What is Wheelchair Basketball?

Wheelchair basketball is a fast-paced game played by two teams of five players where the object is to shoot the ball into the opposing team’s basket. The match consists of four periods of ten minutes. If the score is tied at the end of playing time for the fourth period, the match will be continued with an extra period of five minutes or with as many such periods of five minutes as are necessary to break the tie.

Who Can Take Part?

Wheelchair Basketball is open to all individuals with a physical impairment, although participants will require some trunk and upper limb function.

Classification

While there is no specific classification for individuals with Cerebral Palsy, Wheelchair Basketball classification is based on the players’ functional capacity to complete the skills necessary to play – pushing, pivoting, shooting, rebounding, dribbling, passing and catching. It is not an assessment of a player’s level of skill, merely their functional capacity to complete the task.

In particular, the trunk movement and stability observed during these actual basketball situations form the basis for the assignment of a player to a particular class. Individuals will get a classification score between 1 and 4.5 on their ability to do these skills and techniques, then coaches must pick their team for all the players’ classification scores to add up to a maximum score of 14.

International Wheelchair Basketball Federation

The International Wheelchair Basketball Federation (IWBF) is the governing body for wheelchair basketball around the world. IWBF is a non-profit organization whose purpose is to provide opportunities for persons with a lower limb disability to play the game of wheelchair basketball. IWBF establish the official wheelchair basketball rules, classification, equipment specifications and internal regulations.