(13) MONITORING FATIGUE USING THE COUNTERMOVEMENT REBOUND JUMP IN DIVISION I FEMALE BASKETBALL PLAYERS OVER A COMPETITIVE SEASON

Athlete-monitoring systems are used to measure neuromuscular fatigue over a competitive season to provide insight into the physical demands of practice, competition, travel, and in-season training.  The countermovement jump (CMJ) is a common test to measure neuromuscular status.  Recent studies report a viable alternative, the countermovement rebound jump (CMRJ), as a substitute for the CMJ and drop jump tests.  CMRJ is attractive to practitioners because it is time efficient, and controlling for drop height in the drop jump test can be challenging.  However, there is no research on monitoring CMRJ when assessing neuromuscular fatigue across an entire season. 

Purpose: This study aimed to monitor weekly lower body neuromuscular fatigue using the CMRJ test in a sample of Division I female basketball players during the 2023–2024 season. 

Methods: Thirteen Division I female basketball players were tested from November to February.  Thirteen CMRJ metrics were analyzed for each testing session, and players were tested twice weekly before physical activity (age: 20.8 ± 1.8 yr, body mass: 72.5 ± 8.1 kg, height: 174.3 ± 8.7 cm).  On each testing day, players performed three sets of two jumps for a total of six jumps on a portable force plate platform (Hawkin Dynamics, Westbrook, ME).  Baseline testing was conducted at the end of the preseason across two days.  A single-subject repeated measures design, using the combined model statistic and coefficient of variation (CV) approach, was used to detect significant decrement (fatigue) between the testing days and baseline measures. 

Results: Fatigue was assessed on 19 occasions throughout the competitive season.  A total of 812 fatigues were recorded for all players across each of the CMRJ metrics (Table 1).  The metrics that indicated the highest percentages of fatigue were CMJ jump height (JH) (12.2%) and CMJ average braking power (12.1%).  Regarding the second jump, rebound JH reported the highest percentage of fatigue (10.0%).  On average, each player contributed 7.7 ± 6.3% to total fatigue, with Players 3 and 8 contributing much higher percentages, 23.0% and 17.6%, respectively. 

Conclusions: When using the combined model statistic and CV approach to detect fatigue, CMJ JH, CMJ braking power, and rebound JH were the most sensitive metrics to fatigue throughout the season in Division I female basketball players.  Although most players contributed a small percentage to overall fatigue, a select few contributed to a much higher percentage than the entire team.  These findings justify the importance of inspecting the data by individual players instead of reporting overall team averages.  PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Coaches who monitor fatigue using CMRJ can use the data to become more informed as to which metrics to monitor when assessing athlete readiness.

Acknowledgements: None