Physical characteristics and competition demands of elite wheelchair basketball
Document Type
Journal Article
Publication Title
Strength and Conditioning Journal
Volume
46
Issue
2
First Page
125
Last Page
134
Publisher
Wolters Kluwer / National Strength and Conditioning Association
School
School of Medical and Health Sciences
Funders
Murdoch University International Tuition Fee Scholarship / Western Australian Institute of Sport / National Health and Medical Research Council
Abstract
Wheelchair basketball (WCB) is one of the most popular sports for athletes with disabilities. Athletes with a wide range of disabilities compete in the sport, making WCB highly inclusive while presenting unique challenges for various aspects of performance support. This review aims to provide an overview of the existing literature on physical characteristics and competition demands of elite WCB athletes to provide practitioners with the best physical preparation practices for improving performance. Many physical characteristics and capacities have been reported to improve performance and are useful for setting performance benchmarks. Assessment of these capacities in WCB athletes requires special considerations due to the impacts of individual disabilities and interactions between the athlete and the wheelchair. Profiling WCB athletes also requires understanding the competitive demands that cannot be extrapolated from nondisabled basketball. To track game movements, this review describes previous studies tracking game movements with various tracking devices, and recent studies have identified inertial sensors as an accurate and practical option. Athletes' internal responses to game demands vary based on disability, particularly spinal cord injuries, so special considerations for internal load monitoring include implementing individualized monitoring strategies.
DOI
10.1519/SSC.0000000000000779
Access Rights
subscription content
Comments
Snyder, L., Goods, P. S. R., Peeling, P., Binnie, M., Peiffer, J. J., Balloch, A., & Scott, B. R. (2024). Physical characteristics and competition demands of elite wheelchair basketball. Strength and Conditioning Journal, 46(2), 125-134. https://doi.org/10.1519/SSC.0000000000000779