It is the name that was given to a new sports discipline, which was created in 2000 by Mason Gordon, who since then has been adding followers in various countries around the world. It is based on basketball, but represents a new version of the traditional basketball style and way of playing.
Slamball consists of a twenty-minute game, divided into two ten-minute halves and divided into four five-minute quarters, where two teams made up of four players each face off.
Each player has a different role within his team, which gives him general and particular rules for each one.
First is the Handler, who is responsible for raising the ball and setting the pace of the team in the game.
On the other hand, there are the Gunners, who are in charge of scoring points for their team. Beyond a great height, Gunners must master springboard jumps and goal-shooting accuracy very well.
Also, there is the Stopper that the team's defender, who is located on the island, to defend that entire area from where the opposing team can score points. Usually he is the most seasoned player, as they must generate blocks to avoid the opposite sum of points.
The clothing, the ball, the dimensions of the court and the hoop, are the same as those of basketball. However, the difference is denoted in the rules of the game and the style of the game.
The field has walls, similar to those of ice hockey, which means that there are no "outside" in the game, so its development is fast and constant. Likewise, the court has a central area that does not have mats or trampolines and the two islands, which are the areas around each hoop, composed of four trampolines and the mats that surround them, forming two central rectangles and two lateral ones., being the islands the only areas where physical contact is not allowed, where if there is, a foul will be called and a penalty will be charged, in a face-to-face, between the defender and the attacker, where they resemble a soccer penalty, where the The attacker seeks to score by jumping and the defender seeks to generate the plug.
There are two kinds of scoring: those that are worth three points, which are those that are generated from a shot off the island or from a mate (when the player makes a basket by touching the ring with his hands) and those that are worth two, which are those that are generated from an archery shot from within the island.
If the four quarters have passed, the match continues with the same score, there is a tiebreaker called “face off” or “face to face”, which serves the same purpose as penalties in football, that is, where a player is about to defend the rim and the attacker seeks to score for his team. The same dynamics of the penalty collection, but with the purpose of breaking the score, to end the game.
This sport is contact and, like ice hockey and American football, has a high probability of injury. In addition to the contact, due to the great height taken by the players driven by the trampolines.
This is how this peculiar discipline has turned out to be a very entertaining and at the same time curious activity for the spectators. Even having the first international cup in 2012, in China.
