(10) EVALUATING THE RELATIONSHIP OF EXTERNAL LOAD AND INTERNAL LOAD ACROSS A WOMEN’S COLLEGIATE BASKETBALL SEASON

Background: External load (EL) quantifies physical demands placed on an athlete, while internal load (IL) quantifies the stress response to the imposed demands. A suitable EL is crucial to elicit the preferred IL and achieve desired adaptations. In men’s basketball, moderate relationships between EL and sRPE have been identified; yet, this has not been studied in women’s basketball.

Purpose: To evaluate the effect of game minute (min) contribution and timepoint on basketball practice EL and IL over a competitive season.

Methods: National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I (NCAA D-I) women basketball athletes ((n=11; guard n= 7, post = 4) mean±SD; age 21±2 yr, height 176±8 cm, weight 71±11 kg, body fat% 20±8)) wore microsensors for 52 in-season practices and 27 games. EL was quantified by Playerload™ (PL), a volume-based metric calculated as the sum of forces from accelerations across all axes of movement, divided by 100. IL was determined via session Rating of Perceived Exertion ((sRPE; (i.e., Borg CR-10 scale)), which was calculated as the product of post-session RPE and session duration. Athletes were classified as high min (HMA: ≥ 15 min/game) or low min (LMA: < 15 min/game). Each week, player status (i.e., HMA/LMA) was determined for the two practices preceding each game based upon the athlete’s playing time for that game. sRPE was used to quantify training load for the 16 in-season strength training (ST) sessions. A linear mixed effects model evaluated the effect of game min contribution and timepoint on practice sRPE (P-sRPE), and practice PL (P-PL). Repeated measures correlations with 95% confidence intervals assessed the relationship of P-sRPE and P-PL. Statistical significance was set to p< 0.05. Correlation coefficients (r) were classified: small (0.10-0.30), moderate (0.31-0.50), large (0.51-0.70), very large (0.71-0.90), extremely large (0.91-1.00).

Results: Individual P-PL, P-sRPE, ST-sRPE, and percentage of practices that each athlete was categorized as HMA are included in Table 1. At the first practice, HMA experienced a P-PL of 90.21 less than LMA (p=0.002). Across the season, P-sRPE increased by 40.11 but slowed over time (-1.75), and P-sRPE increased at a minimally higher rate than P-PL (1.04). A large relationship existed between P-sRPE and P-PL (r=0.51) [95% CI: 0.43, 0.57].

Conclusions: Individual athletes experienced differences in workloads during in-season practices and ST sessions. Results of the linear mixed effects model indicate that HMA were exposed to lower ELs during in-season practices compared to LMA. sRPE gradually increased over the duration of the season but tapered over time for all athletes. The large relationship observed between EL and IL supports previous results in men’s basketball. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: It is recommended that practitioners individualize in-season training based on individual needs, which are heavily influenced by game min contribution and position demands.

 

Acknowledgements: None