Abstract
Wheelchair basketball is an adaptive Paralympic sport and wheelchair basketball players are under classification in sport. Coaches are looking for useful assessment tools (field-based tests) to evaluate players’ anaerobic performance (anaerobic capacity). The aim of this study was to assess the validity of field-based tests for anaerobic performance evaluation for two functional categories of wheelchair basketball players and to create a calculator to predict mean or peak power on the basis of the selected field-based test results. Sixty-one elite male wheelchair basketball players performed the Wingate Anaerobic Test and the following field-based tests: 3 m sprint, 5 m sprint, 10 m sprint, 20 m sprint, basketball chest pass test, medicine ball (3 kg) chest pass test, bilateral handgrip, 3-6-9 m drill test, 30-s sprint test, agility drill test and 10 × 5 m sprint test. The participants were divided into two functional categories: A (classes from 1.0 to 2.5; n = 29) and B (classes from 3.0 to 4.5; n = 32) according to the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation rules. The large effect size (Cohen’s d > 0.5) was found in four tests (3 m sprint, 5 m sprint, basketball chest pass test, medicine ball chest pass test; ES 0.90, 0.53, –0.96, –1.05). There were differences between category A and category B players regarding mean power, peak power and relative peak power. Peak power correlated with four tests, while mean power correlated with eight out of eleven tests. The formulas for estimating peak power or mean power in category A and B players were created separately. All the analyses confirmed that 3 m sprint, 5 m sprint, 10 m sprint, 20 m sprint, agility drill test, bilateral handgrip, 3-6-9 m drill test, 30-s sprint test, basketball chest pass test and medicine ball chest pass test are valid for non-laboratory anaerobic performance evaluation. Using the four formulas as a tool to predict mean or peak power on the basis of the selected field-based test results and functional categories will be helpful and will allow coaches and players to prepare pre-season, post-season and in-season conditioning exercises in wheelchair basketball.
Highlights
Wheelchair basketball is a high-profile Paralympic sport
For category A players, peak power (PP) correlated with the results of three tests, i.e., 3 m sprint, 5 m sprint and medicine ball chest pass test, while mean power (MP) correlated with the results of eight tests (Table 4)
For category B players, PP correlated with the results of two tests, i.e., 20 m sprint and medicine ball chest pass test, while MP correlated with the results of seven tests
Summary
Wheelchair basketball is a high-profile Paralympic sport. Rules of wheelchair basketball are similar to those in “running” basketball and are described by the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation (IWBF), 2018). The players with different physical impairments are divided into functional classes (International Wheelchair Basketball Federation, 2014). There are five major functional classes: 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0 and 4.5 (a higher class denotes a higher level of functional abilities on the court). Players with functional capabilities of two neighboring classes can be classified as 1.5, 2.5 or 3.5. The sum of points of five players in one team on the court cannot exceed 14 (International Wheelchair Basketball Federation (IWBF), 2018). Players can be classified to category A (1.0 to 2.5) or category B (3.0 to 4.5) (International Wheelchair Basketball Federation, 2014)
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