Decreased interlimb differences in female basketball players

Area of Science:

• Sports Science
• Motor Control
• Human Movement Analysis

Background:

• Hand preference is influenced by sensory input and sports participation.
• Athletes often benefit from similar performance in both hands for dynamic sports.
• Elite basketball players demonstrate superior non-dominant hand accuracy and frequency compared to amateurs, lacking quantitative explanation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if long-term basketball training affects interlimb differences in motor performance.
• To determine if kinematic variables explain the enhanced non-dominant hand usage in basketball players.

Main Methods:

• Professional right-handed female basketball players and non-athletes performed a virtual reality aiming task.
• Participants used either their dominant or non-dominant hand.
• Key kinematic parameters measured were accuracy and hand path deviation from linearity (HPDL).

Main Results:

• Basketball players exhibited no significant interlimb performance differences.
• Non-athletes showed significant asymmetrical performance between their hands.
• Basketball players outperformed non-athletes in both accuracy and HPDL, despite the task not being basketball-specific.

Conclusions:

• Long-term sports participation, like basketball, can modify interlimb coordination beyond sensorimotor influences.
• Symmetrical motor performance in both hands of basketball players provides a potential explanation for their increased use of the non-dominant hand.
• The findings highlight the role of training in developing balanced bilateral motor skills.