Possession (sports)

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.^[1]

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.