Optimizing basketball performance during the stages of long-term athlete development require to identify the trainability and variation of specific technical skills, when adjusting for anthropometric changes. The aim of this study was to describe differences in height, body mass, arm span, and technical-related fitness (movement, dribbling, shooting) along the long-term development of 7–17 years Lithuanian basketball players. This cross-sectional analysis involved a total of 1051 basketball players from the Sabonis Basketball Center in Lithuania. Testing sessions were performed during 1 day of the competition period in an indoor court. The participants performed technical-related fitness tests to assess dribbling (control dribble, 20 m dribble, two balls of 20 m dribble, Illinois agility dribble), shooting (30 free-throw shoots, 1 min shooting, modified medium and long-range shots, close range shots) and defensive movements. The dribbling skills had substantial improvements (7 to 8-years-old: 20 m sprint with dribbling, effect size = 1.86; control dribble effect size = 2.18; 9 to 10-year-old: 20 m sprint with dribbling, effect size = 1.85; Illinois agility test with dribbling effect size = 1.82). Changes in defensive movement occurred mostly at the 14–15-age period. The best periods to develop dribbling and shooting skills were between 7–10 and 12–13 years, whereas defensive movements can be trained in later adolescent years. Current results and consequent normative profiles, presented as percentile tables, allow to accurately follow the players’ development.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationships between general coordination, sport-specific coordination, and sport-specific fitness of 8- to 17-year-old male basketball players. 312 males with training experience ranging from one year in the 8-year-old cohort up to 10 years for the 17-year-olds performed basketball-specific fitness (20 m sprint, Illinois, countermovement jump), general coordination (20 m run with three obstacles), semi-basketball-specific coordination (20 m sprint dribbling two balls, countermovement jump with arm swing) and basketball-specific coordination (Illinois ball dribbling) tests. There were moderate to large correlations between the results of both general and basketball-specific coordination with the results of most basketball-specific coordination tests in all age groups. Correlations between general and basketball-specific coordination were large in four age groups (11-14 yr., r = .52 to r = .76), moderate in five groups (8-10, 15 & 16 yr., r = .37 to r = .46), while not significant in the 17-year-olds. These results suggest that the importance of general coordination for sport-specific skills improvements during a sports-specific skill acquisition phase, remains high at the skill refinement phase, and decreases when sport-specific skills have been mastered to near-perfection.

In basketball, the end of the ball possession has been described as one of the most important determinants of successful offensive play by a team. The present study aimed to: (i) investigate outcomes according to the play types of ends of the ball possession; (ii) find the most efficient ball possessions during the game; (iii) predict most efficient ends of the ball possession by time in an elite basketball competition. The sample was composed of 38,640 situations of ends of the ball possession from 240 games of the 2017–2018 regular season of the men’s Euroleague that were quantitatively analyzed. According to the results, the predictive model can be used in modern basketball. The most efficient ends of the ball possession are the 2-point field goals on the fast break (78.2%), cuts (64.8%), pick and roll (P&R) screener (61.5%), and transition and offensive rebound (57.4%) situations. This information allows a better collective understanding of basketball, and it could be a great tool to use for coaches to prove which tactical solutions are to be considered when improving offense and defense strategies. It also contributes to the design of precise practice tasks of the coach that improve the game.

Background. As basketball constantly evolves, physical performance becomes more and more important. Physical fitness assessments are the most reliable way to find out at what level a basketball player is prepared to perform. Therefore, the main aim of this research was to determine if the speed, agility and power of under-16-year-old (U16) basketball players is related to their playing positions. Methods. The study included (n = 40) young basketball (aged 14.99 ± 0.84 years) players. The variables included height, body mass, body mass index (BMI), fat-free mass (FFM), the percentage of body fat (BF%), the counter movement jump (CMJ), counter movement jump with free arms (CMJ free arms), squat jump (SJ), 5m, 10m, 15m and 20m sprints, T-test, Illinois test and 505 test. Results. The results showed that centers are taller and heavier than other positions, while the speed, agility and power of forwards are greater than other positions. Conclusions. At the youth basketball level there are differences in anthropometric and physical fitness testing results between positions. This supports the fact that athletes may be more likely to be selected for a given position based on how their anthropometric and athletic abilities pair with the demands of a given position. Keywords: body composition; physical testing; playing position; performance.

The aims of this study were to a) quantify the relationships between sprinting and dribbling speed measured using dribble time and Dribble Deficit and b) assess the difference between age categories in sprinting and dribbling speed in pre-adolescent basketball players. Pre-adolescent, male basketball players (Total, N = 81; Under-10, n = 32, Under-9, n = 49) completed two trials of different tasks including 20-m linear sprints without dribbling, 20-m linear sprints dribbling with dominant and non-dominant hands, and change-of-direction (COD) sprints with and without dribbling. Sprinting time, dribbling time and Dribble Deficit were then calculated for each trial. Spearman rank correlations were used to assess the relationships between outcome measures for Under-9 and Under-10 players separately and combined. The Mann-Whitney U test with effect sizes (ES) was used to assess differences in outcome measures between Under-9 and Under-10 players. Moderate-to-very large significant relationships (p <0.05) between linear and COD sprinting time and dribbling time using dominant and non-dominant hands were found in Under-9, Under-10 and all players combined. Trivial-to-moderate relationships were found between sprinting time and Dribble Deficit in all age categories across linear and COD paths. Quicker performance times (p <0.05) were found for Under-10 compared to Under-9 players in all outcome measures (ES: small-to-moderate), except for COD sprinting time (p >0.05; ES: small). Dribble Deficit measures dribbling speed independently of sprinting speed across linear and COD paths in pre-adolescent basketball players and differentiates between age categories.