Hoop dreams: Health benefits of playing basketball

Growing up in my house, sports usually ruled above everything, and in that cacophony of deafening madness, basketball was king.

If you asked me to sum up the majority of my adolescence, most of those memories were centred on the basketball court, and that’s because it’s all my friends and I would do all day.

It also helped me bond with my siblings in a way that no other activity could, and in hindsight, it probably kept us all fitter than we realised.

With fitness education on the decline in schools across the world, getting kids active has never been more important. As this generation of tablet-obsessed youth continue to spend more time in their digital world than they do playing outdoors, it’s crucial to give them more socially cohesive ways to stave off the perils of being young and overweight.

While football continues to be the most popular sport around the world, there’s no faster growing market for basketball than the Middle East thanks to global ambassadors like Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. Across playgrounds, parks and recreational facilities in the UAE, free-for-all courts can be found and the only thing needed is a ball.

Whether you’re playing with a big group of people or just one-on-one, basketball requires you to perform a wide range of athletic techniques like running, jumping and quick lateral movements, helping you work up a great sweat. The benefits it gives to your motor coordination is all thanks to abilities like dribbling and shooting, which soon become second nature and work wonders for your mental focus.

During a one-hour session, players can easily lose anywhere from 600 to 800 calories.

Basketball is a really simple sport to get involved in and most adults - men and women - tend to fall in love with it rather quickly after realising what a great full-body workout it is.

If you’re looking to develop lean, useful muscle while improving your flexibility and strength, a few minutes on the court will show you exactly how much work goes into rebounding the ball and defending against your opponents. Of course there’s also a great cardiovascular element to it as well, helping you to really work the heart and lungs by getting your blood pumping and accelerating your breathing.

Beyond the mental and physical health benefits that you’ll find in the sport, there’s also an integral social component here as well. Playing together develops harmony between team members while forcing you to react quickly too.

One of the reasons why basketball enjoys such popularity is because it involves so much action with very little stagnation, so if you’re the type to get bored quickly, this is one workout that simply doesn’t allow complacency.

Like most kids who played basketball throughout their adolescence, I’ve carried a passion for the sport well into my adulthood.

If you get your kids started early enough, they may discover the magic in it, too. kadry@khaleejtimes.com

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