Athletic Profile Differences Between Front Court and Back Court Division I Female Basketball Players

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

2-17-2018

Publication Title

Proceedings of the Southeastern American College of Sports Medicine Regional Conference

Abstract

Background: Variation in physiological and anthropometric measurements among position groups is an important consideration for coaches, especially in basketball, where different positions require unique skillsets.

Purpose: To determine athletic profile differences between Front court (point guard, shooting guard, small forward [F]) and Back court (power forward, center [B]) players in female Division I collegiate basketball.

Methods: 14 female Division I basketball players were grouped by position (F: 7; B: 7). Athletes’ height, weight, body fat percentage (BF%), dominant (DHG), and non-dominant hand-grip (NDHG) strength were measured. Body com position was assess ed using a 3-site skin fold, and the great er of two trials were recorded for the DHG and NDHG. A one-way ANOVA was run to determine differences between the groups.

Results: The one-way ANOVA revealed a significant difference between F and B in: height (F: 168.00 ± 6.30cm; B: 180.34 ± 4.64cm, p = 0.001); weight (F: 65.7 ± 8.0kg; B: 80.2 ± 10.4kg, p = 0.012); and BF% (F: 17.1 ± 5.2%; B: 24.0 ± 5.3%, p = 0.030). However, no significant differences existed with DHG (F: 16.2 ± 1.9kg; B: 16.4 ± 2.2kg, p = 0.861) or NDHG (F: 15.0 ± 1.9kg; B: 16.6 ± 2.4kg, p = 0.173).

Conclusion: The results from this study indicate that female B players in this study were taller, larger athletes compared to F, but had similar upper body muscular strength, as estimated by hand grip testing. The anthropometric results agree with previous research, but disagree with published research on muscular strength differences.

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