An ecological investigation of average and peak external load intensities of basketball skills and game-based training drills

This study quantified average and peak external intensities of various basketball training drills.Thirteen youth male basketball players (age: 15.2 ± 0.3 years) were monitored (BioHarness-3 devices) to obtainaverage and peak external load per minute (EL · min−1; peak EL · min−1) during team-based training sessions.Researchers coded the training sessions by analysing the drill type (skills, 1vs1, 2vs2, 3vs0, 3vs3, 4vs0, 4vs4,5vs5, 5vs5-scrimmage), court area per player, player’s involvement in the drill (in percentage), playing positions(backcourt; frontcourt) and competition rotation status (starter; rotation; bench). Separate linear mixed modelswere run to assess the influence of training and individual constraints on average and peak EL · min−1. Drilltype influenced average and peak EL · min−1 (p < 0.05), but with different directions of effects. EL · min−1 washigher in skills and 4vs0 drills, while higher peak EL · min−1 values were obtained in 5vs5 and 5vs5-scrimmage.Similarly, EL · min−1 was higher when involvement % increased (p = 0.001), while there was an opposite trendfor peak EL · min−1 (lower with higher involvement %). Court area per player influenced peak (p = 0.025) butnot average demands. No effects were found for playing position or competition rotation status (all p > 0.05),except for a moderately higher EL · min−1 in starters compared to bench players. The external load intensitiesof basketball training drills substantially vary depending on the load indicator chosen, the training content, andtask and individual constraints. Practitioners should not interchangeably use average and peak external intensityindicators to design training but considering them as separate constructs could help to gain a better understandingof basketball training and competition demands.