IWBF

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