How to play streetball

Streetball or street basketball is a variation of the traditional sport, basketball. Typically played on outdoor courts, it is extremely popular in America and due to its less formal playing structure than traditional basketball; it is more appealing to players who want to publicly showcase their own individual skills.

Streetball is a non-contact sport consisting of 2 teams and its rules vary widely from court to court, but the basic object of the game is to score more baskets (or shoot more hoops) than the opposition. Unlike regular Basketball where scoring a basket gives you 2 and 3 points (if beyond the 3 point arc), street-ball baskets are scored in 1s and 2s (if beyond the 3 point arc), making the score lines less impressive on the ears, but leads to more competitive matches.

What you need to play:

• 1 x basketball court (if it’s busy half a court will do)
• 1 x ball
• 2 x teams

The rules

As there is usually no referee at street-ball matches, the common practice is to ‘call your own fouls’ or ‘play it as you see it’. But here are some basic rules to get you started:

1. Dribbling – make sure you dribble (bounce the ball) when moving to avoid being penalised.
2. Avoid ‘travelling’ – after you have dribbled the ball, and the ball is held in 2 hands, you cannot re-dribble the ball again (confusing I know). Instead, it must be passed to a team member or shot at the basket.
3. No hitting – street-ball is a non-contact sport so no matter how much someone gets on your nerves avoid rugby tackling where possible.

Step 1. Find somewhere to play!

To participate in most street-ball games around the world, simply go to an outdoor court where people are playing and ask to join in. If you don’t ask, you don’t get…

Step 2. Find some players

Find your teams. You can play street-ball with a minimum of 4 players (2 on each side), but to make it more competitive and loads more fun, find up to 10 players for 5 on each team. When picking players, generally the team captains alternate their choices, but different courts have differing rules in regards to player selections.

Step 3: Scoring

As mentioned before, street-ball points are scored in 1s and 2s. There are a number of different ways to score.

Short shot = 1 point

Shooting the ball through the hoop from within the 3 point arch. This will secure 1 point for your team.

Slam-dunk (dunking) = 1 point

Jumping from the ground and slamming the ball through the hoop. (People with heart conditions or bad knees should avoid this one…)

alley-oop = 1 point

Where one teammate throws the ball at the hoop and another catches the ball in mid-air and immediately puts it in the hoop.

Long shot = 2 points

This one is for the adventurous types (the show offs). As the name suggests, the player shoots the ball from outside the 3 point arc, if it goes through the hoop the player receives 2 points for their team (as well as bragging rights for the rest of the week!).

Visit a great city in the USA like New York, Los Angeles, Orlando or San Francisco and put your streetball skills to the test.