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Main authors: Borja Ricart-Luna, Pablo Monteagudo-Chiner, Víctor Pérez-Puchades, Ana Cordellat-Marzal, Ainoa Roldán-Aliaga and Cristina Blasco-Lafarga
The lockdown caused by COVID-19 led to the unprecedented interruption of sport activity. Training centres closed, competitions stopped, and young athletes had to get adapted to training at home. What were the consequences of this situation on their physical performance? Can an online programme offset the lack of face-to-face training?
A collaborative study conducted by the Universitat de València, the Universitat Jaume I and Valencia Basket's Alqueria LAB analysed the effects of a distance training programme, focusing on the strength, explosive strength and agility of young elite players during the lockdown.
Study design
- Participants: 51 elite young players, divided in categories:
- U-14 (under 14 years): 20 players.
- U-16 (under 16 years): 22 players.
- U-18 (under 18 years): 9 players.
- Duration: 12 weeks of lockdown.
- Intervention: 4 weekly online sessions of 50 minutes, adapted to each age group and mainly performed using body weight and household equipment.
- Testing methods:
- Abalakov Test (bilateral and unilateral) to test explosive strength.
- V-Cut Test to test agility.
- Weight, height and BMI measuring.
Main findings
- More explosive strength. After the programme, all groups showed a significant improvement in jumping height and power, both bilateral and unilateral.
- Less agility. Despite jumping improvements, V-Cut test performance got worse in all categories, with decreases of between a 4% and a 6%. The deficit increased with age.
- Increasing weight and BMI. During lockdown, increases in body weight and body mass index were observed, especially in younger age groups.
- Clear limitations. Online training was effective for strength, but it was not enough to maintain agility, since it depends mainly on perceptual-cognitive interaction and on movements similar to real game ones.
Practical applications
- Coaches: online programmes are a valid tool for maintaining and improving explosive strength, but they should be complemented with specific tasks involving movement and decision-making.
- Physical trainers: special attention should be paid to training loads during lockdowns or halts because they may be insufficient for higher age and level players.
- Clubs: lockdown periods must be seen as an opportunity to develop basic skills such as strength, however a progressive reintegration plan into the game is required for agility and specification restoration.
Conclusion: training at home, but with nuances
This study proves that a supervised online programme can be effective for explosive strength improvement in young elite basketball players, even under strict lockdown conditions.
However, agility —key skill for basketball— was negatively affected, which highlights the need to include more specific and perceptual-cognitive training sessions to offset the lack of actual game contexts.
This research, developed in collaboration with the Basketball Chair L’Alqueria del Basket – Universitat de València, provides scientific evidence on how to adapt training during exceptional situations and how to safely and effectively plan the return to play.
