Physical demands of international pre-matches and their relationship with the official match statistics among adolescent basketball players
Abstract
Study aim:
The study aimed to investigate the effects of age and gender on game-related performance (GRP) and the associations between GRP data and official game-related statistics (GRS).
Material and methods:
Seventeen U19, fifteen U16 boys, and thirteen U16 girls from the Hungarian national teams were monitored during 15 international pre-matches. GRP data were collected using WIMU PRO. GRS were selected from official box scores. A Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA followed by Dunn’s test was used to analyse differences between age groups and genders. Pearson correlation was used to examine the relationship between GRS and GRP.
Results:
Significant differences were found between U16 girls and boys in maximum speed (p = 0.024), playing load/min (p = 0.008), average HR (p = 0.009), jumps/min (p = 0.001), and explosive distance/min (p = 0.001). U19 and U16 boys showed significant differences in average speed (p = 0.015), maximum acceleration (p = 0.037), high-intensity acceleration/min (p = 0.001), and deceleration/min (p = 0.002). The average speed correlated with at least two GRS indicators in all groups: for U16 girls, with playing time (r = 0.349) and field goal/min (r = 0.276); for U16 boys, with playing time (r = 0.361), rebound/min (r = −0.484), and steal/min (r = 0.271); for U19 boys, with playing time (r = 0.361), assist/min (r = 0.421), turnover/min (r = −0.4), and PF/min (r = −0.379). Agility indicators significantly impacted GRS, especially in U16 boys. Total distance, jumps, and heart rate values had the weakest correlations with GRS.
Conclusion:
Among male players, GRS are more related to physical performance than in female players. As age increases, physicality becomes more important. High-intensity variables are most often correlated with GRS, highlighting the importance of focusing on intensity during match preparation.
© 2025 Anna Gál-Pottyondy, Áron Mészáros, Gábor Farkasinszki, László Molnár, Rita M. Kiss, Lukasz Trzaskoma, published by University of Physical Education in Warsaw
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