Influence of intellectual impairment (II) on basketball players´ capacity to solve a game situation: towards evidence-based classification systems in II-basketball

Abstract

Basketball for athletes with intellectual impairment (II) requires the development of evidence-based eligibility systems to guarantee that only athletes with significant limitations performing basketball participate in these competitions. In addition, this is needed to re-include IIbasketball in the Paralympic program. To do this, it is required to investigate how II impacts on fundamental basketball activities. To address this need, the aim of this study was to compare ablebodied (AB) and II-players´ capacity to solve a game situation. A field test was designed ad hoc in which 38 elite II-players from France, Portugal, Australia and Japan who participated in the Global Games (2015) and 38 AB-basketball players competing in Spanish competitions, had to solve 8 standardized game situations. Results indicated that II-players spent significantly (p≤0.05) more time to decide (0.92±0.2s) than AB-players (0.63±0.1s) and to execute the solution (II: 3.01±0.4s; AB: 2.56±0.3s). Also, II-players made more rule infractions (II: 7.11±1.4; AB: 7.71±0.7), more feints (II: 1.37±1.4; AB: 0.3±0.6), more dribbles (II: 15.08±3.9; AB: 12.29±2.3) and they performed less successful solutions (II: 4.42±1.5; AB: 5.39±1.3). However, no differences were found in number of correct decisions made. Decision time, number of dribbles and situations in which they succeeded were the variables that best discriminated between II and AB-players. These results confirmed the negative influence of II on players´ capacity to solve a basketball game situation. The calculated discriminant function let us establish the minimum scores from this test that indicates significant limitations on the capacity to solve a game situation. These scores are applicable to determine eligibility criteria in IIbasketball worldwide. Keywords: Classification, eligibility systems, Paralympics, decision making. Influencia de la discapacidad intelectual (DI) en la capacidad de los jugadores de baloncesto para resolver una situación de juego: hacia los sistemas de clasificación basados en la evidencia en baloncesto-DI RESUMEN:El baloncesto para personas con discapacidad intelectual (DI) requiere del desarrollo de sistemas de elegibilidad basados en la evidencia que garanticen la participación en estas competiciones únicamente de deportistas con limitaciones significativas para practicar baloncesto. Además, esto es

Influence of intellectual impairment on basketball performance = Influencia de la discapacidad intelectual sobre el rendimiento en baloncesto

“…In previous studies in which game-related statistics were compared between AB-players at different competition level it was observed that players form upper levels obtained higher shooting percentages (Sampaio et al, 2004;Pinilla, et al, 2016). In the present study, it was also observed that differences were higher when the sample of II-players was compared with the sub-sample of U-18 AB-players instead of U-16 players.…”

“…A straight relationship between game-relates statistics and basketball success was found in AB-basketball (Sampaio et al, 2004;Lorenzo et al, 2010) and also in IIbasketball (Pinilla et al, 2016). In addition, the use of game-related statistics is extended at national and international competitions in both AB and II-competitions.…”

“…Probably, II-players shot fast even with low defensive pressure, not tiring out the defenders by penetrating neither interacting with their teammates to prepare the shot . It seems that II-players played "in a hurry", probably as a consequence of lower tactical discipline or limitations in problem solving capacity (Trninic et al, 2002;Pinilla et al, 2016).…”

“…However, another study pointed out that II influences more negatively tactics than technique (Polo, et al, 2014). In this line, a recent study compared II and AB-players´ capacity to solve 8 standardized basketball game situations played on court (Pinilla et al, 2016). In this study, II-players decided slower, made more dribbles and ended the situations less successfully (scoring or giving a correct pass).…”

Conceptual model of sport-specific classification for para-athletes with intellectual impairment

“…Basketball has been mentioned in this paper as a sport with high cognitive demands. Despite II-basketball not being included in the Paralympic programme, it is the sport with the longest and most complete history of evidence-based classification research (Arbex et al, 2017;Pinilla et al, 2015;Pinilla Arbex et al, 2016, 2016Polo et al, 2017). As the high cognitive demands of team sports such as basketball are apparent, and because basketball is a very popular sport among people with II, with high participation numbers, it has been used as an example sport to guide the research towards the development of sport-specific measures of tactical proficiency.…”