Evaluation of an intervention program for the initiation to basketball aimed at teaching the game's rules

Abstract

The rules of a game determine the technical and tactical skills necessary for the game, such as in basketball. An intervention program was designed that aimed to teach the rules that were considered to be the most important for the initiation to basketball and to teach the players the technical and tactical skills from these rules. The objective of the present study was to develop and assess an intervention program based on the coach´s perceptions of the program. The study´s sample was a mini-basketball team of 14 players and the team´s coach. The program lasted 8 months and had three weekly practice sessions. The instruments utilized for data collection were the daily training reflections, action research cycles, and the audio recordings. The data were analyzed qualitatively. The coding was done by the research team, and after several trial sessions, a Kappa index of K=.78 was achieved, which assured inter-coder reliability. Among the results, it should be highlighted that the rules were the backbone of the program. As the program progressed, the players better understood their use. Likewise, they understood the relationship between the technical and tactical skills and the rules, fostering their involvement in the learning process and their familiarization with the game. In conclusion, the experience of teaching basketball initiation through familiarizing players with the rules was positive due to the cognitive involvement of the players in the learning process.