Differences in Physical Demands between Game Quarters and Playing Positions on Professional Basketball Players during...

Area of Science:

• Sports Science
• Biomechanics
• Exercise Physiology

Background:

• Understanding the physical demands of professional basketball is crucial for optimizing player performance and injury prevention.
• Previous research has explored physical exertion during games, but comprehensive analysis across quarters and positions is needed.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare physical demands between game quarters and specific playing positions in professional male basketball players.
• To identify how key performance indicators change throughout a game and differ across player roles.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a local positioning system (WIMU PRO™) to monitor 13 professional basketball players over a season.
• Analyzed variables including peak velocity, total distance, high-speed running, player load, jumps, impacts, and accelerations/decelerations.
• Employed linear mixed models and Cohen's effect size (ES) for statistical significance testing (p < 0.05).

Main Results:

• A significant decrease in all measured physical demands was observed from the first to the fourth quarter.
• Total distance covered (p < 0.001; ES = -1.31) and player load (p < 0.001; ES = -1.27) showed large reductions in later quarters.
• Guards exhibited higher values than centers in some metrics, while centers showed greater peak velocity (p = 0.01; ES = 0.88) and jumps (p = 0.04; ES = 0.86).

Conclusions:

• Physical demands in basketball are not uniform, decreasing across game quarters and varying significantly between playing positions.
• These findings highlight the importance of considering temporal and positional variations in physical exertion when designing targeted training programs for enhanced performance.