These preliminary results support the hypothesis that the addition of hydrogen to traditional treatment protocols is potentially effective in the treatment of soft tissue injuries in male professional athletes. Trial identification: Clinicaltrials.gov number NCT01759498.

The “Century XXI” Project is a seven-year intervention sport program performed among the best Spanish youth basketball players, who were assigned to one of the following intervention groups based on the following criteria: age, position, mature level, and origin in the country. The study was performed (1996-2001) with a total of 90 players. The main purposes of this study were: a) to describe anthropometric and performance characteristics of top youth international male basketballers in the Spanish national academy; and b) to analyze differences among positions. Insummary, the main findings of this study were: a) the anthropometry presented significant differences between groups under (U-) 14 and U-17; and b) in the U-17 group centers presented more arm span. In our study, the most significant changes are in U-16 vs U-14 and U-15 in strength body up values, and the best result in endurance capacity took place in June of the fourth year. Within this context, the results of the present study may be useful for strength and conditioning coaches to plan their programs with youth basketball players.

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of defensive pressure on movement behaviour during an under-18 basketball game. 20 international male players (age: M=16.05, SD=2.09 years old; weekly practice: M=10.9, SD=1.94 h; playing experience: M=7.1, SD=1.1 years) played two 10-min basketball quarters, using man-to-man ¼-court for the first 4 min (F¼), man-to-man full court defence for the next 3 min (FULL), and man-to-man ¼-court defence for the last 3 min (S¼). The positional data were captured by the Ubisense Real Time Location System and analysed with non-linear signal processing methods (approximate entropy) and repeated measures ANOVA. There were differences in the regularity values between F¼ and FULL in distance to the basket and to the opponents' basket. A stronger in-phase attraction in both lateral and longitudinal directions was identified; however, the centroids (i. e., the mean position from all team players) were closer and revealed higher values of irregularity in lateral displacements for all defensive systems. The individual speed displacements became more coordinated with teammates, particularly in the offensive court. Overall, this study provided evidence on how changing the level of defensive pressure promotes different collective behaviours.

BackgroundNovel player tracking technologies can change the understanding of performance determinants in team sports by allowing to accurately measuring the activity demands. The aim of this study was to identify how the defensive pressure affects the time-motion variables and the technical actions in basketball.MethodsTwenty international male players (age: 16.05 ± 2.09 years, weight: 73.13 ± 8.10 kg, height: 183.10 ± 5.88 cm) played two 10 min basketball quarters, where they used a man-to-man 1/4-court defense until the 4th min (F1/4), changed to man-to-man full court (FULL) for 3 min and, from the 7th to the 10th min returned to 1/4-court defense (S1/4). A computerized notational analysis was performed using Simi Scout and positional data were captured with the Ubisense Real Time Location System (mean sampling rate 3.74 ± 0.45 Hz per transmitter/player).ResultsThe time-motion variables presented similar results between defensive conditions, showing a total distance covered around 90 m/min. However, results suggested possible vertical jump impairments in S1/4 periods. There was more distance covered while jogging in the offensive court (38.15 ± 12.17 m/min offensive court vs. 32.94 ± 10.84 m/min defensive court, p < 0.05) and more distance covered while running in the defensive court (16.41 ± 10.27 m/min offensive court vs. 19.56 ± 10.29 m/min defensive court, p < 0.05).ConclusionThese results suggest how to improve task representativeness during specific conditioning or game-based training situations and also to help coaches' strategic decisions during the games.