possession

In sports, possession is physical control of the ball or other implement of play by one team, which typically gives that team the opportunity to score. Sports have different rules governing how possession is kept or lost ("turned over"), which affect the strategy of gameplay. The number of possessions or total time of possession are often useful statistics of team or individual performance. In goal-based sports, including basketball, all forms of football, hockey, and lacrosse, the team with possession has the opportunity to score, and is said to be on offense, while the other team is on defense. In bat-and-ball games including baseball and cricket, the ball is controlled by the fielding team, which is on defense. Determining possession Start of gameplay Possession at the start of a game, or in a neutral restart, may be determined by several methods, including a coin flip (American football and cricket), home team status (baseball), or by giving the teams an equal opportunity to physically take possession, by means such as a dropped-ball (association football), a ball-up (Australian rules football), a jump ball (basketball), or a face-off (hockey).