Monitoring workloads in elite sports has become a well-established practice today. Without data on an athlete's readiness, planning the training process is merely guesswork. Workload is divided into external and internal, where the external workload includes all activities performed by the athlete, and the internal workload refers to their physiological response. To measure internal load, we use heart rate monitors or the method of subjective perception of exercise exertion. The latter has gained popularity in recent years, especially in team sports, due to its simplicity, non-invasiveness, and cost-effectiveness.
In the master's thesis, we monitored the internal load of basketball players using the method session RPE and examined its relationship with psychophysiological factors (sleep quality, nutrition, mood, and physical fatigue). The aim of the study was to determine the impact of workload on the players' psychophysical well-being and to analyze the differences between the players with more and less load. We also explored how the number of games affects the workload and tracked the ratio between acute and chronic workload throughout the season.
In the study, we monitored 11 basketball players who were members of a professional basketball team during the 2022/23 season. Workload was measured using the method session RPE, while psychophysical well-being was assessed with a questionnaire. We monitored the entire season, which lasted 300 days, including the preparation period.
The results showed that training load fluctuates throughout the season, with the number of games played per week significantly affecting the players' perceived psychophysical well-being. Players who were more heavily loaded reported greater fatigue and worse well-being compared to players with lower workload. Method proved to be useful in basketball.
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