Basketball a simulation of life?

From Mmswiki

Hello Till (and other interested in this topic)

Here one of the texts I've talked about to you last session: How knowledge is connected to the context - or culture - it is acquired in, and how it is transferred as a general mode of perception and problem-solving to everyday life.

You could see a dedicated baskeballplayer like Till, or a dedicated player of games like Rue, as a member in a subculture, not stopping being a player when they leave the playing field or stop playing. Playing is about conflict resp. problem solving, and about the means to resolve it. Thus the tools a player might employ to do so may be transferred as general strategies for everyday life: Teamwork, competitiveness, collaboration, persistence etc. etc. may be supported and demanded by certain cultures of play.

Here's a key text on a moderate constructivistic approach of learning:

Brown, J.S.; Collins, A. and Duguid, P. (1989): Situated Cognition and the Culture of Learning. In: Educational Researcher, 18, p. 32-42 [1]

A quote from the paragraph "Schoenfeld's teaching of problem solving":

"Schoenfeld's teaching of problem solving (1985, in press) deliberately attempts to generate mathematical practice and to show college students how to think mathematically about the world, how to see the world through mathematicians' eyes, and, thus, how to use the mathematician's tools. His approach goes well beyond simply giving students problem-solving strategies. Much more importantly, it provides students with the opportunity to enter the culture of mathematical practice."

So, what are the basketballer's tools to solve basketball-problems?

Solving basketball-problems

Since basketball is a game in which one uses the whole body, it is the body itself which is one of the main tools to solve problems in the game. But the body is not the only thing which helps to solve problems. Basketball is a team-sport. Two teams compete against each other by sending five players on the court to win. Now we have two main parts of problem solving: the team and the individual player.

First we concentrate on the player and his abilities. In the game of basketball the physic abilities of a player are an important factor to solve a problem accruing on the court. The basketball coaches do not speak of problems but of situations accruing on the court. This fits the understanding better since we do not talk about mathematics like in the sort abstract above. When a player steps on the court he has to be ready to do one of the following or a combination of them. First a player has to have the ability to run or better said to sprint the court. This has to be divided into sprinting forward and backwards. And also the change of direction which can be forward, backwards, left and right. Is a player able to do those things he can adjust to a lot of situations on the court. But that is just the base.

The second part of the game is to jump. Jumping can be performed out of a basic stands or out of a sprint, for example one is trying to make a lay up or rebound the ball. Now we reach the third part of capabilities a play needs to cope with game situations. After the first two points which are many easy to learn since they are birth given and are not only basketball specific. You con see them in many different sports as well. The third point is called techniques. It describes the basketball specific movements a player can do. The already mentioned lay up is one of them, it is used for scoring and as said combines points one and two. Another example would be the jump shot or the slam-dunk. Those do not need a more detailed description – it would lead us too far in the basketball specifics. For visual examples check those definitions on youtube.com, there is footage of the National Basketball Association to be found. Back to the technique, another basic technique is the dribbling followed by passing the ball. Together they are described as ball handling, shooting the ball makes it complete.

After naming the fundamentals of the game we come to the decision making. Some say it is a fundamental as well. With the term decision making is meant the coping with situations on the court. For example one catches the ball and is unguarded and is standing within his shooting range- the distance he hits shoots with a high percentage. The decision now to be made is to shoot or not. This should be done by the simple role of: on balance? In range? Open? If all those questions can be answered with yes one should take the shoot. If not, one should not. When one player is guarded by two or more defenders he should pass the ball to the open team-mate. We could go through more of those kinds of situations, but hopefully the point is clear.

The name skills above are as mentioned individual skills which help a player to play the game. But the other factor is basketball is a team sport. So every player depends on his team-mates to win the game. We talked about fundamentals for the individual player, but there are team-fundamentals as well. They build up on the individual fundamentals. Team-fundamentals are things that a player does as a reaction of a decision his team-mate made. For example player a shoots then player b tries to get the rebound, if player a misses the shoot. The coaches of the game call those actions automatics. Since there are situations that accrue offend like someone shooting the ball. Then as team one can use tactics to achive to goal of scoring or preventing the other team from doing the same.

To sum up the tools a basketball-player has to deal with problems or better situations on the basketball court, we find a division between individual skills and team skills. Both need to be learned in many sets in the daily practise.

The main conclusion is that to solve problem one has to learn a certain amount of skills. Basketball is just one example which simulates decision-making. The player has to make decision based on his individual skills, the team-automatics and the rules of the game. This is transferable to the normal everyday life. Each individual has learned a certain amount of lets call it social-skills(techniques), knows about unwritten social-laws ( team-automatics) and the written laws our society is based on ( rules of the game. With those tools we make decisions everyday. So basketball could be understood as simulation of our everyday life.

By Till Everling