Ramos, S, Volossovitch, A, Ferreira, AP, Barrigas, C, Fragoso, I, and Massuça, L. Differences in maturity, morphological and fitness attributes between the better- and lower-ranked male and female U-14 Portuguese elite regional basketball teams. J Strength Cond Res XX(X): 000-000, 2018-During a national championship, the anthropometric, physiological, and maturation attributes of 13-14-year-old players of regional selection basketball teams and their association with team's final classification were analyzed. Body parameters (weight, height, skinfolds, and lengths) were measured and physiological capacities assessed by sprint (20 m), agility, jump, and upper-body strength tests. Chronological age, maturity offset (years from age at peak height velocity; YAPHV), and predicted age at peak height velocity were calculated. In both sexes, no significant differences were found for maturity. Anthropometric and physiological analysis indicated that male players from finalist's teams were significantly faster, were more agile, threw the medicine ball longer, and showed lower percentages of body fat than players from lower-ranked teams. Further, semifinalists were faster than lower-ranked players. In the same sense, female players from semifinalist teams demonstrated to be significantly faster, more agile, and threw the medicine ball longer than female players from lower-ranked teams. In addition, discriminant analysis showed that speed (in boys) and the combination of speed and upper limb strength (in girls) could successfully discriminate players with different performances in a championship. In conclusion, speed and upper limb strength appear to be the physical attributes associated with better team performance in youth basketball. Coaches should be aware of the relationship between the improvement of these physical attributes and the teaching-learning process of the basketball game.

Researchers in the field of excellence in sport performance are becoming increasingly focused on the study of sport-specific characteristics and requirements. In accordance with this, the purposes of this study were (a) to examine the morphologic-, fitness-, handball-specific skills and psychological and "biosocial" differences between top elite and nontop elite team-handball players and (b) to investigate the extent to which they may be used to identify top elite team-handball players. One hundred sixty-seven adult male team-handball players were studied and divided in 2 groups: top elite (n = 41) and nontop elite (n = 126). Twenty-eight morphologic-, 9 fitness-, 1 handball-specific skills and 2 psychological-based and 2 "biosocial"-based attributes were used. Top elite and nontop elite groups were compared for each variable of interest using Student's t-test, and 5 logistic regression analyses were performed with the athlete's performance group (top elite or nontop elite) as the dependent variable and the variables of each category as predictors. The results showed that (a) body mass, waist girth, radiale-dactylion length, midstylion-dactylion length, and absolute muscle mass (morphologic model); (b) 30-m sprint time, countermovement jump height and average power, abdominal strength and the class of performance in the Yo-Yo Intermittent Endurance Test (fitness model); (c) offensive power (specific-skills model); (d) ego-based motivational orientation (psychological model); (e) socioeconomic status and the energy spent (for week) in handball activity (biosocial model); significantly (p < 0.05) contributed to predict the probability of an athlete to be a top elite team-handball player. Moreover, the fitness model exhibited higher percentages of correct classification (i.e., 91.5%) than all the other models did. This study provided (a) the rational to reduce the battery of tests for evaluation purposes, and (b) the initial step to work on building a multidisciplinary model to predict the probability of a handball athlete to be a top elite player.

The present study aims (i) to compare the maturational, morphological and fitness attributes of young basketball players of primary and secondary teams of an elite basketball academy, and (ii) to identify the set of morphological and fitness attributes which better discriminate the players from the two teams. A total of 116 male basketball players of an elite basketball academy were divided into primary (team A) and secondary (team B) teams in two age groups (U-14 and U-16). All the players were evaluated during two consecutive seasons and data related to players' practice experience, maturational, morphological and fitness attributes were collected at the beginning of the competition period. The results of the study suggest that: (i) in both age categories, team A players were older, more mature, bigger in size and had greater fitness profiles than team B players; (ii) stature and abdominal resistance were identified as discriminant attributes for youth basketball player performance; (iii) aerobic capacity for U-14 and agility for U-16 were identified as specific discriminant attributes for performance in youth basketball. Coaches are recommended to avoid premature talent identification and provide players with opportunities to progress through the talent pathway, at least until U-16 age category.

In the context of physical education curricula, markers of physical fitness (e.g., aerobic capacity, muscular strength, flexibility, and body mass index or body fat) are usually evaluated in reference to health standards. Despite their possible mediating role in the relationship between weight-bearing or muscle forces and features of bone tissue, these attributes of fitness may not be the most relevant to predict skeletal health. It is therefore important to analyze the relative contribution of these factors to the variability in bone tissue of different parts of the skeleton, and to analyze it by gender, as sensitivity to mechanical loading can diverge for boys and girls. We compared the effects of habitual physical activity (PA) and lean mass, as surrogates of weight-bearing and muscle forces, and of physical fitness (aerobic and muscle capacity of lower and upper limbs) on bone mineral content (BMC) and size of total body, lumbar spine, femoral neck, and 1/3 radius in 53 girls and 64 boys from 7.9 to 9.7 years of age. After controlling for bone age, body mass, body height, and calcium intake, lean mass was the most important predictor of bone size and/or mineral in both genders (p < 0.05), while habitual weight-bearing PA positively influenced BMC in boys (p < 0.05). The effect of muscle in bone was not determined by PA and fitness score did not explain bone variability. Femoral neck was the bone site more closely associated with mechanical loading factors; boys with a PA > 608 counts/min/day (~105 min/day of moderate and vigorous intensity) showed 13-20% more BMC than those with less physical activity, and girls with a lean mass >19 kg showed 12-19% more BMC than those with less lean mass. These findings suggest that lean mass was the most important predictor of bone size and/or mineralization in both genders, while habitual weight-bearing PA appears to positively impact on bone mineral in prepubertal boys and that both lean mass and PA need to be considered in physical education curricula and other health-enhancing programs.