The essential component of ball games is competition for the uncertain outcome. Clarifying the structure of the games with the viewpoint of players, this article argues for a theoretical framework to grasp the relations among the objective of competition, the task of competition, and the method selected for task-solving.
Although there are several types of ball games, all of them include one of two distinct objectives: ballprogressing to an objective point or movement of an individual player to an objective point. Ball or player progression is accomplished through conflicts between offense and defense or the activity of an individual player.
Considering these elements, the process of task-solving can be classified into four types: “target-shooting”, “breakthrough”, “breakthrough ± target-shooting”, and “breakthrough ± base-advance”. Each type of task-solving reveals a fundamental learning content of the game. Furthermore, based on the layered structure of defensive interface and the selected method of ball- progressing corresponding to that structure, several types of confrontation between offense and defense can be distinguished: “separation”, “confusion”, “cross-border”, and “alternation”.
Those findings promote curricular conversion from “athletic event priority” to “learning contents priority” in teaching ball games.

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