The Most Demanding Scenarios of Play in Basketball Competition From Elite Under-18 Teams

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to describe the most demanding scenarios of match play in basketball through a number of physical demand measures (high-intensity accelerations and decelerations, relative distance covered, and relative distance covered in established speed zones) for four different rolling average time epochs (30, 60, 180, and 300 s) during an official international tournament. A secondary purpose was to identify whether there were significant differences in physical demand measures among playing positions (centers, guards, and forwards) and levels (two best classified teams in the tournament and remaining teams), match scoring (winning, losing, and drawing), and playing periods (match quarter) at the moment of the most demanding scenarios. Data were collected from 94 male under 18 (U18) elite basketball players (age: 17.4 ± 0.7 years; stature: 199.0 ± 11.9 cm; body mass: 87.1 ± 13.1 kg) competing in a Euroleague Basketball Tournament. Measures were compared via a Bayesian inference analysis. The results revealed the presence of position-related differences [Bayesian factor (BF) > 10 (at least strong evidence) and standardized effect size (δ) > 0.6 (at least moderate)] so that centers covered a lower relative distance at speed zone 1 and had lower high-intensity accelerations and decelerations than guards. However, the Bayesian analysis did not demonstrate the existence of significant differences in any physical demand measure in relation to the playing level, match scoring, and playing periods at the moment of the most demanding scenarios. Therefore, this study provides coaches and strength and conditioning specialists with a most demanding scenario reference on physical demands that can be used as an upper limit threshold in the training and rehabilitation monitoring processes.

Explaining Positional Differences of Performance Profiles for the Elite Female Basketball Players

“…It has been proven that turnovers have an important effect on the game results, especially in women's competitions (Leicht et al, 2017). As expected, guards had more turnovers than forward in all regions, which was supported by the study of Sampaio et al (2006) and Vázquez-Guerrero et al (2020) who stated that guards were more vulnerable to commit turnovers because they usually stay near the perimeter with higher pressure and performed the highest number of highintensity accelerations and decelerations, especially in the game with a faster tempo (Ibáñez et al, 2018;Madarame, 2018a,b). Notably, American guards, compared with those in other three regions, recorded more turnovers than forward.…”

Quantification of an Elite Futsal Team’s Microcycle External Load by Using the Repetition of High and Very High Demanding Scenarios

“…This seems to be a common concern for most practitioners who, regardless of the method, have sought to develop alternative approaches to identify the most demanding scenario of match play, since such consideration seems to contribute to the implementation of a more accurate training program prescription (Gabbett et al, 2012). Rolling average methods have commonly been used to describe the peak periods of competition in different sports such as Australian football (Delaney et al, 2017), soccer (Malone et al, 2015;Martín-García et al, 2020), basketball (Vázquez-Guerrero et al, 2020), and rink hockey (Fernández et al, 2020).…”

Physical Demands in Elite Futsal Referees During Spanish Futsal Cup

“…Additionally, the possible correlation between the physical parameters of referees and players' physical demands in competitions could lend support to understanding the physical profile and performance of the referees (Ahmed et al, 2017;García-Santos et al, 2020). Furthermore, the knowledge of this relationship could help to detect the possibility of most demanding scenarios from referees during the competition (Gabbett, 2016;Oliva-Lozano et al, 2020;Vázquez-Guerrero et al, 2020).…”