The relationship between exercise intensity and performance in drills aimed at improving the proficiency, technical and tactical skills of basketball players

Training programs for basketball players are often targeted at improving game tactics. The main objectives of this study were: a) to establish a relationship between exercise intensity and performance in basketball technical and tactical proficiency drills; and b) to determine the existing relationship between the opposition exerted by a direct opponent and the exercise intensity needed for the attacker to overcome this opposition. The study participants were 11 basketball players aged 17-18 years who had reached the top level in their age category. The players first underwent an incremental exercise test to establish heart rates corresponding to the ventilatory thresholds VT1 and VT2 as a measure of exercise intensity. Next, they performed a set of game-related technical/tactical exercises in conditions of defensive numerical equality or superiority. In these tests, physiological variables were recorded in contingency tables along with measures of the players' technical prowess and tactical decision capacity both as qualitative scores and quantitative variables. Our findings indicate that subjects in more physically demanding situations made more incorrect tactical decisions. Also, in conditions of greater opposition by the defence player, the attacker showed a worse tactical decision score and had to make a greater physical effort to overcome this opposition.