Girl's Basketball - Love this Game

It’s reliable to say that women’s basketball has come a long way and evolved since Dr. James Naismith invented the game in Springfield Massachusetts in 1891.

The other thing that comes to my mind is that the girl's basketball is the sanctuary of the fundamental basketball idea and thought and that it is the last place where you can see the ideals of basketball. This my thought will be explained later.

As we can see these days, Less than a hundred years later from the "creation", girls' basketball players are able to dunk and play the game with a skill set that matches the men’s game.

In 1892, a year after Naismith designed the game, a women's physical education instructor began to show the game of basketball to young girls. In the beginning, there was a specific set of rules for girls: they could hold the ball for three seconds and make just three dribbles before they wanted to pass the ball to another player.

If you think this is stupid or easy, try playing the games with these restrictions on your practice sessions. This "drill" is good for conditioning, making your players move better and space better.

This may seem funny now as you are expected to see a women’s basketball player get the ball and go coast to coast, make all kinds of dribbles: between the legs, a crossover, then behind the back, and finish with the flashy no-look pass for an easy layup.

In the early days of women's basketball, long before scouts, drafting, and scholarships were even just an idea, the girls were reserved and isolated because they did not want any audience - especially boys to watch them play. Now, the whole world wants to watch, and it is the way it should be. Girl's basketball is fun and it has a high quality.

There are some differences between the boys and the girl's games, and I really do not see them as something major: The ball is a bit smaller, the three-point line is a little closer and the game is rarely played above the rim. This just means that the girl's bodies are not capable to develop speed and agility as the boys, so the girls had to stay smart and well trained.

Where the raw power of men provides the opportunity for a good shot, the women had to see the game better, feel the flow, respect the ball and make a good pass. Women's basketball is more tactical wise, it is more about the finesse, about getting to the right spots and making the right play every time. You are not going to see many ISO plays in the girl's basketball, but you are going to see a lot of screens, cuts, missed matches, and set plays. They play the game together, they need their friends more and the coach is way more important than in the men's basketball.

The game advances, it extends and it evolves every season when we talk about the girl's basketball. The whole process appeared to kick into overdrive in 1979 when Ann Meyers was granted a tryout with the Indiana Pacers before being cast.

Now every several years there is a new and improved face of the league. Names like Nancy Lieberman, Cheryl Miller (sister of Reggie), and Lisa Leslie, the Unicorns of the girl's basketball made it clear that the women's game is changing, improving and it is here to stay. They are the last bastion of the actual, original way the game should be played: pass, get open, make a screen, make another pass, shoot the open shot, run on defense, help, help the helper.

I love girls' basketball from the bottom of my heart, and so much coaching I've actually learned watching it.

If you want to learn more about women's basketball, go search Hoopsking for some rental videos that can help you improve your basketball knowledge: