A foul is called when illegal contact is made or a rule is violated. You can be called for a foul if you are on offense or defense, so you always need to be aware of what you can and cannot do. If you are trying to steal the ball and you smack the ball handler's hand, you will be called for a foul. If you run into a defender who is standing in one place and has position (which means he has both feet planted and not moving), you will get whistled for a foul. If you reach over a player's back, push a player, hit a player on the head when you try to block a shot, or jump toward a player and land on him while he is shooting, you will get called for a foul.

That is why being a basketball player with proper position and fundamentals is so important. By following the guidelines, you won't put yourself in a position to commit a foul. Fouls can hurt a team in a few different ways. A team that is called for an offensive foul has to turn the ball over to the other team. They lose a chance to score, and even worse, they give their opponent another chance to put points on the board. Sometimes when a team commits a foul their opponent gets to go to the free throw line. This happens when a player is fouled as he is shooting or when the team that commits the foul is in the penalty.

Fouls can be bad for individual players because a player fouls out of a game after collecting five or six fouls. In high school and college, players get six fouls; in professional play, they only get five. If you foul out, you won't be able to help your team on the court at the end of the game when it might matter the most. Making two or three mistakes early in a game can get you in what is called foul trouble, and your coach might have you sit on the bench so you won't foul out. The best plan is to not foul, to play smart.