'Natural' Heights
Equalize Squads

The game is natural.
Guided by public research on growth, Short AND Tall subscribes to the human reality of miscellaneous heights.

The few tall players on a hoops squad employ their innate edge while outnumbered by the population majority.

A standard allowance limits team tallness to about 20%. This proportion in a 10-player-squad format matches the population share of tallness in people, various ages and gender, reported by U.S. Government survey statistics.

For selection to a squad, players are grouped by their relative tallness. Lines on a wall mark four size groups corresponding to real-world height.

The swarm of most prospective players, all of ordinary height, represent zero tallness. Only a few in this 80% majority require judging at the wall because usually it takes only a glance to recogzize a "zero."

Assigned Units, players constitute The Availability.. A playing squad is then a slice of the population. Suppose

Grouping by tallness is tantamount to eliminating height in selection. Tallness, in effect, is identical for all players in a span, so their relative hoops ability (hoopability) is the universal determinant for s\election.
The skills players exhibit while competing on practice squads enable the club to organize an "all comers squad." The club then challenges for supremacy in the area.

The tallness allowance of five Units is a squad asset. Uniform among rivals, it prevents dominance by height. There is no "tall team."

Coaching 'Availability'

In Short AND Tall, the assigning of Height Units creates "coaching the Availability."
Candidates are Available in groupings of tallness, judged as necessary by marks on the wall. Then come key decisions.
Squad formation weighs the abilities of players equal in size. Strategies seek to maximize tallness.
Can the squad afford another tall player within the allowed Units? At no "cost," is
another ordinary-height candidate of the population majority preferred?

4 Fingertops Depict
Units and Wall Marks

For this llustration, let each top of a finger represent a wall mark.
All space below the top of the little finger = "0 Units"
Space below other fingertops = 1, 2 and 3 Units. Space above the index finger = 4.
Five Units is the maximum allowed tallness for a squad.

BART the BARTENDER

Hoops for All
Short AND Tall

The vertical goals on a basketball court create a harmful void with double impact. They block most ordinary-sized people from a team, and they forfeit much natural talent.

Disastrous as the void is, let's not alter the court or look to the esteemed sport for a remedy. Basketball is a wonderful, busy

CHALLENGE 'ALL COMERS'

bystander, thriving by leaps, bounds and dunks. It deserves to remain uninvolved.
The void inflicts damage upon millions. Their number, plus relinquishing of skills for the game itself, is suggested from research data of the U.S. Department of Welfare Center of Health Statistics.
Normally we speak of a "six-footer" as a tall man. U.S. Welfare Center surveys find that fewer than 20% of males aged 18-24 are, in that six-footer sense, "tall," leaving 80% "non-tall." By this 1:4 ratio, player selection by merit-other-than-height is four times as competitive in the 80% group as in the tall 20%.
Plus, the impact multiplies, namely, so four times as much natural merit-other-than-height is foregone in the 80% group as is lost in the 20%.

Consider a campus and 10,000 prospects. The 1:4 ratio suggests that (1) each lone candidate among five of the 10,000 needs natural skill four times greater than do taller classmates, and that (2) the possible effect on game quality by ignoring merit-other-than-height (hoopability) is four times as likely in 8,000 prospects compared to the merit being foregone among the 2,000 tall.
In summary, at the 1:4 ratio, (1) one candidate among five of ordinary height requires exceptional skill at a rate four times more than do taller classmates, and (2) potential hoopability for game quality is lost at a rate four times more in ordinary height than among the tall. (Data for all ages and gender support "1:4.")
The situation justifies a separate activity played like five-on-a-side basketball.
Short AND Tall, an available option, offers (1) player participation regardless of height, and (2) a "quadrupling" of natural talent, hoopability.
The remedy is real-world. The few essential rules of Short AND Tall assure that overrall player height in a 10-player squad simulates the documented natural human range.

Tall players share their individual height advantage proportionately. Teammates of ordinary size represent about four-fifths of the populace. All candidates, including the tallest, are selected from among others at the same tallness level.

The hoops game is presented for recreation departments, camps, clubs and semi-pro leagues or tournaments. Where to play? On basketball courts, of course! Competition for facilities suggests a need: more gyms, church basements, arenas etc.

Promote skill. Neutralize the tallness advantage between squads as you introduce this needed separate activity. Click for rules, wall markings and other guidelines.

Pound for Pound "Inch for Inch"

Sugar Ray Robinson (1921-1989) was, to the Associated Press, the greatest boxer of the last century. To RING Magazine, he was the all-time best "pound for pound."

Pound for pound recognizes his merit's reaching beyond Robinson's 141-to-160 class. The 200-pound heavyweight Muhammad Ali, who was named the "greatest athlete" by The Sporting News, called Sugar Ray "my king, the master, my idol."

Tallness dominates merit in basketball. Merit in Short AND Tall resembles "pound for pound." It is "inch for inch" hoopability.

THE RUNGS OF HOOPABILITY

The Acquisition Ladder (bottom to top)

12. Creativity
         11. Controlling     
 10. Driving     
            9. Getting open   
                 8.  Screening             
        7.  Rebounding
6.  Stealing
         5.  Guarding       
    4.  Accuracy   
3.  Passing
        2.  Jumping       
      1.  Running     

Wall Eliminates 'Team Tallness'

Discard the yardstick, ruler and measuring tape - even the doctor's scale. You won't need them - that is, after you've marked your wall to organize Short AND Tall practice squads.
The wall reflects the natural, assorted miscellaneous range of human heights (unique wall marks for age spans and gender.)
Judging creates Availability for squads of up to 10 players.

16-Page Booklet
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Once each season, judge your tall prospects (plus close calls) for Units 1 to 4.
Most players are "ordinary" height, standing under the first of four marks. You can judge this majority chiefly by glancing. Assign "zero" Units to each such player.
A "tall team" doesn't exist in Short AND Tall. Equality is imposed by the team tallness allowance - up to five height Units for every squad.
Formation of a squad welcomes all heights (like the population, approximately 80% ordinary, 20% tall). The expanded Availability improves game quality.

FULL COURT PRESS

    2 Added Key Rules

Two incidental game rules support the system neutralizing team-height advantage.

First, a squad of under 10 players grants the opposition, at halftime, two free throws for each reduction of its squad size from 10.

Second, every non-starter automatically opens the second half. The starters may then re-enter one substitution at a time.

GUIDELINE ON WALLMARKING

To administer a campus, camp, town or recreation league or tournament, click Admin and the other guidelines below.

         College Clubs History
The Iona College club team defeated Manhattan College, 71-67, March 24, 1970. This championship at Fordham University tested the original
Balanced Basketball.

Steps to a Campus Club

        Affirmation

Preceding every Short AND Tall game:.
While players align facing height to height, the coaches affirm the format 10 rule and the 5-Unit tallness allowance. They may exchange Game Lists.

Hoopability Defined hoopability n. L -abilitas

Talent regardless of height. 

SUPPOSE ...

INTRAMURALS
INTER-CAMPUS