Available Features on Basketball
Hoops:
A basketball hoop can be designed in
many different ways. People typically see a basketball hoop as a pole in the
ground and a backboard with a rim attached. While this view is generally
correct, a lot of basketball hoops today have many features that go beyond this
general description. These features are meant to enhance the game and, if
understood correctly, can also greatly enhance a player's personal training.
Some of these features include height adjustments, break-away rims, different
material backboards, and the size of the backboard.
Basketball Hoops Height Adjustments
While standard height of a
basketball system is to have the rim set at 10 ft., most beginning players will
find this high of a rim to be very difficult to practice their shot. Many
basketball systems have a fixed-height design and so younger players would have
no choice but to wait to grow tall and strong enough to have the ball reach the
rim. This waiting period wastes many useful years the player could be
developing their shot. Because of this problem, many systems today feature
height-adjustable rims. Lower-end basketball hoops from Lifetime Products and
Spalding feature height adjustments down to a 7.5-ft. high rim.
Other high-end systems like Spalding's
Arena View line, Goalsetter basketball systems, and others can adjust to much
lower heights; some systems can even go as low as 5.5 ft. While such a low
height is much easier to shoot on, 5.5 ft. is probably not necessary. Most
youth recreational leagues start players shooting an a rim height of 7-8 ft.
This range makes the players have to work to develop their shot while not
crushing their hopes by having the rim too far out of reach. High-end systems
that have this range include Mammoth Basketball Hoops, Goalsetter Basketball
Systems, and Arena View Basketball Goals.
Break-away Rims
As a basketball player develops
their game, particularly male athletes, the rim design will begin to be
important. Different rims provide better playability as players reach the age
of dunking. Performing a slam dunk does not occur often in younger athletes;
but, as a player reaches the High School age, they will likely be able to
develop their vertical jump sufficiently to dunk the basketball. At this point
in the basketball player's development, static or stationery rims are likely to
be broken and their basketball system is likely to be damaged.
In most high schools, the NCAA, and
certainly the NBA, break-away rims are used. The break-away design allows the
rim to be slightly displaced out of the mounting mechanism attached to
backboard and to snap back into place after the rim is released. This features
not only provides greater longevity out of the basketball system, but also
provides safety for the player. Were a player to dunk sufficiently hard on a
static rim, the rim could be completely torn off the backboard and the player
would fall in whichever direction his or her momentum was going. These kind of
problems are minimized with a break-away rim.
Basketball Backboard Materials
Different backboard materials will
vary greatly in how well the basketball bounces or "rebounds" off of
the surface. In increasing order of reboundability, backboard materials would
rank as follows: plastic, polycarbonate, acrylic, and then glass. While this
difference in rebound may seem trivial to many basketball players, backboard
material on basketball hoops can help or hinder a player's shot development. In
particular, a shot that is used often as a player advances his or her skills is
the "bank shot." This shot describes the player shooting at the
backboard with the hope of bouncing the ball into the rim. With lower-end
materials - like plastic, polycarbonate, and acrylic - the bank shot can become
greatly altered if the backboard absorbs the impact of the ball.
Glass, for all intents and purposes,
has no absorption of the basketball's impact; so, a player developing their
game will be able to more easily fine tune the bank shot on a glass backboard
than a backboard made of the other materials. Amongst the other materials for a
backboard, their is not has much difference in quality of rebound. For
instance, most players will not be able to recognize the difference between an
acrylic rebound and a polycarbonate rebound.
Why the materials are ranked in the
order they are above is because the material of the backboard tends to coincide
with other features that help stabilize the system. For example, no basketball
system currently exists in the market that has a plastic backboard and a square
pole, but there are such systems in both polycarbonate and acrylic. No,
polycarbonate backboard currently exists on a system with larger than a 4x4
inch square post, but there are such systems with an acrylic backboard. The
more stable the basketball hoop is overall, the more stable the backboard will
be and the better the rebound will be.
Basketball Hoops' Backboard Size
Finally, the last thing to be
considered in this article will be the size of the backboard. On
regulation-sized basketball hoops, the official backboard size is 72" wide
x 42" high. From this size, many smaller backboard occur on many different
systems. Lifetime Products produces a backboard as small as 42 inches wide.
Spalding produces a backboard as small as 44 inches wide. Much like the
material of the backboard, for advanced players, a bigger backboard is a better
backboard.
A larger backboard allows the player
to develop a full range of shots they could use in their game. A smaller
backboard takes away much of the range of bank shots that could be employed in
a game. Most high schools have a regulation-sized backboard and so a player
will have a better personal practice the closer their basketball backboard
comes to 72 inches wide and 42 inches high.
Basketball Accessories for
Basketball Hoops
Many basketball accessories exist to
help a player practice on their own. Only a couple will be considered here. One
of these accessories is a hoop chute (also called a personal rebounder or a
back-atcha chute). This accessory attaches to the bottom of the the rim and
functions to direct the ball back to the shooter. This mechanism allows a
player to shoot more shots on average for a set period of time than if the
player had to rebound their own shot.
The other accessory worth mentioning
is a ball cart. A ball cart usually functions to store basketballs when they
are not in use; but, for a basketball player practicing by themselves, a
basketball cart allows a player to fine tune their range from different
locations on the cart by having several basketballs at their disposal to shoot
continuously from the same location. Both of these accessories make more
efficient use of personal practice time.
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