Physiological Factors Associated with Repeat Sprint Ability in Basketball Players

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify and investigate the decisive contributing factor(s) to repeat sprint ability, a key component in basketball. Repeat sprint ability (reported as fastest sprint time, mean sprint time and performance decrement) was correlated to identify and relationships between speed, agility, aerobic fitness, strength and power. Subsequently reported as; fastest 20 m sprint time, best 505 score, bleep test score, squat jump height and counter-movement jump height respectively. Participants were 12 amateur basketball players age, 19.9 +/- 1.5 years, height, 184.3 +/- 13.2 cm, body mass 86.9 +/- 10.4 kg. The repeat sprint ability test required participants to complete 10x30 m sprints turning at 15 m with 21 s rest. Performance decrement, average repeat sprint time and best repeat sprint time performance were 8.93 +/- 2.54%, 6.72 +/- 0.21 s and 6.17 +/- 0.14 s respectively. The mean and standard deviation for the other components of fitness were as follows; strength (34.23 +/- 3.28 cm), power (35.95 +/- 4.31 cm), speed (2.62 +/- 0.11 s), agility (2.67 +/- 0.09 s) and aerobic fitness (11.38 +/- 0.77), pre-stretch augmentation was also calculated and reported as 4.88 +/- 4.49%. Analysis of the results indicated strong and significant relationships between all anaerobic components of fitness (strength, speed, agility and power) and best RSA sprint (p<0.05 r=-0.721, 0.798, 0.773 and -757 respectively). Other findings indicate a strong and significant relationship between aerobic fitness and repeat sprint ability performance decrement (p=0.012, r=-0.698) and also mean repeat sprint ability sprint time and pre-stretch % (p=0.015, r=-0.679). The findings of this study imply that multiple factors are responsible for RSA performance, in order to fully maximise repeat sprint ability performance a basketball player must develop both anaerobic and aerobic energy systems and components of fitness.