“…Aerobic capacity in basketball generally increases during the pre-season phase, before returning to baseline values or remaining unchanged during the competition phase (Bolunchuk, Lukaski, & Siders, 1991;Caterisano, Patrick, Edenfield, & Batson, 1997;Coleman, Kreuzer, Friedrich, & Juvenal, 1974a;Hakkinen, 1993;Hoffman, Fry, Howard, Maresh, & Kraemer, 1991;Hunter, Hilyer, & Foster, 1993;Laplaud , Hug, & Menier, 2004;Petko & Hunter, 1997;Tavino, Bowers, & Archer, 1995), a pattern observed in other team sports (Astorino, Tam, Rietschel, Johnson, & Freedman, 2004;Earnest, 1994;Gabbett, 2005;Gorostiaga Granados, Ibanez, Gonzalez-Badillo, & Izquierdo, 2006;Hakkinen & Sinnemaki, 1991;Koutedakis, 1995). One study of male players reported increased aerobic capacity after a detraining period towards the end of a competition phase compared with the in-season phase (Ciuti et al, 1996).…”