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RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HEIGHT AND CHANGE OF DIRECTION AND LINEAR SPEED PERFORMANCE IN COLLEGIATE BASKETBALL PLAYERS

Abstract

Daniel Lawson, Cody Stahl, Javier A. Zaragoza, J. Jay Dawes

Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA

Basketball is a multi-dimensional sport that requires a variety of athletic competencies that include physical fitness, technical and tactical skills, mental abilities, and morphological characteristics. Amongst these factors related to basketball athletic competency, the morphological characteristics may be viewed as the primary feature when evaluating and selecting an athlete for their potential within the sport of basketball, especially height. PURPOSE: To investigate the relationship between height and change of direction speed (CODS), acceleration, and anaerobic endurance test in men’s and women’s basketball players. METHODS: Archived data for 30 (Male=14; Female=16) NCAA division II collegiate basketball players were used in this analysis. CODS was assessed using the lane agility, acceleration speed was measured using the 10-yard sprint, and anaerobic endurance with the 300-yard shuttle run. A Pearson’s correlation was used to determine if significant relationships existed between height and the selected performance measures by sex. RESULTS: A significant moderate relationship (p = .028) were observed between height and lane agility performance among males (r = 0.59). A strong significant relationship (p < .001) was observed between height and 300-yard shuttle (r = 0.75) among females. CONCLUSION: Taller athletes may have greater difficulty when performing CODS tasks compared to shorter athletes. This may be due to a higher center of mass among taller athletes. This should be considered by coaches when comparing the results of speed tests between athletes of different statures.

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