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The application of new technologies in wheelchair basketball (WB) is important for the advancement and improvement of athletic performance. The purposes of this study are twofold: (a) to develop a methodological design in order to assess WB players’ performance, using wireless inertial measurement units (WIMU®) and a laser system (BioLaserSport® wi...
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... addition, seven of them were medalists in the Rio de Janeiro Paralympic games. All were classified by the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation (IWBF) Player Classification System [25] (Table 1). Their height was measured using a stadiometer in a standing situation (DKSH Switzerland Ltd., Zurich, Switzerland, ±0.1 cm) Body weight was assessed using a calibrated scale (Kern MWS, Twister Medical, Barcelona, Spain, ±0.1 kg). ...Similar publications
Background: Despite national and institutional policies, American colleges do not currently provide student-athletes with disabilities equal access to sports opportunities. Disabled youth who wish to pursue their academic and athletic dreams in college thus have prohibitively limited options, even with popular American sports such as basketball. Pu...
Citations
... A 2019 review by Riley et al. suggests the possibility of filming, either trivially with a video to be viewed later in slow motion or by more efficient methods, such as of players during games so that their misplaced postures could be studied, customizing wheelchair adaptations specific to each athlete and avoiding SP [70]. The available literature also suggests that just before the release of the wheelchair, right at the end of the stroke, the elbow should be slightly flexed and the joint itself should be 1-2 inches ahead of the most forward part of the pushing rim [80][81][82]. In addition, since the movement of internal rotation of the glenohumeral joint during pushing can cause impingement with powerful strokes, it would be safe to pay special attention to it, in order to prevent SP [83]. ...
Wheelchair basketball (WB) is an increasingly popular sport that guarantees numerous health benefits for people with disabilities who regularly practice it, such as an improved quality of life and psychophysical well-being. However, WB is a contact and high-stress sport, which exposes players to frequent overloads and injuries, mainly affecting the upper limbs. Therefore, shoulder pain (SP) is the most common musculoskeletal disorder among WB players, forcing them to suspend or abandon this sport activity. This narrative review aims to summarize all the known literature on this topic and to be a starting point for further research. Firstly, it explores the biomechanical causes that lead to SP and the underlying diseases, among which the most recurrent are rotator cuff tendinopathies. Furthermore, this overview deepens the most effective and specific rehabilitation programs for SP in WB players and it emphasizes the need for further studies to trial new rehabilitative protocols using novel technologies to make them faster and more personalized. In this regard, the general recommendation still remains to perform a combination of exercises such as strengthening, endurance and stretching exercises of various durations and intensities. To conclude, the most important prevention strategies are described, underlining the need for constant sport-specific training led by qualified personnel and suggesting some insights on possible new research aimed at improving wheelchair ergonomics, stressing the importance of a multidisciplinary team fully dedicated to the individual athlete.
... Specifically, the speed gain revealed in the 20-m straight line test could be attributed to an increase in trunk stability that leads to powerful movements arising from the shoulder and the wrist muscles. 17,18 In fact, the upper body kinetic chain links the pelvis, trunk, shoulder, arm, and wrist muscles explaining that movement is a complex of muscular and articular activation from different body segments. 19 After the human movement concept of proximal to distal sequencing, 20 the action of driving the wheelchair requires that the maximal acceleration is supplied to the end of the linked segments, that is the hand, by the anatomical segments that precede it proximally. ...
Background:
Wheelchair basketball (WB) represents a great physical activity, rehabilitation, and integration opportunity for people with disability. Straps are wheelchair accessories used to ensure safeness and stability. Nevertheless, some athletes report feeling limited in movements because of these restraint devices. The aim of this study was thus to deepen whether straps could affect performance and cardiorespiratory effort in WB players' athletic gesture and furthermore whether sport performance could be influenced by experience, anthropometric features, or classification score.
Methods:
Ten WB elite athletes were enrolled in this observational cross-sectional study. Speediness, wheelchair maneuverability, and sport-specific skills were evaluated with 3 tests: 20-m straight line test (test 1), figure 8 test (test 2), and figure 8 with ball test (test 3); all tests were performed with and without straps. Cardiorespiratory parameters (blood pressure [BP], heart rate, and oxygen saturation) were registered before and after tests. Anthropometric data, classification score, and practice's years were collected and compared with test results.
Results:
Performance significantly improved in all tests wearing straps (test 1 P = 0.007, test 2 P = 0.009, and test 3 P = 0.025). No significant variation in cardiorespiratory basic signs emerged before and after the tests, with or without straps (systolic BP P = 0.140, diastolic BP P = 0.564, heart rate P = 0.066, and oxygen saturation P = 0.564). A statistically significant relation between test 1 with straps and classification score (coefficient = -0.25; P = 0.008) and test 3 without straps and classification score (coefficient = 1.00; P = 0.032) was found. No further relations emerged between test results and anthropometric data, classification score, and practice's years (P > 0.05).
Conclusions:
These findings demonstrated that straps, as well as ensuring safety and preventing injuries, also improve the WB performance, stabilizing the trunk and implementing upper limb skills, without exposing players to excessive cardiorespiratory and biomechanical stresses.
... Debido a sus característica de juego, está considerado un deporte intermitente que implica acciones de juego de alta intensidad que incluyen sprints rápidos, aceleraciones, desaceleraciones y cambios de posición dinámicos (Molik, Laskin, Kosmol, Skucas & Vida, 2010;Yanci, Iturricastillo & Granados, 2018), siendo la capacidad de sprint desde parado, una de las acciones más importantes durante el juego (Ferro, Pérez-Tejero, Garrido & Villacieros, 2021), como consecuencia de ser una de las acciones principales para llevar a cabo los cambios de dirección, de posición o realizar un bloqueo a un contrincante. ...
... Por último, atendiendo a la Calidad de los documentos seleccionados, hay que destacar la presencia de tres estudios que presentan una Excelente calidad metodológica (Ferro et al., 2021;Van der Slikke et al., 2020;. Por el contrario, el estudio realizado por Van der Slikke et al., (2016), ha obtenido una Buena calidad metodológica. ...
... En relación con la Finalidad de los Dispositivos Inerciales, se observa la variedad de uso que presentan, puesto en cada uno de los estudios se utilizan con una finalidad distinta. El estudio realizado porFerro et al., (2021), se analiza la bilateralidad de los jugadores mediante la medición de la aceleración en las muñecas de los jugadores a la hora de realizar los desplazamientos o cambios de dirección. Por otro lado,Van der Slikke et al., (2016), evalúa el rendimiento de los jugadores de BSR a través del análisis de las velocidades de desplazamiento y las distancias recorridas durante los entrenamientos. ...
The aim of the study was to conduct an exploratory systematic review related to Wheelchair Basketball, and the use of inertial devices as a novel tool to quantify internal and external load during training sessions and matches. For the search of scientific manuscripts, the following keywords were used, in English: “Basketball”, “Wheelchair” and “Inertial device”; and, in Spanish: “Baloncesto”, “Silla de ruedas” and “Dispositivo inercial”. The databases used were Web of Science and Google Scholar. Also, to limit the search, a series of document inclusion and exclusion criteria were established, to collect the most appropriate manuscripts for the subject under study. Twelve scientific papers were selected, which were classified according to the variables predetermined by the researchers. The largest number of publications related to the subject is produced in 2019, and they are mainly Quantitative empirical studies. Therefore, it is interesting to increase scientific knowledge in the WB.
... On the other hand, authors (Bergamini et al., 2015) indicate the importance of an adequate propulsion symmetry as an indicator value related to sports performance and possible injuries using the 20m Sprint test with inertia measurement units. Similarly, Ferro et al. (2021) is a relationship between the speed of movement of the players and the acceleration generated from the players' wrists. ...
... In terms of attempts, there are studies in which athletes perform two repetitions (Molik et al., 2013;Marszalek et al., 2019) and research applying three (De groot, 2012;Granados et al., 2018;Yanci et al., 2018). It is important to consider the dominant wrist acceleration in the test as an indicator of higher acceleration, so states Ferro et al. (2021), where it is shown that there is a significant relationship between the average acceleration of the dominant wrist and the average speed of the wheelchair player, being this relationship stronger at the beginning (0-3 m). ...
The objective was to identify the most recurrent testsin literature which are used for the evaluation of physicalqualities in wheelchair basketball elite level. For this, asystematic review was carried out in PubMed, Web ofScience, Scopus and ScienceDirect, involving the use ofkeywords athletes, wheelchair basketball and test andperformance. The search strategy carried out yielded atotal of 270 results where, after eliminating duplicates andapplying the previously established inclusion and exclusioncriteria, 39 documents were included for detailed reviewbased on qualitative synthesis. According to the collectedliterature, most tests included 20m sprint as a majority,followed by 5m sprint test and dynamometer, whichindicates that the most evaluated physical qualities werespeed, strength, agility, and anaerobic power. According tothe aforementioned, it is concluded that the tests used aretools of easy access, for the most part, since large-scalesports implements are not necessary (excluding the Wingatetest, which requires a crank ergometer). They are alsopertinent and valid for the evaluation of physical qualities inelite level BSR athletes.
... Currently, among the tools available to examine kicking movement performance, video analysis originates the most objective and sensitive kinematic metrics, which are not always captured by only visual ratings [5]. In fact, video analysis has been used in some other research fields (e.g., animal displacement detection and analysis), as well as in a range of sports [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. However, while ecologically valid assessment protocols using an on-field multiple-camera setup (such as high-speed action sport cameras [15]) have made it possible to record the three-dimensional and open nature of soccer kicks, flexible/reliable and boosting image processing methods are still required to provide useful information to practitioners in due time [3,16,17]. ...
Kicking is a fundamental skill in soccer that often contributes to match outcomes. Lower limb movement features (e.g., joint position and velocity) are determinants of kick performance. However, obtaining kicking kinematics under field conditions generally requires time-consuming manual tracking. The current study aimed to compare a contemporary markerless automatic motion estimation algorithm (OpenPose) with manual digitisation (DVIDEOW software) in obtaining on-field kicking kinematic parameters. An experimental dataset of under-17 players from all outfield positions was used. Kick attempts were performed in an official pitch against a goalkeeper. Four digital video cameras were used to record full-body motion during support and ball contact phases of each kick. Three-dimensional positions of hip, knee, ankle, toe and foot centre-of-mass (CMfoot) generally showed no significant differences when computed by automatic as compared to manual tracking (whole kicking movement cycle), while only z-coordinates of knee and calcaneus markers at specific points differed between methods. The resulting time-series matrices of positions (r2 = 0.94) and velocity signals (r2 = 0.68) were largely associated (all p < 0.01). The mean absolute error of OpenPose motion tracking was 3.49 cm for determining positions (ranging from 2.78 cm (CMfoot) to 4.13 cm (dominant hip)) and 1.29 m/s for calculating joint velocity (0.95 m/s (knee) to 1.50 m/s (non-dominant hip)) as compared to reference measures by manual digitisation. Angular range-of-motion showed significant correlations between methods for the ankle (r = 0.59, p < 0.01, large) and knee joint displacements (r = 0.84, p < 0.001, very large) but not in the hip (r = 0.04, p = 0.85, unclear). Markerless motion tracking (OpenPose) can help to successfully obtain some lower limb position, velocity, and joint angular outputs during kicks performed in a naturally occurring environment.
Introduction: Performance analysis through game-related statistics in wheelchair basketball (WB) has focused mainly on the study of the individual efficiency of players according to their functional classification. However, there is little evidence focusing on lineup performances (five players on court) and their composition. Thus, the objective of present study was to analyze the efficiency of the women's WB lineups used during the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games (PG) and to determine the variables that best discriminated the lineup performances according to the final point differential.
Methods: The sample comprised 507 lineups used in the 31 games by the 10 national teams during the competition. Fifty-one different lineup types (LTs) were categorized. A discriminant analysis was carried out to compare the lineups with a positive and negative point difference according to the game type (balanced and unbalanced games).
Results: It was found that LTs 16 (1-1.5-2.5-4-4.5), 47 (1-2-2.5-4-4.5) and 14 (1-1.5-2.5-4.5-4.5) had the best means of efficiency in field goals (LT 16 = 52%; LT 47 = 44% and LT = 40%), while LT 50 (1-2-3-4-4) obtained the highest mean difference in points (3.67 ± 10.67). The variables that best discriminated winner teams in balanced games were field goal efficiency (SC = 0.55), assists (SC = 0.50) and turnovers (SC = −0.41).
Discussion: Field goal efficiency, assists, turnovers and steals are the game-related statistics most associated with the success of a lineup used in balanced games in WB in PG competition; this could be taken into account by coaches when deciding how to compose a given lineup in a moment of the game, to adequately select players from different functional classifications for the final squad and to choose training content related to the indicated game-related statistics, as they explain success at this competition level.
Objectives: This study aimed to report the intrasession reliability of initial maximum- push rim propulsion (IMPRP) and sprint performance measurements in elite wheelchair basketball (WB) players and assess the relationship between strength and sprint capacity.
Methods: Fifteen Spanish international WB male players participated in this study. The study measured the maximum single wheelchair push from a stationary position (IMPRP) and sprint performance at distances of 3, 5, and 12 meters for WB players. Results: IMPRP mechanical output variables (V, Vmax, P, Rel. P, F, and Rel. F) demonstrated high reliability (ICC ≥ 0.92; CV ≤ 8.04 ± 7.37; SEM ≤ 29.92). However, maximum strength variables (Pmax, Rel. Pmax, Fmax, and Rel. Fmax) exhibited lower ICC values and higher CV and SEM values (ICC ≥ 0.63; CV ≤ 13.19 ± 16.63; SEM ≤ 203.76). The strongest correlations were observed between the maximum IMPRP values (V, Vmax, P, Rel. P, F, and Rel. F) and sprint performance at 3 meters (r±CL ≥ −0.74 ± 0.22, very large; R2 ≥ 0.55), 5 meters (r±CL ≥ −0.72 ± 0.24, very large; R2 ≥ 0.51), and 12 meters (r±CL ≥ −0.67 ± 0.27, large; R2 ≥ 0.44). Conclusions: The IMPRP test and sprint tests at distances of 3, 5, and 12 meters are practical and reliable for measuring strength and speed in WB players. Additionally, there is a significant association between strength variables (P, Rel. P, F, and Rel. F) and all sprint variables, indicating the importance of implementing specific strength exercises to improve sprint capacity in WB players.
Key words: Paralympic sport, mechanical outputs, strength, power.
Athletic performance is mutually dependent upon individual constraints and practical interventions. Regarding the former, it is recognised that brain activity and sleep indices can modulate movement planning and execution. Concerning the strategies used in practice, contemporary short-term prescriptions have been adopted by conditioning professionals and physiotherapists with the primary intention to acutely enhance musculoskeletal power output or accelerate post-exercise recovery processes. These includes postactivation performance enhancement (PAPE)-based plyometric warm-up and induced cooling (COOL) through ice packs, respectively. However, it remain unknown whether measures of brain dynamics and natural sleep patterns influence skill-related performance in soccer. To date, the literature does not show a consensus for PAPE effectiveness in young populations. Generally, COOL also negatively affects subsequent lower limb movements requiring high force-velocity levels. Based on these assumptions, the general aim of the current thesis was to investigate the influence of internal individual constraints (EEG and sleep-derived indices) and effects of short-term practical interventions (PAPE and COOL) on the movement kinematics and performance aspects of soccer kicking in youth academy players. A series of six studies is presented. These include a literature review, one technical note and four original experimental research articles (two observational and two interventions) in an attempt to answer the questions defined in the research programme. From the data gathered here, it was possible to provide evidence that a) kick testing in studies systematically lacked resemblance to competition environments; b) occipital brain waves during the preparatory phase determines ball placement while late frontal signalling control both ankle joint in impact phase and post-impact ball velocity; c) poor sleep quality and late chronotype preference are linked to subsequent impaired targeting ability; d) acute enhancements achieved via PAPE/plyometric conditioning are purely neuromuscular, being slightly converted into kicking mechanics or performance improvements; e) in a hot environment, repeated high-intensity running efforts impair both ball placement and velocity whilst a local 5-minutes COOL application assists recovery of overall kick parameters and f) a markerless deep learning-based kinematic system appear as reliable alternative in capturing on-field kicking motion patterns. To conclude, both internal individual constraints (EEG and sleep quality) and a short-term practical intervention (cooling quadriceps/hamstrings with ice packs) have an acute impact in kicking performance in youth soccer context. A model integrating evidence from all papers is presented alongside limitations and recommendations for future studies in this field.
Keywords: Technical skill; 3-dimensional kinematics; Accuracy; EEG; Human movement; Motor Control; Biomechanics.
