37 coaches and 40 referees. A questionnaire was utilized to measure the opinion about the degree of importance of teaching the rules at the initiation stage of basketball. The questionnaire consisted of 30 items, one for each rule, in which they evaluated the importance of teaching the rule from 1 (Not at all important) to 4 (Very important). A descriptive analysis of the data was done; further, to test the differences between the mean values given by the coaches and the referees, a student t-test for independent samples was utilized. The results demonstrate that the rules that should have most importance when teaching mini-basketball are: out-of-bounds (sideline and endline), grabbing/pushing, over-and-back, travelling, and double-dribbling. When comparing the values given by the coaches and the referees, significant differences were found in 11 of the 30 items, for which greater coordination between the two groups is suggested. The coaches gave more importance to travelling and double-dribbling, likely due to the repercussion in the teaching of the technique, especially of the player with the ball. The referees gave more importance to the rules related to personal fouls, probably in search of control of the game.