A study of the history of coach intervention in Japan’s basketball games:

focusing on the rules from the end of the 1910s to the 1930s

Abstract

    This study aims to describe how coaches intervened in a game, within the rules of basketball games in Japan from the late 1910s to the 1930s.
    The results of the study can be summarized as follows.
1. According to the rules post 1917, coaches were not allowed to give instructions to players on the court, even during time out. Furthermore, the rules of that time forbade communication with players who were already on the court and players swapping in during pauses for player substitutions, which limited the coach’s ability to use substitutions to intervene in the game.
2. Coaches existed in Japan in 1917. The coach’s role was to give instructions to the players during half time, and to request player substitutions.
3. Before 1924 simple game tactics were used. However after 1924 teams began to use more organized tactics and coaches started to intervene.
4. At that time coaches would intervene by calling a substitution and giving instructions to the player entering the court. When play resumed, the newly substituted player would relay the coach’s instructions to the players already on the court.
    Thus, when it comes to games, history proves that coach intervention is important in order to attempt complex and systematic tactics.