Physical Activity Demands of NBA Game Play
- Publication Type:
- Thesis
- Issue Date:
- 2020
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Basketball is a physically demanding, high-intensity team sport that is one of the most popular sports in the world, played professionally in over 200 countries. The highest level of basketball competition is the National Basketball Association (NBA), the major professional basketball league in the United States of America. This thesis contains four independent studies which aim to provide a greater understanding of the physical activity profiles and investigate the factors that influence physical activity within NBA game play. Study One investigated the measurement accuracy of the optical tracking system used to quantify the physical activity during NBA competitions. These findings have implications for analysing measures of physical performance captured by optical tracking systems.
The second study examined positional and temporal physical activity demands and their variation within NBA game play. These results provide a detailed description of the activity demands in NBA game play and additionally the results aid in assessing meaningful changes in activity measures. Study three assessed the ability to accurately forecast physical activity demands and to further investigate contextual factors that may influence the physical activity within game play. The results highlight the importance of understanding and considering contextual factors when planning training and analysing the physical activity profiles of NBA game play. Study Four investigated the relationship between measures of physical activity and technical game performance. The results demonstrate that whilst physical activity and technical performance are related, they have a complex relationship whereby increases in certain activity measures correspond with decreases in game performance. The collective findings in this thesis provide new detailed description of the game physical activity demands of elite basketball, with specific focus on the factors that influence game activity and also its subsequent relationship to game performance. The results of this thesis demonstrate that in-game physical activity is unique to the positional group and varies both within and between games. Furthermore, the influence of contextual factors such as, playing position, playing ability (All-Star), and altitude must be considered when interpreting game-based activity profiles from NBA players. While it is often assumed that increased game-based activity is related to improved technical performance, this thesis demonstrated that these two factors are not directly linked. Finally, while this thesis provides a step forward in understanding the physical demands of basketball at the highest level, a critical finding is specific to the efficacy of the optical tracking system used by the NBA. This thesis questions the accuracy of an optical tracking system when quantifying discrete measures of physical activity demands in NBA games. Collectively, this thesis provides a comprehensive understanding of the physical activity demands found in the highest level of basketball competition.
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