About Wheelchair Basketball

Basketball is open to men and women with a physical disability.

Classification is based on physical ability and players are given a points rating between 1 and 4.5: those with 1 point are the most severely disabled and those with 4.5 the least. A team on court may not exceed 14 points at any given time.

The wheelchair game differs very little from the “running game”. Court size, ball size and net height (10 foot from the ground) are the same as the “running game”, as are the number of players on court (five). A player may not remain in the key for more than three seconds without attempting a shot and may not take more than two pushes or touches of the wheels without bouncing or passing the ball. All international games have a duration of 40 minutes.

Wheelchair Basketball is an immensely popular game and has its own league in Great Britain with around 65 participating teams. Internationally it is played in 77 countries and is one of the earliest Paralympic Sports: its origins are in the 1940s when it was started as a rehabilitation tool for newly injured World War Two servicemen and -women.

For those wishing to participate in the game the point of contact is as follows:

British Wheelchair Basketball

SportPark
3 Oakwood Drive
Loughborough
Leicestershire
LE11 3QF
www.gbwba.org.uk

To contact British Wheelchair Basketball click on the logo