Training load monitoring by position and task in professional men´s basketball

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyze the training load of the different tasks of a professional basketball team, based on the tasks and player positions. A total of 10 professional basketball players participated (Mage = 23.70; SD = 2.26) who carried out three different training tasks for four weeks: situation in the middle court (MC); situation in the middle court followed by a counterattack in the opposite court (FB); half court situation followed by two full court counterattack situations (CB). GPS Polar Team Pro© was used to monitoring the physical load. Internal physical load and external physical load variables were measured. One-way ANOVA was performed to explore the main differences between the different types of tasks and player positions on each of the dependent variables. The results show that FB tasks involve a higher internal load, while CB tasks involve a greater external load. Regarding the type of players, the exteriors reached higher values in the different variables analyzed. Therefore, it has been found that different training tasks imply different physical demands. Specifically, using training tasks that reproduce the dynamics of competition imply an increase in conditional load.