Vertical Jump and Relative Strength are Strongly Associated with Change of Direction in Professional Male Basketball Players

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine the predictors of change of direction (COD) in highly trained/national level male basketball players using field assessments. Methods: Eight professional male basketball players (age: 24.0 ± 5.5 years; body mass index (BMI): 24.1 ± 1.6 kg m-2) volunteered for participation in this study. All the evaluations were carried out during 2 sessions as follows: First day_1) body composition, 2) unilateral and bilateral squat jump (SJ) and countermovement (CMJ), and 3) Yo-Yo intermittent recovery test level 1 (Yo-Yo IR1); Second day_1) COD performance, and 2) one repetition maximum (1RM) hang clean (HC) and bench press (BP). A linear regression was performed to evaluate the determinants of COD amongst all other measured variables. Furthermore, we applied Pearson correlation coefficient and in the case of non-normally distributed variables, Spearman’s correlation coefficient for the selected variables. Results: The linear regression indicated that only SJ height was a significant determinant of COD (R2 = 58.8%, p = 0.016). Significant correlations were identified between COD test and SJ (r = -0.75, p = 0.034; very large), and relative HC 1 RM (r = -0.74, p = 0.038; very large). Conclusions: The associations found between COD performance and physical parameters should be considered when developing athletic conditioning programs. Especially, the vertical jump heigh could explain the greatest variability in COD performance..

Keywords

• Team sports
• Field tesing
• Muscular power
• Agility
• Anaerobic performance
• Elite athletes