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About

The Player Classification System

In the early days many restrictions were placed on the players. The popular thinking was that spinal cord injured could not play rough sport and the medical profession held the development of the game back at first. This was not done out of malice but rather a concern for the “patient”. It was only when the athletes showed the world that they could succeed through their sport that the game began to improve. In 1982 wheelchair basketball brought about the change from a medical classification system to a functional classification system. Under this system the players were tested on their ability to play the game not on their medical disability. This allowed wheelchair basketball to be the first sport to include athletes with different disabilities into their game. The Player Classification System continues to grow with the input of experienced players, coaches and classifiers discussing the merits of the system at every opportunity. The Player Classification system assigns each athlete a classification of 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, 4, or 4.5. A team may not play with more then 14 points on the floor. This ensures as much as possible that the balance of players on both teams will be fair. The players are encouraged to learn the system and actually propose their classification the first time they appear at a classification practice. IWBF is proud of this system because it makes the basketball skills of the player not their disability the key to their assessment

Classification an Overview
By Don Perriman IWBF Classification President

The classification of wheelchair basketball players has evolved significantly over the past 10 years. No longer is it necessary to individually examine each player in a medical room, debating about the relative grades of single muscles, and making subjective assessments of the balance attributes of a player before assigning them to a given class.

Players are now classified in their playing environment, on the basketball court, and in they're playing wheelchair. This enables the classifier to assess each player, as they will be when taking part in the actual competition.

Classification Philosophy:
Wheelchair basketball classification is based on the players' functional capacity to complete the skills necessary to play - pushing, pivoting, shooting, rebounding, dribbling, passing and catching. It is not an assessment of a player's level of skill, merely their functional capacity to complete the task.
In particular, the trunk movement and stability observed during these actual basketball situations, forms the basis for the assignment of a player to a particular class.

Classes:
Players are assigned points as their classification - 1, 2, 3, and 4 are the recognized classes, with 0.5 classes between for the exceptional cases which do not fit exactly into one class, and the 4.5 category for the player with least or minimal disability.

Volume of Action:
Classes are defined according to players' "volume of action". Each class has a clearly defined maximal volume of action, which the player may exhibit. The volume of action refers to the extremes to which a player's trunk stability will allow them to reach, without holding on to the wheelchair, before overbalancing.

Class Characteristics:
Each class has characteristics unique to that class, which are used by the classifier. These characteristics are evident in each of the basketball skills observed as part of the classification process.

How to Classify:
Players are observed in their competition wheelchairs, complete with all strapping they will use, but in a training situation before the tournament commences. From this initial observation a player is assigned a class with which they will begin the tournament. The player is then observed in an actual competition game, at which time their classification will be confirmed or modified if the classification panel feels it is necessary. Only a new player who has not been previously Internationally classified need undergo this process. Players holding an International card do not require re-classification at each tournament they attend.

Team Balance:
The total number of points allowed on court at any time is 14.0. That is, the total points of all five players actually playing. If a coach allows the team to have over 14.0 points, they will incur a technical foul on the bench.

for more Classification information and a copy of Don Perriman's Overview go to Downloads