The main purpose of this master's thesis was to determine the impact of active rest in the form of various-intensity ball-handling exercises on the effectiveness of plyometric training in female basketball players. The study included 18 female basketball players (average age 18.72 ± 2.44 years) from the Women's Basketball Club Maribor (ŽKD Maribor), who compete in the first SKL category, as well as in the U20 and U18 selections.
Using the Boscosystem® Chronojump board (Barcelona, Spain) to measure jump height and contact times, we calculated the reactive strength index. To monitor the active rests involving ball-handling exercises of different intensities, we utilized the Polar Team system to track heart rate.
Statistical analysis was conducted using IBM SPSS Statistic 29 software (IBM Corporation, New York, USA). For comparing dependent variables such as jump height, contact time, and reactive strength index with the intensity of the rest and series, we employed the ANOVA test for repeated measures with two variables and the Student t-test for paired data as a post-hoc test. To compare the dependent variable, heart rate, about intensity, we used a one-variable ANOVA.
We found that an active rest involving high-intensity ball handling exercises had the most significant impact on reducing jump height and reactive strength index (p<0.0001). Higher-intensity rests had a greater impact than lower-intensity rests, and the results of the active rest differed from those of the passive rest. We conclude that for plyometric training, where the goal is to specifically influence jump height and improve the reactive strength index between sets, it is more sensible to choose a passive rest. Considering that active rests involving low and moderate-intensity ball handling exercises had less than a 10% impact on jump height and reactive strength index compared to passive rests, the choice of these forms of rests could be reasonable but requires further research. However, an active rest of high intensity is not suitable during plyometric training sets, as it significantly affects the key parameters under investigation.
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