The main aim of the present study was to examine the determinants of change of direction (COD) in highly trained/national level male basketball players using field assessments. This research provides data about the physical profile of Uruguayan first division basketball male players resulting a lower physical performance in vertical jump, maximal strength, and endurance capacity when compared with players from other leagues presented in previous studies. Moreover, we analyzed the correlations between maximal strength, jump ability, COD performance and intermittent endurance capacity. Thus, the main findings present large associations between jump performance and relative maximal strength with COD performance in professional basketball players.
Basketball games are characterized by anaerobic efforts and multidirectional activities development in small playing area [1]. Morrison et al. [5] highlighted the importance of COD, plyometric training, intermittent endurance capacity, and acceleration and deceleration drills for the improvement of performance in senior basketball players. Our findings show that the performance of Uruguayan male professional players was lower than that presented in a recent systematic review including ≥ 18 years of age male basketball players in variables such as; Distance Yo-Yo IR1 (1640 vs. 1815.6 m), SJ (31.4 vs. 38.3 cm), CMJ (35.3 vs. 44.5 cm), 1RM BP (86.8 vs. 92.9 kg) (only professionals) [5]. This result may be evident from the differences in the FIBA ranking 2023 between Uruguay (45 of 164 https://www.fiba.basketball/es/rankingmen) vs. all the studies selected.
On the other hand, it was established that the COD time during line agility test is an element that discriminated against the players drafted in the NBA in relation to those not recruited [26]. Furthermore, a recent review established that COD time is an important predictor of NBA game-play performance [27]. The COD ability depends of multifactorial physical attributes such as; muscle strength, speed, technique and coordination [7]; nevertheless, the relationship with physical condition factors has yet to be elucidated. Previously, Pérez-Ifrán et al. [9] showed that the COD performance in modified T-test was largely associated with unilateral and bilateral CMJ height (r ≥ − 0.66, p < 0.05) and indicators of repeated sprint ability (r ≥ 0.72, p < 0.05) in juniors basketball players. Delextrat et al. [6] identified that the greatest determinants of COD performance using new planned-agility test were linear sprint and unilateral CMJ horizontal. Alemdaroğlu [12] reported a significant correlation between CMJ height and COD ability (r= -0.59, p < 0.05) and SJ height and COD ability (r = -0.47, p < 0.05) in professional Turkish male basketball players. Furthermore, Chaouachi et al. [11] established that the 5 jump test was one of the most factor associated with COD time across T-test in the Tunisian national basketball team.
In this study, we detected a significant large negative correlation between SJ height and COD time in 5 + 5 test (r = -0.75, p = 0.034), also a trend toward significant moderate negative association between CMJ height and COD time in 5 + 5 test (r = -0.62, p = 0.1). Our results showed a stronger association between vertical jump and COD performance compared to previous studies. Also, we detected that SJ height was a significant determinant of COD (i.e. 58.8% of its variability). Previously, Scanlan et al. [8] shows that standing long jump distance shared the most variance (45%) with modified T-test performance and exhibited the largest difference between faster and slower male players. It is important to highlight that during basketball competitions different speed-strength qualities are necessary to meet the physical demands (e.g. reactive strength, short stretch-shortening cycle, speed-strength only concentric) [5]. Thus, SJ represent only concentric force production, while CMJ represent long-slow stretch shortening cycle force production [5]. Currently, the vertical jump and performance in COD has shown to improve as senior teams are elicited [28, 29] and also discriminates the competitive level of athletes [26, 28]. Although, COD ability is a very complex skill that requires interactions of physiological and biomechanical components [7], the concentric force production could explain part of the performance outcomes accomplished in COD testing [30]. On the other hand, we did not detect any association between COD performance and unilateral jumping ability. Previously, it was suggested that unilateral jumps might be more strongly correlated to planned-COD performance than bilateral jumps because of the characteristics (unilateral stance) of running [31]. Yet, it was not possible to replicate these findings in our study. Therefore, future studies should continue investigating the associations between COD performance and bilateral and unilateral jumping ability.
Previously, it was suggested in review article that the 1RM values of elite players may be higher than those of college players [28]. In fact, when the value of 1RM was compared in BP and squat between categories, senior team completed a greater load than U-18 and U-20 [29]. Chaouachi et al. [11] found no significant associations between COD with 1RM in BP and squat exercise (r ≤ 0.27, p > 0.05) recruiting players from Tunisian national team. Townsend et al. [13] reported a significant correlation between peak force mid-thigh pull and COD performance (r = -0.52, p ≤ 0.05) in division I men basketball players. Peterson et al. [32] showed with NCAA players that relative 1RM squat (i.e. adjusted for body mass) (r = -0.80, p < 0.01) was more highly related to COD performance than absolute 1RM squat (r = -0.78, p < 0.01). Likewise, Scanlan et al. [8] was showed that relative peak force of isometric midthigh pull it was associated with T-test COD time (r = -0.55, p = 0.006) in contrast to absolute peak force of isometric midthigh pull (r = 0.24, p = 0.26) with Australian national male young players. We observed a significant large negative correlation between relative HC 1 RM and COD time (r = -0.74, p = 0.038), also a strong trend toward significant moderate negative association between relative BP 1 RM and COD time (r = -0.68, p = 0.064). Similar to previous studies, we observed the importance of relative force production for COD skills, given that few specific tests are used to assess this quality in basketball [33]. Therefore, we can speculate that the force generation during dynamic actions in the vertical plane employs less influence on COD ability than force production normalized to body mass. Moreover, it was established that Weightlifting derivatives (e.g. hang clean) are optimal ways to improve neuromuscular function promoted physiological adaptations such as; motor units recruitment, rate coding, etc. [34]. In this context, the importance of power development is expressed when the players completed the COD, applying high forces against the ground before a rapid hip extension to start the movement in a new direction [8].
Limitations
Our study presents some limitations. First, our COD test does not include specific basketball movements as previously suggested [6]. Also, we did not assess agility with the cognitive component. It was carried out at the beginning of the pre-season; therefore, the results cannot be extrapolated to other periods of the year. Our sample was small and the study population was highly trained/national level male players, thus future studies should investigate similar issues in elite/international level male players and female players. Finally, the selected athletes show a lower physical aptitude than athletes from other leagues/countries, so the results should be interpreted with caution.