The somatomotor profile of U14 basketball players

Abstract

Basketball is a team sport spread all over the world. In recent years, a lot of scientific research has been conducted and highlighted aspects regarding the improvement of physical condition as well as technical and tactical issues specific to the game of basketball. Physical training has become increasingly important in basketball, and players are stronger and more agile, even if their body dimensions are impressive. On the other hand, the game of basketball requires some rigour in motor but especially somatic terms. At international level, there are a number of somatic and motor standards according to which basketball players are selected, but no such scientific approach has been made in our country so far. This study aims to identify the somatic and motor profile of U14 basketball players according to the playing position and to compare the results with those of regional teams from Austria and Greece. The investigated sample consisted of 31 young basketball players, members of the extended team of the Romanian Basketball Federation. The methods used were: literature review, observation, tabular method, mathematical statistics and graphical method. The results show that both the anthropometric and physical test values analysed for each playing position are much weaker for Romanian players than for those from Greece and Austria.