Introduction
Everybody is always searching for new ways to get a step ahead of the competition when it comes to the sport of basketball. This includes finding any possible method to maneuver the ball in a way that surprises their opponents. This is why a good question has come up.
That question is whether or not you are able to head the ball in basketball? The answer to this question is yes, you can use your head to move the basketball in another direction. The problem is that this usually doesn’t result in a positive outcome for your team, and it raises the risk of you getting injured as well. If you feel like you can bounce it up and in, go for it! However, these situations usually just result in a turnover for your team.
The Positives
Let’s cover the positives of possibly using your head to move the ball. The first thing is that you could end up knocking the ball into the hoop after a header. You will likely be tremendously less accurate when using your head compared to a normal shooting motion, but we’ve seen NBA players accidentally put the ball in after it hits them in the head before. Maybe you’re used to heading and happen to be completely accurate when doing so. You might be able to use this to your advantage every once in a while and bounce one off your head and into the hoop before the other team even realizes what you are planning to do.
Another positive is that you can keep it away from an opponent. Say your teammate throws a jump ball up to you and your opponent, and you don’t feel as though you can outmuscle him for the ball. If you have the correct positioning, maybe letting it bounce off your head can put it in a different direction. While either of these things could work out, the odds of them succeeding are abundantly low.
The Negatives
Turnovers, turnovers, turnovers. That’s exactly what’s going to happen more often than not when you attempt to header the ball in basketball. This sport is simply not designed for use of your head, and the small courts don’t help you out much either. Nine times out of ten, if you head the basketball, the ball won’t go exactly where you want it to, and the other team will get possession. You will either knock it too hard and have it go out of bounds, brutally miss the hoop, or have it land straight into another opponent’s hands.
Not to mention that injuries could absolutely occur when doing so, but we’ll get to that particular negative in a later section. At the end of the day, the odds of something bad happening heavily outweigh anything positive occurring when you use your head in basketball. It’s significantly easier to simply go up and grab the ball with both hands and continue operating that way rather than going with a very unnecessary risk for yourself and your team.
Injury Concerns
When you’re on the basketball court, nobody wants to see anybody else get hurt. This is exactly why professional sports leagues have so many rules in place to limit the amount of damage these players can inflict on others with even the smallest of contact.
If you continuously go up and try to header the basketball for no reason, you will eventually raise the risk of injury to yourself or possibly a fan as well. If you aren’t able to aim the ball after it hits your head, it could take a sharp turn and catch a fan or bystander very off guard.
Concussions are also very plausible for the person hitting the ball with their head’s multiple times a game, because eventually that ball might be flying towards you a lot faster than it was previously. Getting hit in the head with a basketball usually isn’t fun, and intentionally doing so multiple times just feels like a recipe for disaster.
You Still Have Two Hands
As dumb as it might sound, you still have two hands. We’ve made it clear that using your head doesn’t always give you an advantage, but that’s in the physical sense. If you use your head to think of other situations, then you can get ahead of the competition. This would mean realizing that using your head doesn’t help you on the court, and that grabbing the ball with two hands and operating normally significantly raises your chances of winning and succeeding at whatever you’re attempting to do. Maybe it’s very boring to some people or not inventive, though that is exactly how the sport was created in the first place. There usually aren’t many advantages that you can find by simply using other limbs in order to throw off your opponents.
You Can’t Dribble It Either
One final thing that we should mention is that you can’t dribble the ball on your head either. Some people have phenomenal balance, and they can keep a basketball bouncing on their head for long periods of time without losing much control.
The first problem is that you really don’t get an advantage again, as the other team can just run over and steal it.
The second problem is that the majority of youth basketball camps teach kids that you are not allowed to dribble the basketball over your shoulders. This is usually taught so often that these kids grow up with the knowledge that they should never do that no matter where they are competing on the court.
The same thing should apply to everybody, don’t dribble the ball with your head or over your shoulders in general. It would be so much wiser and more efficient if you found another method of taking the ball from point a to point b. Plus, some leagues might restrict the use of dribbling with your head altogether, no matter the age range.