In this master's thesis, we studied the motor skills of female basketball players based on their playing positions (guards, forwards, centers) and researched whether there are statistically significant differences between these groups. The purpose was also to determine if and how much motor skills affect playing performance.
The study involved 27 female basketball players from three teams competing in the 1st Slovenian Basketball League in the 2023/24 season. Motor skills were assessed using a battery of tests consisting of the following: vertical jump, 20-meter sprint, lateral jump with left and right foot, kamikaze test, aerobic test 3 minutes, and T-test.
Based on descriptive statistics, we found that guards had the best results in the vertical jump and lateral jumps. The fastest times in the 20-meter sprint, T-test and kamikaze test. When performin aerobic test 3 minutes, they ran the most lenghts of basketball court. Forwards on average performed worse than guards but better than centers. Centers achieved the worst results in all tests. Analysis of variance test results showed statistically significant differences between groups in the T-test (p = 0.047). In other tests, no statistically significant differences were detected, although some results indicated a trend towards significance. For further analysis, we used Tukey's HSD test, which showed that there were statistically significant differences between guards and centers in the T-test (p = 0.041). No statistically significant differences between groups were found in other tests. Spearman's test results showed moderate correlations between some motor skills and player performance. We found that the results of the 20-meter sprint test have the highest correlation with playing time (r = 0.559) and also the highest correlation with the statistical index (r = 0.401). The results of the study are important for coaching practice as they provide a better understanding of importance of the motor skills of female basketball players based on their playing role, which can contribute to more targeted training and improved playing performance.
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