Cannabis and Basketball: The Truth
Does weed help you sink more 3-pointers? I will be finding out…
After digesting the results from my most recent experiment with “tea”, I’ve been thinking a lot about herbs, cannabis and health in general. With a heavy heart, I now realize that smoking tea instead of tobacco just isn’t a viable way to quit smoking generally. For me, vaping has to be the way forward, regardless of what herb I prefer — Mornarska is obviously first on the list, but there are so many more I would like to try.
Anyway this line of thinking naturally led to my other obsession — sport. I have no doubts that doing more sport would also only help me on my quest to quit smoking tobacco for good. And this got me wondering whether the CBD and other cannabinoids contained in legal cannabis brands like Vutra, Responsible Pot, RedBud, Vrsicek, etc. could actually help me with my athletic and physical performance too.
Prompted to do some research, I found that quite a lot of people actually use cannabis specifically to enhance their sports activities. Several notable athletes also readily admit using cannabis to improve their competitive performance, and there is evidence that its use is particularly widespread in basketball, American football (gridiron) and Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
Unfortunately, thanks to the rather confusing, but weakening, prohibition on cannabis, there is a lack of empirically verifiable studies on the effects of this plant on sports performance; the existing literature is scant and mostly anecdotal. However, recent changes to the law mean that cannabis with low levels of THC (below 0.2%) has for months been readily available in several countries throughout the EU and the rest of the world. It is now easy for anyone to test whether cannabis helps with sports performance.
Everyone is looking for an edge in life, and sport is no different. Can cannabis provide that edge to, for an example, a basketball player when shooting 3-pointers? If so, what would be the best way to test this properly? Now that low-THC cannabis buds are legal to purchase and consume, why not put this to the test?
But first we need someone with some skill to shoot the hoops in question. The subject, a former semi-professional basketball player from Ljubljana and a huge fan of CBD, kindly agreed to help me with my next experiment — to find out for sure whether cannabis helps with shooting 3-pointers.
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Purpose
The purpose of the investigation is to ascertain whether there is any significant difference in basketball shooting performance after vaping cannabis.
Rationale
Cannabis has been used frequently by several notable sportsmen and women. Among these are Conor McGregor, Nick Diaz and other martial artists, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, various marathon runners, to name but a few. Although cannabis has been suggested to affect performance, results are too inconsistent to reasonably guarantee experimental success in motor skill performance. Many high-level athletes and cannabis advocates claim that it does improve performance, but more evidence is required. The purpose of this study is to rectify this in some small way by examining the effects of cannabis on motor skills. The research conducted to date on the effects of cannabis on motor skill performance has been very inconclusive. This can be attributed to the restrictions on cannabis research owing to its prohibition as a substance. It is hoped that further tests will hopefully be done by other readers of this article in the weeks and months ahead.
Some athletes and cannabis advocates are quick to promote the use of cannabis for performance, and with good reason, judging by the success of those who use it; however, this study should serve as the basis for further unrestricted research on this important plant. If it really does help, let’s find out one experiment at a time.
Method
The study will be conducted over a period of two sessions on consecutive days. The motor skill chosen for this study is 3-point shooting (basketball). The cannabis vaping consists of five swift and deep blasts of the vape, with a clip on the subject’s nose, as well as other measures, in order to limit the subject’s sense of smell. A period 30 seconds will be allowed to elapse before shooting commences. On the other testing day, the subject will be required to take five swift and deep blasts of the vape. Again he will need to put a clip on his nose and to take other defined measures to prevent him from being able to identify the substance being vaped, but this time with similar tasting non-cannabis herbs. To prevent bias, the subject will be kept unaware as to whether he has vaped the cannabis or non-cannabis material. A pre-test and post-test will be run in order to determine the level of improvement.
Based on a review of the available literature and previous studies, the following hypothesis was formulated.
Hypothesis
The number of shots scored by the subject will be greater after vaping cannabis than after vaping the non-cannabis material.
Delimitations
Owing to the fact that the sample comprises only one subject, the results may not be applied in general to the wider population. Conclusions concerning cannabis and motor skill performance are limited to the specific population involved — the subject, a local basketball player and socially responsible member of the local community. Since it is not possible to find a herb that tastes exactly like cannabis to use as a control, this presents a problem since the subject may be able to detect the difference between the cannabis vape and the control vape (other herbs). To overcome this issue, the subject will be asked to breathe only through his mouth, and to wear a clip on his nose, to limit his sense of smell and, therefore, taste. The use of mouthwash, cold water and the eating of berries will also be used to further disguise the difference in taste between the two vapable materials. The ingestion will be limited to five short blasts, again to limit the subject’s ability to detect any variation in taste which would influence his performance. A further delimitation is that, since the level of THC in the cannabis is below 0.2%, this is not a sufficient amount to test the effects of THC in any way at all. Therefore no conclusions can be drawn on the role of THC in motor skill performance. Care will be taken to ensure that the weather conditions for both shooting sessions are as similar as possible, postponing the session if necessary. In addition, in the absence of further empirical research and study, the results may not be generalized to any motor skill other than 3-point shooting (basketball).
Limitations
1. The subject sample is limited to only one person.
2. The taste of the herbs in the two vapes are not not exactly the same, which may have an effect on performance if noticed by the subjects. However the measures outlined above will be taken to render any difference unnoticeable.
3. The number of 3-point shots performed in this study will be limited to 50.
4. The cannabis tolerance of the subject will not be taken into account in this study.
5. If the weather conditions on the second day are not similar to those on the first day, a more suitable day will be selected.
5. The results of the study cannot be generalized for other potential sporting benefits for cannabis, such as endurance, focus and power, which should be tested separately.
Research
If you are reading this research idea and can think of ways to improve it, please set up your own experiment and record the results. Take care to use only legal forms of cannabis, and post your findings in the comments section below. I’d love to see them! This study will be undertaken during the month of March, and the full research paper and accompanying video evidence will be provided here on this channel. Stay tuned.
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