EXSC 510
EXSC-510: Advance Exercise Physiology Article Review
A) Background (Section 1: Reason for article choice AND Importance)
1. Reason for Selection of Article and Importance/Relationship to Exercise Physiology
As a former athlete and now coach, I was taught the importance of being in the best shape to be
able to perform at a higher intensity throughout the entire basketball game. Also, that easily
being fatigued meant that a player was out of shape. Likewise, as a coach, I’ve noticed once
fatigue settles in, my players start to walk, stand, and less productive on the basketball court.
However, the biggest thing I’ve been told was that fatigue affects 3 point shooting. Therefore,
this article is important because it helps me understand the relationship between fatigue and 3
point shooting in basketball.
2. Introduction (from article)
Basketball is a team sport that involves speed, acceleration, changes of direction and precision.
Actions are executed and repeated at a high intensity, causing gradual fatigue. Also, having the
physical ability to perform repeated sprints at high intensity until the end of the game plays a
central role in the competition. Likewise, fatigue is an important element in basketball games,
yet only a few studies have analyzed its effect on performance and biomechanics of a successful
shot. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the impact of physical fatigue on upper and
lower limb joint kinematics l fatigue on upper and lower limb joint kinematics (i.e. 3D angles of
the ankle, knee, hip, shoulder, elbow and wrist, and the height of the center of mass) and on
variables related to ball release (i.e. height, velocity and angle of the ball at release time) during
3 point shooting. Particularly implementing a fatiguing exercise protocol (eliciting around 80%
of the maximal heart rate) that mimicked the level of fatigue typically encountered in a match.
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Overall, they hypothesized that fatigue would result in an alteration of kinematic variables,
which would reduce the effectiveness and accuracy performance of 3 point shooting.
3. Methods
The study used 10 elite athletes (6 males and 4 females) in the U18 squad who were right-handed
basketball players (age: 16.3 ± 1.2 years; body height: 1.90 ± 0.13 m; body mass: 76 ± 12.2 kg)
and free of injuries. Having experienced participants in basketball can help the validity of the
research. Two testing sessions (over two days) were organized in an indoor basketball gym. The
benefit of having a two-day rest allows for participants to be well-rested. However, only having
two days can hurt the reliability because what if the second day the participants' muscles are sore
or they practiced the night before and didn’t get the proper amount of rest for the second session.
The purpose of the first session was to determine each participant’s time to exhaustion. Also, the
participants carried out a volitional exhausting exercise protocol (ExEx). Also, they were
instructed to accelerate/decelerate maximally during the sprints and to jump as high as possible
at each end, until exhaustion. Time to exhaustion and the heart rate (HREX) were measured
during the test. The second session (at least 48 h after the first session) was where the
participants performed the series of four 3-point shooting actions under dynamic control. The
players ran a few steps, received the ball and shot at a distance of 6.75 m. Any shot that touched
the rim or the backboard was considered unsuccessful. I found this method to be unreliable
because a 3-point shot doesn’t have to be an all net swish for the ball to go in, for example, the
ball could touch the rim or backboard and still go in. This ultimately excludes any shot that
touched the rim or backboard is limiting the statistical data. To reproduce game conditions, the
second step consisted of the ExEx, but only until 70% of TExEx (TExEx70%). At the end of the
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ExEx, each participant performed four other 3PS actions. During the second session, the players
wore MVN Biomech suits. This suit is composed of 17-miniature inertial measurement units
(nIMU) strapped to the body and captured the 6-degrees-of-freedom. Lastly, all data were
expressed as means ± standard deviations (SD).
B) Summary (Section 2: Significance)
1. Results
The results suggest that there was no change in the kinematics of 3PS (p > 0.05) or the ball
release variables (p > 0.05) following the fatigue protocol. This suggests that elite basketball
players can cope with physical fatigue while performing coordinated movements such as 3 point
shooting. During the first session, mean TExEx was 142.8 ± 62.6 s and mean HREX was 182.1 ±
9.4 bpm. During the second session, the mean time to reach 70% of the time to exhaustion
(TExEx70%) was 99.7 ± 43.9 s. Moreover, there were no significant differences between any of
the joint angles recorded pre and post-exercise until 70% of TExEx (p ≥ 0.09).
2. Discussion
Fatigue modifies the kinematics of various sports-related movements. Also, fatigue occurs in
basketball, yet the effects of fatigue on the kinematics of shooting have never been studied.
Furthermore, fatigue is an important element in basketball games, yet only a few studies have
analyzed its effect on performance and biomechanics of a successful shot. Therefore, the
researchers sought to determine the impact of physical fatigue on upper and lower limb joint
kinematics and variables related to ball release during 3 point shooting. The biomechanical
analysis revealed that the exercise-induced fatigue did not affect any of the kinematic
variables measured or estimated during 3 point shooting. However, one of the main
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challenges of this study was to produce similar physical fatigue to that which occurs during a
real basketball game. Likewise, there was no effect of physical fatigue on the joint angles of
any of the body segments involved in 3 point shooting, or on the ball release variables. The
author’s bizarre decision was assuming that fatigue would reduce the effectiveness and
accuracy performance of 3 point shooting. Fatigue is important, but scoring in basketball
requires both motor abilities (strength, speed, agility) and specific skills. Thus, likely
explaining why there was no change in kinematics between the non-fatigued and fatigued
states. Also, it’s possible that the results could have been different when facing an opponent.
For instance, the complex interaction between fatigue, tactical decisions, score-line, time
remaining and defensive pressure, may also influence the kinematics and accuracy of 3 point
shooting, particularly in young players. Furthermore, fatigue is not an isolated factor that
modifies the execution of a shot. Hence, it’s important to note other variables not studied in
this research could affect the data and results.
3. Conclusion
Throughout the article, the researcher’s attempted to understand the effect of fatigue on the
kinematics of the shot, thus to answer this question it was necessary to consider only fatigue
without other confounding factors. From a practical point of view the result suggests that
shooting exercises can be carried out either at the beginning or the end of a training session.
Also, it appears that young players learn to cope with physical fatigue while performing
coordinated movements. Therefore, this suggests that physical fatigue induced during a game
does not alter kinematic variables of 3 point shooting in elite basketball players.
Jazmine Johnson
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