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Main authors: Juan Francisco Lisón (Universitat CEU Cardenal Herrera), Sergio García-Herreros, Borja Ricart (Universitat de València), Eduardo Jorge Godoy, Sara Nozal, Pedro Cotolí-Suárez, Jaime Jordán-López, Juan José Amer-Cuenca and Pablo Salvador-Coloma.

Introduction

In elite basketball, especially in training categories, measuring and understanding the physical factors that influence the performance of athletes is vital for coaches, strength and conditioning coaches, and medical staff.

Two of the most commonly used tests are:

• Countermovement Jump (CMJ): measures the explosive vertical jump capability.
• V-cut test: evaluates speed and agility with changes in direction.

But how are these tests related to muscle thickness and subcutaneous fat in key muscles such as the medial gastrocnemius muscle (calf) and the rectus femoris muscle (thigh)?

A recent study with 131 young elite athletes (U14, U16 and U18 categories) analysed this correlation by using musculoskeletal ultrasounds to measure muscle thickness (MT) and subcutaneous fat thickness (SFT).

Study design

• Sample: 66 boys and 65 girls of ages between 12 and 18, all elite players from the same Spanish team.
• Tests conducted:
  • CMJ (countermovement jump).
  • V-cut test (agility with changes in direction).
  • Medial gastrocnemius muscle and rectus femoris muscle ultrasounds to measure muscle thickness and subcutaneous fat.

Main findings

1. Physical performance in relation to age and gender
   • The U16 and U18 boys had better results in CMJ and V-cut than the U14 and their female teammates of their respective age.
   • Amongst the girls, there were no significant differences between age categories.
2. Subcutaneous fat influence
   • A lower level of subcutaneous fat in calves and thighs was linked to a better physical performance in jumping power and agility.
   • This effect was clearer in boys.
3. Muscle thickness (MT) had less value
   • Although muscle mass is important, it was not as consistent of a predictor as subcutaneous fat.
4. Predictive models
   • In boys, the V-cut and gastrocnemius subcutaneous fat explained over 50 % of the variations in vertical jump performance.
   • In girls, the correlation was not as high: only the rectus femoris thickness explained an 8 % of the variations.

Practical applications

• Coaches and strength and conditioning coaches: controlling not only strength and power, but also body composition (particularly subcutaneous fat) as a key factor in physical performance.
• Sports clubs and medical staff: ultrasounds are presented as a fast, non-invasive and economic tool to monitor the development of young athletes.
• Talent scouts: this study provides useful ruling values to differentiate physical performance profiles in training categories.

Conclusions

• Jumping power and agility in basketball strongly correlated to subcutaneous fat in specific muscles and less so with simple muscle thickness.
• Boys show a bigger difference between age groups, while the results in girls remain more stable between U14, U16 and U18.
• Musculoskeletal ultrasounds are a very valuable tool for evaluating and predicting the physical performance of young elite athletes.

This is a pioneering study in proving that subcutaneous fat thickness measured by ultrasound can be a direct predictor to physical performance in basketball evaluations.

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