¶ … FIBA world championship Factors Determining Success in the FIBA World Championship

Since the last decade basketball has become a popular sport and it has gained growing amount of interest from the general public, fans, scientists, media and academic researchers as well. It is a sport that provides the people with elevating amount of excitement and entertainment. (Koh and John et al. 1-12)

Basketball can be regarded as one of the most popular games in the world. It is regarded as a game in which the most number of things occur per second as compared to any of the other games. It is indicated by a number of studies that more than 70 million people play basketball and about 210 countries are members of FIBA. (Kamble and Daulatabad et al. 1404-1406)

It has, however, been observed by a number of researchers that the physical and psychological characteristics of successful players and teams in FIBA vary greatly from those of the unsuccessful teams and players. These characteristics include height, speed, agility, shoulder strength, psychological preparation, conditioning, mental preparation and communication abilities and skills of the players. (Kamble and Daulatabad et al. 1404-1406)

The International Basketball Federation (FIBA)

The International Basketball Federation '(French: Federation Internationale de Basketball)', which is commonly known as FIBA, can be defined as a consortium of international organizations which is responsible for governing the international basketball. (FIBA: International Basketball Federation)

This organization was established in Geneva in the year 1932. The organization was founded two years after the official recognition of basketball as an international sport by International Olympic Committee. The original name of this organization was Federation Internationale de Basketball Amateur. The organization had eight countries as its founding members. These were; 'Argentina, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Portugal, Romania, and Switzerland'. (FIBA: International Basketball Federation)

In the year 1936, during the summer Olympics that were held in Berlin, James Naismith, who is also regarded as the founder of basketball, was named as the honorary president of FIBA. The organization has been arranging the FIBA world Championship for men since the year 1950 and a similar event for women since the year 1953. The headquarters of this organization was moved to Munich in the year 1956 and then it was again moved to Geneva in the year 2002. (FIBA: International Basketball Federation)

Successful Teams in FIBA

Most of the medals in the FIBA world championship have been gained by the team of United States of America, which is also regarded as the dream team of FIBA. Followed by USA is the team of Soviet Union and the team of Yugoslavia and at the third number stands the team of Brazil. These teams have won 11, 8, 8 and 6 medals respectively. Apart from that, the teams that remained least successful during this event were Spain, Greece, Croatia, Philippines and Germany. (FIBA: International Basketball Federation) The table below demonstrates the medal count of FIBA world championship;

(FIBA: International Basketball Federation)

Factors Influencing Success in FIBA

There are a number of factors that make teams successful in the FIBA world championship. Some of these factors are discussed below;

Field Goal Percentage

It has been identified by a number of studies that one of the factors that differentiates the successful teams from unsuccessful ones is appropriate team field goal percentage. The reason behind successful team field goal percentage is that the limited 10 seconds time for shooting requires the opponent to make two passes before the players can take the ball into the half court area. It should, however, be mentioned there that only having a large number of field goal attempts does not make a team successful, instead it is the ability and the skill to convert these field goal attempts into successful team field goals that differentiate the successful teams from the unsuccessful ones. (Koh and John et al. 1-12)

Personal Fouls

Another factor that plays an influential role in determining the success of a team is the number of personal goals committed by a team. A number of studies have indicated that successful teams commit lower number of personal fouls as compared to the ineffective teams. As it was observed in the FIBA 33 games that each of the participating teams deployed man to man defense strategy. According to this strategy the teams assigned one player to each of the offensive teams' players. This pressurized the offensive players and they had to make fast and appropriate decisions regarding whether to shoot or dribble...

(Koh and John et al. 1-12)
It can, therefore, be concluded that teams that are weak in man to man defense and offense strategies have a probability to commit a higher number of, both, team and personal fouls. Hence, training the team players, especially the young players, to improve the offensive and defensive techniques can be a key factor of success in the FIBA games. (Koh and John et al. 1-12)

Height and Physical Strength of the Players

It has been indicated by a number of studies that height is a significant factor that contribute to the success of the teams. The players of the top ten teams are generally taller than the players of the bottom ten teams. These findings influentially impact the recruitment and selection of the players. Successful teams in FIBA consist of players who have tall height, good physical strength and an appropriate ability to penetrate the offensive team and create higher ratio of shooting opportunities for their team mates. (Koh and John et al. 1-12)

Even though, height is an important factor in determining the success of a team it should be kept in mind that a team consisting of tall players who have restricted skills cannot succeed in FIBA. In addition to height, the players in successful teams have individual skills and contribute to the success of the teams. It has been identified by Koh and John et al. (2011) that players of the successful teams are good decision makers and strong finishers. (Koh and John et al. 1-12) In addition to that, these players also have high speed and agility and superior one on one physical skills are also the fundamental attributes of these players. (Joble)

It has been identified by Kamble and Daulatabad et al. (2012) that the success of the teams in the game of basketball depends on the ability of the players to generate high speed, demonstrate tremendous power and elevated agility during the course of game. The skills of shooting, dribbling and passing play an important role in the game and hence it is important for the players to master these skills. But these skills of the players, alone, cannot make the teams successful. Instead, it has been identified by a number of studies that, the successful teams consists of players who deploy a compendium of these skills, physical strength and psychological characteristics to contribute to the success of their teams in an effective and appropriate manner. (Kamble and Daulatabad et al. 1404-1406)

The successful players, when studied, have better body composition, shoulder strength, anthropological measurements, power of leg muscles and endurance as compared to the ineffective or unsuccessful players. In addition to that, these players also demonstrate higher ratio of aerobic capacity, flexibility and shooting speed. While studying these factors it shall be kept in mind that these technical skills are interrelated and interdependent and an enhancement in one would lead towards an increase in the other. (Kamble and Daulatabad et al. 1404-1406)

Conditioning

It has been indicated by Foran (2003) that the coaches of the successful teams put great emphasis on the conditioning of the players. The conditioning of the players play an important role in making the athletes better and hence plays an important role in making the teams successful. Through conditioning the coaches of successful teams aim at improving a number of skills of the players. These skills include, 'strength, power, quickness, speed, agility, balance, flexibility' and nutrition as well. (Foran 59-60)

The successful players in FIBA championships have to maintain a certain body fat percentage. The centers and power forwards are required to stay under 10% body fat and the small forwards, guards and point guards are required to maintain their body fat below 8%. Increased level of conditioning and nutrition enable the players to maintain their body fat at or below the required level. (Foran 59-60)

The conditioning programs generally consists of eight phases. These are, the agility training phase; the 4 way resistance phase; the medicine ball tosses phase; the quick feet plyos phase; the resistance running phase; the balance training phase; the jump training phase and the lateral slides phase. A study of successful teams indicated that these put increased emphasis on the conditioning of the players and as a result the key skills of the player are enhanced. (Foran 59-60)

Mental Preparation

Concentration and focus play an important in determining the success of the players and the teams in a fast moving game like basketball. It is observed that the players of the successful teams demonstrate high level of focus and concentration during the game as compared to those of unsuccessful teams. Concentration has a…