Tetraplegic wheelchair basketball

Tetraplegic wheelchair basketball was started in the Kanagawa Rehabilitation Center (KRC) as a recreational sport for tetraplegics in 1980. In this game, there are two goals on each side, thus we call it 'twin basketball'. One goal is of ordinary height and the other is low. Three ways of shooting and two ways of dribbling are allowed according to the player's level of tetraplegia and technical skill. The first official game was held in 1983. Since then, the game has been taken up in several areas of Japan. The first All Japan championship game was held in 1987, ten teams including 98 tetraplegics attending. Five years later, in the sixth championship game, 18 teams including 171 tetraplegics attended. As official physicians, we have examined the physical condition and technical skills of all players since 1987. All players are classified, and assigned points from 1 to 4.5. The total number of points of five players in one team are limited to 11.