Introduction: Basketball is a very popular sport. Many elements in basketball game are performed in contact with the ball; therefore, a basketball player needs a good handgrip force. Handgrip force is often used as an indicator for many health conditions and diseases as well as overall body physical fitness. Handgrip force measurements are commonly used as they are simple and inexpensive. Purpose: Based on a review of the literature, the purpose of the thesis is to present the correlation between handgrip force and anthropometric and functional characteristics of basketball players. Methods: The literature search was conducted using the electronic databases PubMed and ResearchGate. The following inclusion criteria were used: thematic relevance of the article, articles published in English, handgrip force measured with a hand-held dynamometer and a period of ten years. Results: Seven studies were reviewed, of which four investigated handgrip force correlation with functional characteristics of basketball players and other two handgrip force correlation with anthropometric characteristics of basketball players. Jamar brand dynamometer and a standard procedure developed by the American Society of Hand Therapists were most commonly used for measurements in reviewed studies. Handgrip force has been shown to be correlated to some of the anthropometric characteristics of the hand and the functional characteristics of basketball players. Discussion and conclusion: We found that handgrip force is correlated to many anthropometric and functional characteristics of basketball players. Due to the heterogeneity of studies, it was difficult to compare them to each other, especially in studies, which researched functional characteristics of basketball players. To determine long term correlation between handgrip force and anthropometric and functional characteristics of basketball players, further researches are necessary.
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