The physiological and activity demands experienced by Australian female basketball players during competition

Design: A between-subjects (positional comparison) repeated measures (playing periods) observational experimental design was followed. Methods: State-level basketball players (n = 12; age: 22.0 ± 3.7 yr; body mass: 72.9 ± 14.2 kg; stature: 174.2 ± 6.9 cm; body fat: 17.2 ± 5.6%; estimated VO2max: 43.3 ± 5.7 ml/kg/min) volunteered to participate. Heart rate (HR) and blood lactate concentration ([BLa]) were collected across eight competitive matches. Overall and positional player activity demands were calculated across three matches using time–motion analysis methodology. Activity frequencies, total durations and total distances were determined for various activity categories. Results: Mean (±SD) HR responses of 162 ± 3 b/min (82.4 ± 1.3% HRmax) and 136 ± 6 b/min (68.6 ± 3.1% HRmax) were evident across live and total time during matches. A mean [BLa] of 3.7± 1.4 mmol/L was observed across competition. Player activity demands were unchanged across match periods, with 1752 ± 186 movements performed and 5214 ± 315 m travelled across total live match time. Furthermore, 39 ± 3%, 52 ± 2%, 5 ± 1% and 4 ± 1% of total live time was spent performing low-intensity, moderate-intensity, high-intensity and dribbling activity. Positional comparisons revealed backcourt players performed more ball dribbling (p < 0.001) and less standing/walking (p < 0.01) and running (p < 0.05) than frontcourt players. Conclusions: Together, these findings highlight the high intermittent demands and important contributions of both anaerobic and aerobic metabolic pathways during state-level female basketball competition