We're always delighted to be contacted by students wanting information on basketball for dissertations and other assignments. It’s really exciting that so many young people are interested in our sport, and we are keen to help as much as possible.
We've put together some of your most frequently asked questions, along with some top tips to make your contact with us as productive as possible. We hope you find these useful, but if you have any suggestions about how we can make our student information even better, please let us know by emailing us at [email protected].
We get a lot of enquiries asking for more information about basketball in England, and the work we do to support it. Below are our most frequently asked questions from students.
A.
Basketball is Britain’s joint-second most popular team sport amongst young people after football. According to Sport England’s Active Lives survey, more than one million British people regularly play basketball, and among those aged 18-34, 14% play every week.
- Over 300,000 people 16+ play basketball at least twice a month, according to the latest Sport England data
- 1 in 4 teenagers have played basketball at least once a month in the last year
- Basketball England has over 33,000 members playing in over 700 teams across National and Local leagues
More detailed information on basketball in England, such as breakdowns by gender and age, can be found in our Fact Sheets.
If you're interested in the reasons why basketball is popular and want to know a bit more about the context, a good resource is the All Party Parliamentary Group on Basketball’s 2014 inquiry report , which outlines a lot of the existing evidence on trends in popularity of basketball.
We would also recommend exploring Sport England’s Active Lives survey to understand participation in different sports as well as basketball. The Government’s Taking Part survey can also tell you about participation among children under 16.
Basketball is a popular sport to play in school, and so the Youth Sport Trust’s National PE and School Sport Survey may also be a useful resource.
A. We are delighted to announce that we have been allocated funding by Sport England for 2017-21. Our overarching strategic objectives are available here, and when we have new information about the programmes and our strategy for delivery, this will be available on our website. This was our response to receiving our funding.
A. Sport England provides funding to National Governing Bodies like Basketball England, and more information about this funding can be found on Sport England's website here.
A. Many of our member clubs offer grassroots basketball, and we support them by providing insurance, information, and training the coaches and officials who make grassroots basketball happen. We also help in many other ways, including supporting applications for the building of basketball facilities, and providing regional coordination for local clubs.
In terms of programmes at grassroots level, we have:
- Satellite Clubs, which provide regular informal opportunities for participants who do not currently have the access to or have not made the commitment to regular club basketball, or are completely new to the game.
- The Jr. NBA, which brings the fun of the NBA to secondary schools to give young people their first taste of competitive basketball
- The Dynamik National Schools Competition, where schools from across the country compete at different age groups
A. Whilst we can provide information to students about things like numbers of basketball participants, the demographics of these participants and existing basketball research, we are not able to participate in questionnaires or interviews as we get many of these requests each month and do not have the capacity to respond to them all. Rather than prioritise one student over another, we have taken the decision as a small National Governing Body that we cannot currently take part in these interviews.
A. We cannot provide you with contact details of our members, as we cannot share these under the General Data Protection Regulations 2018. The only option would be for us to send the survey on your behalf.
We do not generally promote external surveys, however you are welcome to send us the survey once you have devised it, and we can review it and see if it is something we would be willing to be involved in – email [email protected].
If the information above does not answer your question, you are welcome to contact Basketball England to ask for more information. Please email [email protected].
If you want to contact us to ask for further information, we've put together our top tips to get the most out of your enquiry.
Leave plenty of time before your dissertation or assignment is due. Basketball England is a small NGB, and if it is a busy time, like a competition finals week or the last few days of a registration window, we may not get to your enquiry immediately. We aim to respond within 7 working days.
Define the questions you want answered. It can be difficult to respond to wide ranging queries such as ‘Can you send me any data you have on basketball?’, as it’s not clear what information you need. The more specific you can be, the more likely it is we can help.
It may be helpful to explore whether we have published any recent news on your topic before contacting us. The latest information we have goes out through our news releases on our website and our social media. To search our website, you just click on the search icon at the top of the page.
Consider using data. We hold a lot of data on different things, from participation numbers to areas of the country where basketball is most popular. Our Basketball England Fact Sheets contain useful information, and we also hold additional data if you need something specific. Although this is not always published, we may be able to provide it if it is relevant in answering your research question.
We want to help you as much as possible, but there are some things we're not able to do.
We can’t provide personal data. If you need contact details or personal information about a specific person in basketball, and you cannot find these in the public domain, it’s unlikely we will be able to provide them under the General Data Protection Regulations 2018. However, clubs are contactable through our Club Finder facility.
Don’t be afraid to ask! We try to help students as much as we can, so if you have any questions, please let us know at [email protected]
