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The Activity Demands and Physiological Responses Encountered During Basketball Match-Play: A Systematic Review

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Abstract

Background

Basketball is a popular, court-based team sport that has been extensively studied over the last decade.

Objective

The purpose of this article was to provide a systematic review regarding the activity demands and physiological responses experienced during basketball match-play according to playing period, playing position, playing level, geographical location, and sex.

Methods

An electronic database search of relevant articles published prior to 30 September 2016 was performed with PubMed, MEDLINE, ERIC, Google Scholar, SCIndex, and ScienceDirect. Studies that measured activity demands and/or physiological responses during basketball match-play were included.

Results

Following screening, 25 articles remained for review. During live playing time across 40-min matches, male and female basketball players travel 5–6 km at average physiological intensities above lactate threshold and 85% of maximal heart rate (HR). Temporal comparisons show a reduction in vigorous activities in the fourth quarter, likely contributing to lower blood lactate concentrations and HR responses evident towards the end of matches. Guards tend to perform a higher percentage of live playing time sprinting and performing high-intensity shuffling compared with forwards and centers. Guards also perform less standing and walking during match-play compared with forwards and centers. Variations in activity demands likely account for the higher blood lactate concentrations and HR responses observed for guards compared with forwards and centers. Furthermore, higher-level players perform a greater intermittent workload than lower-level players. Moreover, geographical differences may exist in the activity demands (distance and frequency) and physiological responses between Australian, African, and European basketball players, whereby Australian players sustain greater workloads. While activity demands and physiological data vary across playing positions, playing levels, and geographical locations, male and female players competing at the same level experience similar demands.

Conclusion

The current results provide a detailed description of the specific requirements placed on basketball players during match-play according to playing period, playing level, playing position, geographical location, and sex, which may be useful in the development of individualized basketball training drills.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Sport and Physical Education, University of Niš, Čarnojevićeva 10a, 18000, Nis, Serbia

    Emilija Stojanović, Nenad Stojiljković & Zoran Milanović

  2. Human Exercise and Training Laboratory, Central Queensland University, Rockhampton, QLD, Australia

    Aaron T. Scanlan & Vincent J. Dalbo

  3. School of Health, Medical and Applied Sciences, Central Queensland University, Rockhampton, QLD, Australia

    Vincent J. Dalbo & Daniel M. Berkelmans

Authors
  1. Emilija Stojanović
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  2. Nenad Stojiljković
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  3. Aaron T. Scanlan
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  4. Vincent J. Dalbo
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  6. Zoran Milanović
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Correspondence to Zoran Milanović.

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No sources of funding were used to assist in the preparation of this review.

Conflict of interest

Emilija Stojanović, Nenad Stojiljković, Aaron Scanlan, Vincent Dalbo, Daniel Berkelmans and Zoran Milanović declare they have no conflicts of interest relevant to the content of this review.

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Stojanović, E., Stojiljković, N., Scanlan, A.T. et al. The Activity Demands and Physiological Responses Encountered During Basketball Match-Play: A Systematic Review. Sports Med 48, 111–135 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-017-0794-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-017-0794-z

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