Roller Basketball

Alternative names: Roller BBall

Objective: Agility; forcing yourself to pay attention to what's going on around you at all times; to have some fun on skates; to get some cross-training

Typical length of drill: 10-30 minutes (this depends entirely on how serious of a game of roller basketball you want to have at practice)

Materials needed: A basketball, at least one hoop/basket but preferably two if you want to make a real game of it. It is also recommended that all the skaters bring a white shirt and a black shirt with them to practice so that you can split them into teams, OR, that you supply half of them with vests/jerseys.

Skill level required: Basic skating, stopping, and falling skills are a necessity

Description: Know basketball?  Know roller skating?  Then this will be a breeze.  Roller basketball can be played both indoors and outdoors (so great for those summer outdoor practices at the public basketball courts), and can be played on both inline skates and roller skates (so let those referees join you!).  You can play this with as little as two skaters playing one-on-one, and up to eight skaters playing four-on-four.  A simple breakdown of the rules of basketball for those who don't know: Bounce the ball (also known as "dribbling the ball") while you run/skate.  If you stop you have to either a) keep dribbling the ball, b) shoot it into the hoop, or c) pass it to a teammate, because you can't move while holding the ball in your hands.  Other skaters are allowed to steal the ball or knock it out of your hands.  Each basket is worth two points, the team with the most points at the end wins. Any kind of illegal block/contact is a foul for which the penalty is the possession of the ball goes to the team of the player who was fouled.  Only call penalties that have an actual impact on the game, not just incidental contact.

Video: Helsinki Roller Derby plays basketball on roller skates

Additional notes: Ok, full disclosure here, I've never played roller basketball myself but MAN does it look like fun!  I've only recently learned about the sport (thanks to the National Museum of Roller Skating and Blood and Thunder Magazine) and as soon as I found out about it I just had to share it with y'all.  This is actually a sport of it's own that's been around since 1992 when Tom LaGarde, an ex-NBA player, started playing it, and believe it or not, there are (or at least used to be) world championships in roller basketball.  The sport is traditionally played on inline skates but that doesn't mean you can't try it on quads.  For more information about the sport of roller basketball read this short About.com article!

If/when you've tried playing this, please share your experience with the rest of us through rating and/or discussing it in the comments -section below!