Developing Endurance for Sport Performance in a Basketball Team

Valtteri Karjalainen

Bachelor’s Thesis Degree Programme in Sports Coaching and Management 2021 Abstract

Date

Author(s) Valtteri Karjalainen Degree programme Sports Coaching and Management Report/thesis title Number of pages Developing Endurance for Sports Performance in a Basketball and appendix pages Team 52 + 5

Basketball is gaining popularity in Finland thanks to the well playing national team Susijengi and a high-quality domestic league Korisliiga and both of their star players. Basketball requires multiple physical aspects of athletes’ capabilities. Endurance is one of the primary characteristics of basketball and not as much investigated as for example football’s endurance pillar. Team sports, such as basketball, require a lot of aerobic conditions of players to perform to perform at a high-level, maintain power output in repeated high-intensity efforts, and recover fast. A need was found for this project when coaching as an assistant coach in the season 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 Lahti Basketball Juniors U19 Boys.

Lahti Basketball Juniors is a Lahti-based junior and hobby basketball club. It is one of the biggest and most influential basketball clubs in Finland. The values of the club are Joy, Quality, and Communality. Today the club has a team of every age group and gender. The club is also a Finnish Olympic Committee “Star Club” (Tähtiseura). The fundamental idea of the club is to offer juniors and hobby players of different ages the opportunity to play basketball at a level that suits everyone.

The thesis Developing Endurance for Sports Performance in a Basketball Team is dealing with the endurance part of basketball and the development of the feature for the youth athlete. The primary goal was to offer a good, scientifically correct and working endurance developing manual that is also used at the practices of the U19 boys’ Lahti Basketball Juniors. Essentially, there was a secondary aim that the thesis also gathers down much recent information about the endurance building for basketball.

The methods were the literature usage and expert interviews. Starting of the project was during August 2020 and the checkpoints of the thesis were arranged in November 2020 and January 2021.

The final product of the thesis is the endurance developing manual. The manual, which is justified according to the literature, contains annual preview, six sample weeks, and the tests appendix. It will be put into service by Lahti Basketball Juniors U19 boys in the season’s start 2021-2022 as starting level test and endurance practices. Basketball teams are advised to make similar programs for their athletes in the future and the under 19 is the desired age to train endurance. The results of the programme will be tested with the test appendices all along the season 2021-2022.

Keywords Endurance, Developing, Basketball, Energy, Aerobic, Game

Table of contents

1. Introduction……………………………………………………… ...... 1 2. Basketball as a sport……………………………………… ...... 3 2.1 Physiological and metabolic demands……...... 5 2.2 Physical requirements of basketball players……...... 7 3. Aerobic conditioning for Team sport athletes…… ...... 12 3.1 Physiology of endurance training……...... 13 3.1.1 Energy transfer during exercise…… ...... 14 3.1.2 Acute cardiovascular responses to exercise…...... 16 3.1.3 Cardiovascular and metabolic adaptations endurance training ...... 17 3.2 Potential benefits of aerobic fitness for team sport performance...... 19 3.3 Traditional Aerobic Conditioning for Team Sports… ...... 21 3.3.1 Components of endurance…...... 22 3.3.2 Training zones for endurance training…… ...... 23 3.3.3 Traditional Aerobic Conditioning and Basketball…...... 24 3.4 Endurance training for repeat-sprint athletes in team sports…...... 25 3.4.1 Sport-Specific Aerobic Conditioning for Team Sports and basketball…...... 25 3.4.2 High-intensity interval training for team sports and basketball…...... 27 3.5 Integrated Team Sport Conditioning…...... 28 3.5.1 Concurrent training…...... 30 3.5.2 Periodization team sport conditioning…...... 30 3.5.2.1 Periodization in basketball…… ...... 32 3.5.2 Monitoring and testing endurance development in basketball…...... 33 4. The aims of the project…...... 36 5. Project planning…...... 37 6. Project implementation…...... 39 7. The description and results of the thesis…...... 40 8. Discussion… ...... 41 References

Appendices

1 Introduction

Basketball is a complex sport requiring cyclic and acyclic movements with and without the ball. During a basketball game, abrupt and intense direction changes and high frequencies of starting and stopping occur massively. Also, basketball requires loads of endurance, speed, agility, and power capabilities. Repeated sprint ability, speed changes, along with jumps and high-intensity running happen constantly in a basketball match. Endurance is the base of all the other features, so that endurance should be developed for a basketball player. (Vaquera and Radu 2019, 13.)

The purpose was to create a physical practice manual for developing endurance for a basketball team, the target group being the U19 boys’ Lahti Basketball Juniors team. Essentially, the manual is based on the literature that is covering the area of endurance. The scope was to focus only on the endurance part of basketball. The primary aim of the project is that the work is scientifically correct and use-worthy for the team. Each phase of the program should be comprehended and offer recent information about endurance training. Therefore, as a result, was to offer a good working endurance developing manual that is also used at the practices of the U19 boys’ Lahti Basketball Juniors. Essentially, there was a secondary aim that the thesis also gathers down much information about the endurance building for basketball. Also, which is the ultimate training program for developing endurance for young ball sports individuals, was one question. The structure of the thesis is: chapters Basketball as a sport, Physiological and metabolic demands, and Physical requirements of basketball players are the first chapters. Next comes the compact game analysis together with broader player analyses and offers a good information package for the reader. The Aerobic conditioning for team sport athletes chapter was versatile and handled the major part of the thesis. This gives a solid base for the program found as an appendix.

Lahti Basketball Juniors is a Lahti-based junior and hobby basketball club. It is one of the biggest and most influential basketball clubs in Finland. The values of the club are Joy, Quality, and Communality. (Lahti Basketball Juniors-lbj.) Today the club has a team of every age group and gender. The club is also a Finnish Olympic Committee “Star Club” (Tähtiseura). The fundamental idea of the club is to offer juniors and hobby players of different ages the opportunity to play basketball at a level that suits everyone. (Lahti Basketball Juniors-lbj.) Team sports, such as basketball, require a lot of aerobic conditions of players to perform at a high-level, maintain power output in repeated high-

1 intensity efforts and recover fast. That is why the endurance program is needed for basketball teams. (Stone and Kilding 2009, 615.)

2 Basketball as a sport

Basketball is an indoor limited-contact fast-paced club game developed by Canadian physical education teacher James Naismith in 1891 (Mokray). In the dynamic transition game, two units, of five athletes each (separated as PG (Point Guard), SG (Shooting Guard), SF (Shooting Forward), PF (Power Forward), and C (Center)) play at the court at the same time (Jr. NBA). The time of the offensive is in FIBA rules 24 seconds and four quarters of ten-minute periods. Overtime is five minutes long. The purpose is to score the basket to the opponent's basket and prevent the other team from scoring a basket. The winner is the team with the most points in the end. The points counted are two points, three points, and one point from the free-throw. The referees call the fouls and the clocked play stops after a foul. (Mokray.)

All the games begin with a jump ball between two players when the referee throws the ball straight up high and the opponents try to tap the ball to their teammates. Three referees will take responsibility for the rules accordance usage during the game. The referees are helped with the team of officials, who are the scorer, timekeeper, and 24-second operator. Sometimes a commissioner is taking part in matches as well. The three seconds rule shows that the player cannot be at the opponent’s restricted area for no longer than three seconds in a row. Five seconds rule means that the player cannot be with the ball without dribbling, passing, or shooting for no longer than five seconds in a row. Eight seconds rule marks the time that the ball carrier must dribble over the backcourt to frontcourt when attacking. (Radu 2015, 15-17.)

The official size ball for the men is seven (74.9 to 78cm in circumference, weight 567 to 650 g). The player cannot take over two steps with the ball, otherwise, the play is called traveling. Kicking the ball is not allowed. An illegal play called double dribble happens when the player dribbles the ball and then holds it and dribbles again. (Radu 2015, 17.)

Basketball is an international and highly popular game all over the world for males and females as well nowadays. The global federation of international basketball association FIBA estimates that there are around 450 million players in the world recreation- or competition-wise. North American NBA is the highest quality league in the world. (Realbuzz.) Basketball has also gained more popularity and overall appreciation in Finland as a sport for the last years (basket).

Finland’s Men’s team has represented in the EuroBasket tournaments 16 times, Olympic games twice, and FIBA World Cup once. The Finnish Men’s national team currently possesses the FIBA ranking of 32 (2 March 2021). Finland has had the highest Nordic country FIBA ranking for ten years straight by 2021. The women’s team has had more moderate success. The USA has been the highest-ranking country in the world by males and females. (FIBA.basketball.)

The rules and the measurements of the courts differ a bit when talking about the different continents playing systems, for example in the North American NBA or international FIBA playing rules (Sports Feel Good Stories). In the NBA, the game comprises 12-minute quarters, played on 28.7 by 15.2m indoor court. FIBA uses quarters of ten minutes and indoor court dimensions of 28 by 15 m. (Laursen and Buchheit 2019, 432.)

Figure 1 The basketball court of the FIBA common rules (Wedlake 2014)

The figure (Figure 1) shows the basketball court of the FIBA common rules as of 2021. These rules apply to the Finnish basketball official regulations for the U19 level, for example. (Wedlake 2014.)

2.1 Physiological and metabolic demands

Endurance's importance is great in sports, where performance duration extends two minutes, such as basketball. The character of the endurance performance alters depending on the performance’s duration that can vary from a few minutes to several hours. For endurance performance affecting factors are aerobic energy production ability, lengthy aerobic endurance, performance economy, and nervous system performance. (Forsman et al. 2018, 34.)

There is a fact that must be considered that the physical demands are depending on the age of the athletes, gender, playing position, and playing time. The game of basketball event lasts for 120 to 180 minutes in Finland when playing 40-minutes rules = one period is ten minutes and the game has four periods and the overtime of five minutes. Minutes that the basketball player usually plays are about under 40 minutes in the actual game. In that time, both aerobic and anaerobic energy production takes place. One vs one action within the game usually lasts for one to five seconds and therefore uses the ATP (Adenosine triphosphate). In the game, there are accelerations, decelerations, changes in directions, collisions, and jumps. The distance that the player runs is about five to seven kilometers and there are about 1000 movements in men and 650 in women. (Männistö 2018.)

Adult players have been reported to perform 105 high-intensity bouts, covering 991m with the high-intensity running in a basketball game. 50 to 60 changes of speed have been discovered and 40 to 60 maximal jumps. As mentioned, 1100 discrete movements occur during a basketball match with a player with altogether up to 217 high-intensity movements such as jumping, shuffling, and sprinting. (Vaquera and Radu 2019, 13-14.)

Basketball is a tempo game and an interval game, so the traditional endurance training should be interval training when sports-specific. The rest and work ratio is on an average of 1:1,3 and in practice the ratio changes all the time and therefore, not that strict number. Basketball is mainly an anaerobic sport that requires a good aerobic base. The older studies have shown that about 60% of the energy consumption in a basketball game would be anaerobic lactic acid-based, but the newest studies have found the importance of aerobic energy consumption and emphasize that fact. Because the game has continuous short-period sprints in favor of single sprints, the aerobic system is involved as well. (Männistö 2018.)

Both aerobic and anaerobic metabolic systems appear to be involved throughout a basketball game. Despite several previous studies, findings regarding physiological demands, especially aerobic demands of actual basketball performance, have been limited. The newest studies find out that the players use 34,1% of the playing time for running and jumping, 56,8% for walking, and 9,0% for standing. The study of The University of Nebraska Omaha showed competitive basketball greater oxygen consumption than earlier conclusions. The collegiate basketball players demonstrated 19.3% and 31.8% higher mean VO2 values of 33.4 ± 4.0 and 36.9 ± 2.6 mL/kg/min (66.7 ± 7.5% and 64.7 ± 7.0% VO2max) for the females and males. (Narazaki, Berg, Stergiou, and Chen 2009, 11-12.)

A basketball game is characterized by often starting, stopping, and changes of directions motions. It sustains which all for a particular time. Even though the U19 athlete quarter in the game lasts for ten minutes, the overall game sequent lasts for 12 to 20 seconds. Is important to notice that pulse and oxygen consumption based on physical overall load is greater in games than in practices. (Ransone 2017.) It is said that basketball requires 33 percent of physical capacities, 33 percent of skills, and 33 percent of tactical attributes (Laursen and Buchheit 2019, 425-426).

Anaerobic energy systems are creating energy for forceful, temporary muscle contractions, and they comprise ATP/PCr-system (Phosphagen system) and anaerobic glycolylysis. The first, ATP/PCr, generates the energy molecule adenosine triphosphate (ATP) from phosphocreatine (PCr) and is dependent on the ability of the muscle to regenerate the PCr molecule. The second, anaerobic glycolysis, is based on the muscle's glycogen-derived glucose. Anaerobic energy systems is responsible for the athlete's movements in jumps, sprints, accelerations, and decelerations mostly. In the research there has been noticed, that the player has repeated changes in moving patterns, that happen on an average for every other second trusting to the muscle's ability to produce a significant amount of energy quickly. The energy system's training is the key to success in a basketball game. (Ransone 2017.)

The aerobic energy system uses oxygen to transfer glucose and fat to energy and helps to maintain lower intensities and longer motions, which represents about 65% of the active playing time. The aerobic capacity associates with high-intensity work success, executing for a particular amount of time. A basketball-specific repeated sprint ability in-game results were found a positive correlation for maximal oxygen intake (VO2max), which points out aerobic system maintenance at the last phase of the game. In other studies, VO2max correlates during running and jump simulated game and oxygen uptake and intensity

6 during the game. On average, VO2max-values for male- and female basketball players have been reported by following in between 50 and 60 ml/kg/min and 44,0 to 54,0, although the values differ by position, guards have usually greater aerobic capacity than centers. A study refers to that the player's pulse monitoring during the practice is associated with VO2max-value and can help develop practical quality creating and maintaining. (Ransone 2017.)

Relatively high aerobic demand level, despite walking and standing in the game's great percentual part, refers to that the aerobic metabolism is critical in removing lactate and restoring PCr, which is oxygen groups dependable processes. PCr gives muscle energy for forceful contractions continuation. Basketball's temporary operating model requires enough aerobic readiness to maintain repeated short intensity phases. (Ransone 2017.)

Figure 2 Phosphocreatine energy system illustration (Abdemoulaie 2017)

ATP is needed when short-bursts exercises are done in sports such as weifght-lifting (Figure 2). ADP is therefore created which is an organic compound requisite in metabolism, coming from the transfer of energy from ATP along with PCr. Then ATP is again formed. (Abdemoulaie 2017.)

2.2 Physical requirements of basketball players

Body composition or low-fat muscle mass quantity compared to fat mass is usually important in most sports, and different compositions can predict success in different sports. Even though height naturally comes with genetics, proper training and nutrition can reach the changes in the body’s composition. To many basketball player's weight and low- fat mass maintaining on a long season is often the biggest problem. Most parts of basketball's top athletes are usually relatively tall and thin. Particular body composition is

7 not an indispensable factor in the success of basketball like other sports, even though it orders strongly a player's position. The guard position is typically less body mass, body fat percent, and height, while forwards- and centers are usually taller, heavier, and higher body fat percentages. Between body composition and aerobic condition have a correlation to condition, anaerobic strength, and position roles in elite basketball. (Ransone 2017.)

There is only a little information about the U19 basketball players' typical body. A study has been published, where described U19 males (n = 61) and females (n = 54) players in Madison (WI, USA). Female athletes weighted on average 61,54 ± 8,68 kg, 20,45 ± 4,65% body fat, and males weighed on average 74,95 ± 12,02 kg and 11,98 ± 4,30% body fat. In the research process, there were executed vertical jump, sprint times, and an agility test; The results were not analyzed in terms of body composition. (Ransone 2017.)

Strength, power, and agility are important predictions for basketball's performance, to name a few. Lower body strength has been pointed out to be a strong prediction for a playing position, and together with upper-body strength is responsible for the performance of made baskets. Agility is the ability to move fast and change directions, while power is a skill to combine speed and strength quickly that the best example can be a sprint or jumping ability. There has been proved that elite players to have better agility and sprint times compared to mediocre players. Point guards were noticed to be faster than forwards and centers in agility tests, and differentiations between sprints tests. A significant difference between basketball players’ levels is noticed to be a vertical jump, which leads to that the best players are aiming to jump higher than others. Within some basketball players have even 90 cm vertical jump values to fulfill top-level performance demands. Basketball players should focus on strength, agility, and power development through short and intensive practice. Aerobic production should not be forgotten, thus the training program should include also a heart- and blood vessel base-building aiming job. (Ransone 2017.)

When shooting to a 3.05m height basket, the player’s height is an important physical requirement, especially at the international level. The PG is usually the smallest player in the roster; the SG is the second smallest; the SF is the medium-sized; the PF is the second tallest, and the C is the tallest player in the team. There are a few principles that occur in a basketball game: “the smaller the payer, the lower the body mass, with resulting easier accelerations because of less applied force” and “the tactical principles of basketball usually imply that the playing zones for bigger players are smaller in area than those for smaller players, meaning that smaller players usually have to cover more distance per play or possession for tactical reasons”. (Laursen and Buchheit 2019, 427.)

When the positions are different so does the training must be individualized by playing positions (Sakselin 2019, 1).

Figure 3 Correspondence analysis between training load and performance in regard to the positions (Barca Innovation Hub)

As a corresponding analysis (Figure 3) for PG and SG, the worst performance was associated with mediocre load because they are in the same quadrant. Also, there was found a relation between workload and average execution. In contrast, outstanding performance and high workload were found independent of other categories as they are in a different quadrant. A game between higher workload and better execution was not shown for PG and SG. Analyzing SF was found a correlation between low workloads and better performance in between mediocre workload and moderate execution. High loads were related to worse performance. This information suggests that the most versatile playing position SF the bad execution is linked with higher loads. For PF and C, the connection is less obvious. The high workloads did not appear to better perform. (Barca Innovation Hub.)

3 Aerobic conditioning for Team sport athletes

Team sport such as basketball players need high-level aerobic conditioning to generate and maintain during power repeated high-intensity bursts and recover. These components can be added by executing regular aerobic conditioning. Traditional aerobic exercising, which has minimal changes of direction and without skill features, has been proven to add efficient aerobic activity within four to ten weeks among team sport players. Traditional aerobic treatments have been pointed out to increase team sport performance significantly. Many team sports such as basketball require both aerobic conditioning and sports-specific skills maintenance in a long season. Classical team sport practice has been shown to raise marginal growth or decrease aerobic capacity. Aerobic treatments have been designed by, that the required intensity is reached to aerobic conditioning development including at the same time motion and skill particular missions, for instance, small-sided games. These kinds of sports-specific training have been pointed out to promote aerobic exercising increase. (Stone and Kilding 2009, 615-616.)

Functional training is recommended for team sports athletes as an endurance training method. It is based on alternating functional motions that are executed in high-intensity. Training develops equally all ten physical features that are oxygen intake, muscle endurance, maximal strength, mobility, speed, speed endurance, coordination, motion accuracy, agility, and balance. (Männistö 2018.)

Figure 4 Conditioning for team sports (Hendricks 2016)

The figure (Figure 4) shows the conditioning “battle” between body temperature, blood pH, blood pressure, and blood sugar. Also, the aerobic and anaerobic systems that produce ATP. (Hendricks 2016.)

3.1 Physiology of endurance training

In endurance-capacity sports, the major source of energy is the oxidative phosphorylation energy system. The coach must well understand cardiopulmonary physiology when designing an endurance-based program for athletes. Lungs, heart, and skeletal muscles are the principal parts of this system. Oxygen transport is important, and it goes from the lung to pulmonary vein, left atrium, and ventricle to systemic arteries, muscle fibers, systemic veins, right atrium, and ventricle from the pulmonary artery. Training effects on the cardiopulmonary system are various. Heart rate decreases because the heart gets stronger. Cardiac output also gets more important. (Reuter 2012, 1-10.)

VO2max develops, and the lactate threshold rises when practicing constantly. The physiological economy is one of the key components in endurance exercising as well. Tolerance to heat and humidity is important when doing long-lasting races, but in basketball and other ball-sports, not so important. Bodyweight and body fat must be relatively low when succeeding the best in these kinds of performances. Skeletal muscles are one of the most crucial are very principal concepts when training endurance, they can be strengthened with running or resistance workouts. (Reuter 2012, 10-25.)

Lactate threshold is the definition of the intensity of the exercise in which the lactate accumulates in the blood faster than it can be removed (Hutchison). It is usually reached at the point of 50 to 80 percent of the athlete’s VO2max. When training with high-intensity effort, lactate threshold defines the athlete’s fatigue starting level and reduce the power of muscle contractions. (Quinn 2019.)

Figure 5 The determinants of endurance performance (Pen name psychopsk 2015 blog naver)

So called long slow distance training (LSD) requires aerobic power and capacity, which is VO2max (Figure 5). Together with O2 transport and O2 utilization the VO2max, LT (lactate threshold), fractional utilization, and running economy are created or prolonged. Also LSD along with LT, resistance strength training, and high-intensity interval training (HIIT) requires anaerobic power and capacity which is glycolysis, butter capacity and PCr store. As one they form LT, fractional utilization, and maximal performance velocity. To neuromuscular performance velocity are the variables of neuromuscular capacity such as neural control, musculotendinous stiffness, and exercise mechanism, and anaerobic power and capacity. They produce the endurance performance needed factors. (Pen name psychopsk 2015 blog naver.)

3.1.1 Energy transfer during exercise

There are three energy systems overall in the human body, phosphagen (ATP-CP), glycolytic, and oxidative. The only source of energy that a muscle can advance is ATP. The muscles only have a negligible amount of ATP. The body must make more to short bursts of exercise performances. The energy source of the cells is carbohydrates and fats, also proteins when needed. The cells receive energy from organic molecules by oxidation. Original sources of energy have different oxidation pathways that combine in the final

14 phases of energy production. Muscle cells produce energy either aerobically or anaerobically. ATP is the basic unit of energy. ATP is produced quickly, but there is a very limited supply of ATP as well. When ATP storages are used, the ATP produces anaerobically from phosphocreatine (CP), but this is only for a limited time as well, and carbohydrates, without oxygen advancing carbohydrates. (Räikkä 2018.)

Examples of athletic performances in which the immediate energy system is dominant include 100m sprint and weightlifting executions. The system produces immediate ATP- CP under ten seconds events and short -term glycolysis 30 to 120 seconds performances that produce glucose. The aerobic system works in long-term oxidative phosphorylation over five minutes and produces glucose and fat. There are two anaerobic energy consumption systems; alactic and lactic. (Reuter 2012, 1-10.)

Immediate energy is the ATP-PC-system. Immediate and quick energy delivery comes almost only from high-energy phosphates, ATP, and PCr particular muscles. This energy is the phosphagen. (McArdle, Katch, and Katch 2014.)

ATP = five mmol/kg PCr = 15 mmol/kg 57 kg female (20 kg muscle) = 400 mmol altogether 70 kg: male (30 kg: muscle) = 600 mmol altogether (McArdle, Katch, and Katch 2014).

Temporary energy is the lactic acid system. Heavy exercise continuation after short-term energy ADP phosphorylation comes from glucose and stored glycogen during the anaerobic glycolytic process. This happens when oxygen input insufficient or oxygen need exceeds oxygen usage. The action is based on mainly the lactic acid system. Several team sports are based on this system, such as basketball. Blood lactate accrual happens only when lactate removal (Ld

Blood’s lactate threshold occurs greater percentage for the trained individual ability because of genetic giftedness, muscle type, or local adaptions that prefer HLa less production and faster removal speed. Active muscle to one part accumulation lactate can

15 be oxidized by other same muscle’s fibers or less active neighbor muscle fiber. Lactate transfer between cells- fuel input occurs as well. Ability to produce high lactate content in maximal exercise rises by specific sprint- and strength training. Anaerobically trained athletes can accumulate 20 to 30% more blood lactate compared to untrained test persons. Reasons are increased inner muscle glycogen storage, 20% more glycolytic enzymes, motivation. (McArdle, Katch, and Katch 2014.)

3.1.2 Acute cardiovascular responses to exercise

Some studies suggest that defining a generalized cardiovascular response to exercise is demanding. The cardiovascular system is one part of an integrated mechanism that functions to requite for the growing metabolic demands of exercise, and performing each part is affected by the action of the others. Cardiac disease, abnormalities of the oxygen- carrying capacity of the blood, and differences in peripheral oxygen extraction that occurs as a function of physical training all affect the circulatory system. (Gleim, Coplan, and Nicholas 1989, 1.)

Many athlete motions, regardless of what mode, duration, intensity, or pattern require expenditure of energy above resting values. It receives most of this energy with oxygen. To supply the needed working muscles, and cardiovascular- and respiratory systems must work together. Aerobic training requires more energy and therefore more oxygen. How much oxygen is needed depends on the action intensity primarily and secondary to the action’s duration. (Plowman and Smith 2003, 352.)

The results of the study made by Eklund in 2012 suggest that the sequence should affect the acute responses to single-session combined loadings exist. It may, although, be more noticeable after a prolonged period of merged training of strength and endurance when thinking of acute hormonal and muscular responses and recovery. (Eklund 2012, 56.)

Also, when thinking of training spaces, full-court games result in much higher physiological responses than half-court games. Although, a smaller playing area produces a higher frequency of technical actions and more changes of direction, acceleration, and decelerations. Larger court sizes lead to more increased heart rate. (Laursen and Buchheit 2019, 432-433.)

3.1.3 Cardiovascular and metabolic adaptations endurance training

In the body is occurring structural and functional changes for appropriate so that the body can respond better to physiological load. The training must be progressive in order to be improving. Connective tissue training effects are the tension transmission in the tendon, elastic stretchability in the ligament, and compression tolerance in the gristle. The long bone’s normal progression requirement is about gravity amount of pressure towards the bone’s epiphysis vertically. Also, the height growth might increase by moderate training. The bone effects also include the fracture prevention of the bone also increases. Joint stress is also happening when moderate exercise. Hypertrophy can also happen by exercise and elasticity features. The muscle’s energy production increases and muscle’s metabolism gets stronger. Mitochondrion state also increases and enzyme activity rises. Also, the motoric units grow in numbers. The speed close to the personal VO2max level in long-length performances can happen without significant lactic acid accumulation when properly trained. The ability to use fat in energy production increases in the body and saves glycogen storage in long-length performances. When the glycogen storage empties during exercising, it enables glycogen storage to increase during the recovery. The slow muscle fibers might multiply when doing heavy endurance training. Also, the heart’s left ventricle’s growth and stroke volume increase. The blood’s effects also include during intensive exercise, both plasma, and blood volume rise. The heart’s pulse and blood pressure decrease. Also, the oxygen transfers itself more efficiently from blood circulation to the muscle when taking part in this kind of endurance training. Maximal ventilation gets better and ventilation decreases in supramaximal load. (Räikkä 2018.)

The major part of exercise health benefits is based on metabolism and vital activity changes. For the health side, the most important is endurance training, but the best value can be reached when strength training is combined with it. In exercise, the system works as a scheme in which the original part has its own connecting and reflecting factors. The circulation in the system is bidirectional. The circulatory system must be healthy that the entire body works efficiently metabolically. Exercise influences primarily those organs and organ systems that are stressed during exercising. Exercise influences also those tissues and organs that comprise regulation, maintenance, and energy production like hormonal and neural regulation to fat-, protein-, and sugar metabolism. The exercise effect is usually direct, immediate, and transient. When exercise repeats regularly and is long enough and the right intensity, the effect accumulates, learning and adaption happen. Therefore, the performance increases for athletes. During endurance training, carbohydrates and fat usage as an energy resource intensifies and weight controlling

17 eases. Endurance training affects almost every part of the body and functions, especially skeletal muscles and respiratory- and circulatory systems. (Kotiranta and Seppänen 2016, 32.)

Endurance capacity is a consequence of optimal practice that comprises cardiovascular, metabolism- and peripheral muscle’s adaptabilities. It is important to note that training and nutrition may diﬀer according to the individual needs of the athlete and can markedly impact the physiological response to training. The trainable physiological determinants of endurance performance can be broadly categorized by increasing maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max), lactate threshold (LT), and efficiency. The latter is defined by oxygen costs for particular output power or running speed. Even though a high VO2max- value is pre-required endurance execution, LT is also important, especially among athletes who have the same VO2max-value. Oxygen carrying capacity and extraction by aerobic enzymes as well as mitochondria density have a primary role in LT, and they seem to be most variable to training. Erythropoietin (EPO) works as a red blood cell production stimulation and takes part in plasma volume changes regulation that is critical for endurance when considerating between VO2max, heart’s maximal production, and blood cells volume strong relationships. (Earnest, Rothschild, Harnish, and Naderi 2018, 2.)

A relationship between submaximal endurance and the ability to modulate pain has been proved. It has been presumed that increased training volumes increase ATP ﬂux, subsequently enhancing skeletal muscle energy status, fatigue resistance for sustained power output due to improved muscle capillarization, and ultimately superior recovery from training and competition. Lately, interval training has come to a new interesting area, and it contains a high-intensity interval training (HIIT), that is executed 80 to 95% of maximum pulse and sprint practice (SIT) that is executed wholly or supramaximal. Although interval training makes improvements in mitochondria subject and VO2max, less are known of the practice intensity, length, and frequency in relation to apoplexies amount, heart’s production, bones muscle capillary density, or blood’s volume. (Earnest, Rothschild, Harnish, and Naderi 2018, 3.)

Figure 6 Explaining metabolic adaptions (Trexler 2019)

Energy intake can be explained by the figure (Figure 6). Energy intake produces energy deficit and requires body mass, and it creates metabolic adaptions along with periodic re- feeding and small, incremental dietary adjustments. Therefore, energy expenditure is happening, and that creates a circle of energy deficit and body mass back again. (Trexler 2019.)

3.2 Potential benefits of aerobic fitness for team sport performance

An increased aerobic capacity makes the players execute better technical and tactical performance during a game. Aerobic ﬁtness should be actively developed in team sport players such as basketball throughout players' development, rather than aligning exercise to speciﬁc periods of maturation based on nowadays information. (Harrison, Gill, Kinugasa, and Kilding 2015, 2.)

The endurance capacity is a basic feature that enables other attributes better making use of. During the game, the athlete can perform better in a harder capacity. Higher-level players have higher quality endurance attributes. It links maximal endurance performance

19 capacity and VO2max to playing activity in basketball. It associates the basic endurance threshold levels with playing activity. The athlete is known for getting fatigued less. It connects a good VO2max to less fatigued in repeated sprints. It links superior endurance to more efficient creatine phosphate recreation and hydrogen ion removal and buffering working muscles. Athlete makes fewer mistakes and fewer restrictions to playing tactics or skill development. Fewer injuries occur and the recovery from the games gets faster. It emphasizes this in tournaments. The athlete can train better and on preferable quality. The athlete also tolerates the working load better. (Vesterinen and Mikkola 2017.)

Figure 7 Performance factors in sport (Bangsbo 2015)

The roof factors performance, psychological and social, technical, tactical, and physical sides of sports (Figure 7) are divided to endurance performance, high-intensity exercise, sprint performance, and force development. This is understandable, because these topics are very wide and profound. Also, external factors are included together with coordination, flexibility, and sensory-motor along with muscle structure. Endurance performance affects

20 on aerobic performance and high-intensity exercise performance links to aerobic performance and anaerobic performance. Sprint performance reflects to anaerobic performance and muscle strength. Same issue is happening with the force development. Muscle structure is also affecting muscle strength. Next comes the key principles cardiovascular system and respiration system, muscle characteristics, and nervous system. Internal factors are also associating with cardiovascular- and respiratory traits. Naturally, aerobic performance connects to cardiovascular- and respiratory systems and muscle characteristics. Comprehensible, anaerobic performance relates to the same characteristics than aerobic performance. Muscle strength is in touch with the muscle characteristics and nervous system. Muscle characteristics takes many variables as seen in the figure, cardiovascular- and respiratory systems reserve blood and oxidative features of exercise, and the nervous system only affects on motor unit. The base levels, aerobic-, anaerobic-, and muscle strength training are therefore connected to everything mentioned above. (Bangsbo 2015.)

3.3 Traditional Aerobic Conditioning for Team Sports

Traditional aerobic conditioning, which is usually continuous or interval-based running with no changes of direction, has been used by many athletes during the years of the sport. Some studies have been suggesting that this kind of method is a valuable approach for the off-season, for example. (Stone and Kilding 2009, 619.) Therefore, in the manual, the first month is dedicated to the aerobic focus point of practicing.

Conditioning should be based on the metabolism requirements of sports. Scientific proofs refer to that this can be reached for basketball by using only anaerobic conditioning protocol. Tactical metabolism training based on time-motion-analysis is a sports-specific development method of anaerobic conditioning. Strength- and conditioning professionals should assess critically how they define conditioning and base conditioning protocol method by physiological sports requirements. (Taylor 2004, 28.)

Traditionally, many coaches have used running drills without the ball to develop endurance for their own sport such as basketball, football, handball, or rugby. However, continuous moderate-intensity run, bike, or swim training so-called traditional aerobic conditioning has not been recommended by the scientists for basketball players by the recent information. (Schelling and Torres-Ronda 2013, 90.) This is the reason why traditional aerobic training comprehends only the first focus point of the practices in the manual.

A coach must keep in mind that the training principles and methods should contain individuality, specificity, progression, overload, adaption, recovery, and detraining. For instance, the frequency should tell the number of practice sessions per week, intensity should tell that how hard the training is, time should be decided, and the type of the exercises should be assimilated. (Vaquera and Radu 2019, 19-22.)

Figure 8 Key findings of basketball player’s requirements (Ransone 2017)

The figure (Figure 8) states that “strength, power, and agility are important predictors of success in the game of basketball”. Anaerobic and aerobic conditioning should be trained for basketball players. The ability to continuously perform anaerobically depends the muscles’ ability to regenerate PCr. Body composition is also related to aerobic fitness and anaerobic power. (Ransone 2017.)

3.3.1 Components of endurance

Aerobic training can be divided into three components that are aerobic low-intensity-, moderate-intensity-, and high-intensity training. The most common aerobic endurance exercising method is long-lasting moderate-intensity practicing, sometimes referred to as long, slow distance training. Then there are exercises such as moderate-duration-, high-

22 intensity-, short-duration-, high-intensity-, and resistance training. Time-efficiency is important for endurance training. The “more is the better” way of thinking has become pretty old-fashioned to practice. There are three different workouts that one can train, which are long-, interval-, and aerobic workouts. (Reuter 2012, 75-83.)

Studies divide anaerobic training into speed- and speed endurance training. Ncsf refers to anaerobic endurance: “Anaerobic endurance training focuses on the physiological improvements in the muscles’ ability to endure force output through both neural and metabolic mechanisms.” HIIT is probably the most used exercising method to build up anaerobic endurance in practicing. (Ncsf.)

The aerobic threshold is the point where anaerobic energy pathways operate, at about 65% of the maximum heart rate. This is about 40 beats slower than the anaerobic threshold. Anaerobic threshold is the work without oxygen. If the work is done long, the body gets into oxygen debt. (Mackenzie 1997.)

3.3.2 Training zones for endurance training

Training zones are divided usually into five zones that are one less than 45 to 65% VO2 %max and 55 to 75 HR (Heart rate) %max, two, 66 to 80% VO2 %max and 75 to 85 HR %max, three, 81 to 87% VO2 %max and 85 to 90 HR %max, four, 88 to 93% VO2 %max and 90 to 95 HR %max, and five, 94 to 100% VO2 %max and 95 to 100 HR %max. (Seiler and Tønnessen 2009, 5).

Figure 9 Heart rate zones (Seiler and Tønnessen 2009, 5)

All the zones are categorized in the figure (Figure 9). Zone one represents one to six hours lasting efforts of performance, zone two one to three hours lasting efforts, zone

23 three 50 to 90 minutes of performance, zone four 30 to 60 minutes of execution, and zone fifteen to thirty minutes of exercise. Lactate (mmol.L-1) for the zone one is 0.8 to 1.5, zone two: 1.5 to 2.5, zone three: 2.5 to four, zone four: four to six, zone five: six to ten. (Seiler and Tønnessen 2009, 5.)

3.3.3 Traditional Aerobic Conditioning and Basketball

Team sports in-season practices are often comprising high-intensity small-sided games, intervals, speed and strength drills, and the actual games. This workload might produce a hard load for the nervous system and improve the anaerobic system. Non-sports-specific endurance training therefore should be trained in the low-intensity basic endurance practicing. That method works as a contrast to the higher intensity of sports and endurance training. On the molecule level, the training effects are coming from a different route than higher intensity training, and the overload becomes unlikely. This kind of low- intensity endurance training already trains weaker players’ endurance attributes, and the autonomic nervous system does not get stressed. When the season’s training is mostly high intensity, the off-season’s exercises are recommended to be lower intensity such as regular jogging. Also, endurance training must be done in a way the speed and strength capabilities do not decrease. (Vesterinen and Mikkola 2018.)

The data in a study made by Nick Stone suggests that a basketball-specific endurance circuit has little effect on traditional and sports-specific measures of aerobic fitness in U19 basketball players during the competitive phase of the season. The basketball-specific endurance circuit may even lead to reduced improvements in power-related performances, such as jumping and sprinting compared to typical basketball training. (Stone 2007, xi.)

Practices such as “General” orientation exercises like run-based or basketball-based drills can be done with short HIIT, long HIIT, or continuous or interval training. Short and long HIIT’s approach level is I, the second-lowest in Schelling’s and Torres-Ronda’s conditioning specific training: orientation and approach level characteristics. The continuous or interval training gets the ranking of 0 approach level on the same chart and they are executed without the ball. These are referred to as non-sports-specific exercises in which decision-making does not apply. These are, however, good for recovery workout or conditioning injured players. Common ways to do these exercises are moderate- intensity run, bike, or swim training. (Laursen and Buchheit 2019, 428-431.)

3.4 Endurance training for repeat-sprint athletes in team sports

High-intensity interval training refers usually to repeated moderate-intensity exercise phases in between recovery time or lower intensity exercise in terms of recovery. Athletes have been appreciated intervals as an efficient way to improve aerobic energy when they are added to a well-organized training program, although performance optimal combination of power and volume is still questioned. The interests in interval training have been increased for the last decades and it has progressed understanding in physiological mechanisms, with interval training improves aerobic energy supply for normal individuals and those who are suffering from chronic illnesses. One of the study’s conspicuous observations has been that interval training itself is a powerful stimulus to induce physiologically adapting that resembles typically traditional endurance training associating changes despite smaller overall exercise amounts and less training time. (Gibala 2016.)

RST and SIT are very high intensity but not all-out efforts. Levels II and III are dedicated to “Directed” orientation in Schelling’s and Torres-Ronda’s conditioning specific training: orientation and approach level characteristics. These drills can be done by simulating basketball movement patterns and decision-making might be included. Level III requires a maximal effort for practicing. (Laursen and Buchheit 2019, 428-431.)

3.4.1 Sport-Specific Aerobic Conditioning for Team Sports and basketball

Nowadays, the coaches have got the idea to practice sports-specific for example small- sided games to improve endurance capacity. This happens along with the technical and tactical ability in the same session to advance more efficient time usage for gym sessions. (Atlı, Köklü, Alemdaroğlu, and Koçak 2013, 352.)

To have sports-specific, small-sided games for the endurance training part in a team has multiple pros. Sports specificity occurs in players. Work and rest ratios happen realistically. Much ball touches are involved. Motivating players is easy, and there is a possibility to teach tactical things as well. Besides endurance improvements, the game skills develop in players as well when executing this kind of practice. The heart rate monitors can be used when tracking the players’ fatigue levels. Speed endurance phases 30 s-4 min combined with aerobic high-intensity sessions is something that ball sports such as basketball can benefit from. The success of the athletes is named to be based on the athlete’s technical, tactical, physiological, and psychological/social characteristics. In some sports, success relies on the physiological side, such as 100m sprint and weightlifting for example. Also, the success can be calculated by the variables such as the

25 cardiovascular system and respiration system, muscle characteristics, and nervous system. These can be trained by aerobic-, anaerobic-, and muscle strength training. (Männistö 2018.)

For the elite rugby players, a nine-week study was executed where metabolism treatment was executed only in skill-based conditioning games together with heart rate monitors (HR). Two cardiorespiratory condition signs were tested per week by saving periodized HR-response. In the multi-stage shuttle test, the most significant differences after practice were observed maximal HR-percent value (% HRmax). During the last test, the phase reached HR-percent value recovery (% HR - recovery) for the last episode ending to the last one-minute resting stage ending. Significant improvements for HR-recovery percent value was pointed out on weeks seven and nine and % HRmax in the last testing phase were substantially fewer on weeks four, five, and seven and nine. Additional improvements for the preseason mid-term to end in the preseason’s training phase were observed percent shares HR-recovery points on week eight and nine, and % HRmax was reached in the last testing stage on week nine. These results show that skill-based conditioning games are succeeded to improve heart- and respiratory organ fitness levels on nine weeks practice length in the studied elite-level rugby professional players. HR- monitoring was proved as an efficient and practical method for intensity quantification in conditioning games and monitoring changes of heart- and respiratory organs. (Gamble 2004, 491.)

In basketball, there is an aim to run faster than the opponent, having more strength, and jump higher. These things with less fatigue than the opponent are desirable. Traditionally, HIIT training has been recommended in basketball because of its top results. Another way of exercising is small-sided games. Basketball simulated game is competitive orientation and small-sided games are special orientation according to Schelling and Torres-Ronda in their article Conditioning for Basketball: Quality and Quantity of Training. HIT or HIIT is directed or general orientation depending on is it a short or a long exercise. The HIIT can be basketball-based or run-based. Circuit training is another practicing method that basketball players use, and it is proven beneficial in the competitive period. (Schelling and Torres-Ronda 2013, 90.)

The intensity of the exercises has been sometimes referred to as the values of zero to five. Five represents the actual game of basketball and zero continuous or interval training. HIIT and small-sided games are in between these values. Zero means that physical activity is not related to the sport of basketball. Levels two and three are so-called

26 directed orientation exercises, and level four is the special orientation workout. Competitive orientation is the last level five. (Schelling and Torres-Ronda 2013, 90.)

Response size in most cases is dependable on training’s intensity, frequency, and length, and training program’s overall length and taking part athlete’s original fitness level. Sports- specific conditioning games can be a little more stressful than traditional training methods, such as heart rate responses raising proves, which may lead to greater improvements on heart- and blood vessel functions and after that aerobic condition. These higher resistors can be seen to come from physical additional requirements that players are given when executing small-sided games, where the ball is used adds metabolic expenses of any executing on particular functioning and possibly increased motivation. (Stone and Kilding 2009, 636.)

3.4.2 High-intensity interval training for team sports and basketball

The optimization of training methods has been the point of interest among studies previously and athletes as well. Currently, they have an interest in high-intensity, temporary interval training programs. Succeeded endurance athletes’ training methods suggest the coaches should be careful not to order too much high-intensity interval training. Low-intensity (typically under two mM of blood’s lactate), longer duration efficiently physiological adaptions stimulations, and it should not be useless. On a wide range of training, total amount growth correlates well with physiological variables and improvements of performance. HIIT should be a part of every athlete’s training program. Although about two pieces of training per week in this method seems to be a sufficient performance reaching without induction of over stress. (Seiler and Tønnessen 2009, 22.)

HIIT influences on physiology and performance are relatively quick. Athletes who have stabilized endurance base and tolerance to relatively high intervals, thresholds, and a long slow distance: intensity and training loads, practice efficiency can be produced to small performance improvements. Stabilized endurance base which is built by a relatively large training can be an important precondition to moderate and reaction training intensity significant growth in the short-term. Top athletes’ training periods are reached by reducing total amounts of volume and some amount of training growth amount of lactate threshold. Practice intensity common polarization describes a transition of preparation into mesocycles in competition. Basic intensity stays the same for the entire year. (Seiler and Tønnessen 2009, 22.)

3.5 Integrated Team Sport Conditioning

For the last years, integrated training has become an important factor of training. The physical abilities should be worked in an integrated way, not separately. As for the young players, it is vital to pay attention to the key development stages and train the physical qualities rationally. Different physical aspects are added to the technical and tactical aspects, and this becomes integrated training. This is an efficient and specific method to train basketball players. Endurance is the best to practice on-court conditioning drills. (Vaquera and Radu 2019, 21-22, 27.)

Integrated team sports conditioning means comprehensive planning of training that might include recovery, nutrition, psychological, and skills besides training. The season is usually divided into general preparation, specific preparation precompetition, main competition regular season, play-off finals, and transition off-season or injury. (Mujika 2018.)

Sports periodization has been traditionally focused on athletic preparation training, but its integration has been unattended, such as factors that can influence an athlete’s readiness in competitions. Integrated periodization enables multiple practice components coordinated inclusion on particular training phases for athlete’s program. Different practice methods can promote performance improvements in several individuals- and team sports, such as basketball. Both physical and strategical periodization are useful tools to manage heavy trip schedules, fatigue and injuries, occurring the entire season. Recovery should be periodized to affect acute and chronic practice adaption and performance. Nutrition intake and timing in relation to exercise and part of the athlete’s training- and competition calendar periodization can also promote physiological adaption and performance. Psychological skills are an essential part of sports performance, and their periodization should respond to each athlete’s individual and team’s needs. Skill gathering can be also integrated into an athlete’s periodized training program to a significant input for competition performance. (Mujika et al. 2018, 538.)

Figure 10 Integrated periodization plan for team sports (Ylmsportscience)

Ylmsportscience used a table (Figure 10) that provided training, recovery, nutrition, psychological, and skills for the categories of general preparation, specific preparation precompetition, main competition, regular season, play-off finals, and transition off season injury. When focused on the training part, general preparation is more general endurance type of training such as HIIT than in-season which is more sports-specific such as SSG. Usually, the working load increases when moving forwards in the season. Also recovery gets more emphasized when at the middle and the end of the season. Skill training is focused during the start and the middle of the season. (Ylmsportscience.)

3.5.1 Concurrent training

Both strength and endurance seem to be supreme both in terms of athletic performance in basketball as well as from a health perspective. Combining the two training paradigms into the same practice session can be a reasonable solution from the time-management and convenience viewpoints. (Eklund 2012, 7.)

Concurrent training is cardiovascular endurance and resistance training during the same practice or closely together during the same day. Originally, in sports, concurrent training progressed to save time and reach several practice goals. Lately has been known that a heart- and blood vessel training mechanism and resistance training are operating at molecule level. In particular situations, they can cancel each other. (Parker.)

Hickson made one of the first concurrent training study in 1980. Strength training should be done first before endurance practice. There has been shown that signaling pathways activated by endurance training are found to inhibit acute anabolic response from strength training and return in three hours. The most ideal recovery time after strength training is eight hours before endurance practice. There is also a fact that running inflicts muscle damage because of its striking nature. Training different body parts in endurance and strength sessions are recommended as well. (Uitto 2018.)

3.5.2 Periodization team sport conditioning

Periodization is a way to execute yearly practicing with systematic planning. The aim is to produce the best possible result for the individual or a team in the competition phase by training. Traditionally, the annual plan includes the off-season, preseason, in-season, and post-season, but can alter by sport. It divides the year into macrocycles, mesocycles, and microcycles. Block periodization is a relatively new organizational strategy and refers to a

30 particular form of sequencing certain aforementioned variables throughout a mesocycle in such a way that “front-loads” a series of challenging workouts in the first microcycle of the mesocycle, to arouse larger accommodations in a particular skill field (e.g. VO2max/aerobic capacity or lactate clearance) than would normally be likely practicing a more conventional manner. (High North Performance.)

Typically endurance training programming practices are divided into basic endurance season, preparatory season, and competition season. Basic endurance- and preparatory season’s length must be dimensioned by the competition season. In terms of the wanted training influences achieving and optimal endurance performance developing one feature emphasizing training phases length should be four to eight weeks. Training’s periodization and pacing are important because a specific feature can only be developed four to eight weeks terms one at a time. Providing feature training continues after that the same, the development decelerates or even goes down. Practice periodization and pacing can get practice emphasis differing, and the improvement continues favorably. When attributes are developed in four to eight weeks phases, the training is recommended to divide into four or three weeks pacing. Four weeks rhythm is executed: three hard weeks, and that follows a peaceful week, three weeks rhythm the peaceful week is already after two hard weeks. Light weeks differ from hard ones so that training amount and intensity are dropped so that the working load stays about half of a hard week’s load. The body gets more time for recovery. Low-intensity executed endurance training works as also a recovery practice. Recovery practice has a great significance when the competitive season games occur multiple in a short-time period. Recovery practices should position so that those serve as performance maintaining as high as possible. (Forsman et al. 2018, 35-36.)

Any training program's structure is important for sports success, preventing injuries, and individual trust. Like any sports, can be used different training methods for the largest physiological acclimatization promotion. Although it is relevant that the training programs correspond to the sport, season, and athlete's individual needs. Especially aerobic endurance training programs require thinking and creativity because aerobic endurance categories belong to a wide range of activities. Aerobic endurance training program designing principles in creative usage has to focus on overload risk reduction and developing endurance. A new laboratory and field-based research have been used complex strength, quickness, and endurance strategy to prove the importance of multiple physiological components practicing, repealing the idea that a long, slow distance is the only way to train. This evidence refers to that the traditional long-term training combining mediocre-intensity training and short-term, high-intensity training can produce the same or

31 better results for performance acclimatization. Even though these three basic training strategies are all important to the balanced training program, specificity and variability are the keys to a pleasant experience and successful outcome. (nsca.)

3.5.2.1 Periodization in basketball

For example, in the Tapiolan Honka, the women’s basketball team in the year 1998-1999 used an annual plan that was divided into seven different phases. Basic endurance phases I and II (BE I in May and II in June/July), Competition preparatory phases I and II (CP I in August/September and II), and competition phases I, II, and III (C I, II, and III). Of these phases, it created the annual plan before the season, which has been separated into different phases trained features and sports practices, and also the goals of the practices. In this programming, BE I is base founding, where the athlete is adjusted to practicing. BE II meaning is constructive, where is developed mostly physical features ascendingly. The training is about running and strength training in these phases. In the CP I phase the endurance, strength, and speed that is reached will be transferred into sports skills. (Suhonen 2004, 55-66.)

In the preparatory period is important to gather information about the athlete. Achievements, injuries, and training history should be considered. The tests will be applied before the actual training. A psychologist can take an interview with the player to create an awareness of him- or herself. In a competitive period is vital to focus on the immediate preparation of the athlete for competing in sports events. In the transitional preparation phase, breathing exercises, relaxation exercises, and meditation will become a big part of practice. (Roy, Krasilshchikov, and Azhar 2008, 36.)

Another example of the programming could be a plan where are three major categories; off-season phase (two to three months), pre-season phase (three to four months), and in- season phase (six months). It could regulate the aerobic condition to two to three per week in the off-season low-intensity exercise such as bicycling, swimming, rowing. Strength conditioning should be low centered, and flexibility should be trained regularly. In the pre-season, the athletes can aerobic endurance through continuous training like interval training. Strength training can be maximal strength training leading, not forgetting the flexibility area. In the late pre-season, the basketball-based practice can happen the anaerobic endurance. Strength and power exercises could be plyometric training enhancing exercises. It can focus speed and agility on quickness and agility drills, flexibility should be maintained as well. In the in-season, all the non-court exercises should be balanced between basketball practices and games. (Sport-Fitness-Advisor.)

It seems like it is unlike that there is one optimal periodized training program which leads to better improvements for the long-term. It is likely that several combinations executed periodized be realized to produce the best results for the entire long-term training period. The best approach shows to be combining periodize methods strategically. Times outside a season and preseason without competition games allow different approaches to the periodized training which promote sufficient recovery when matches have started. Required training variation level seems to be a special individual training experience. More comprehend training programs are sufficient for younger players that do not require or advance the same multilayered variation that is used for older athletes. (Gamble 2006, 65.)

Figure 11 The youth physical development model (Virgile)

Virgille built The Youth Physical Development Model (YPD) (Figure 11) that focused on males 19 years-olds as adolescence to develop strength, sport-specific skills, power and hypertrophy, and sport-specific agility and speed. Based on the original source of YPD by Lloyd and Oliver ages 16 to 18 are the training spots for endurance. (Virgile.)

3.5.2 Monitoring and testing endurance development in basketball

Heart rate monitors can be used for monitoring endurance development and have to keep in mind that every player is different and they might react differently to the same practice. Studies have shown that players’ aerobic capacity does not improve significantly during a

33 season. (Taylor 2004, 22.) Monitoring equipment can also measure overtraining examined on the practice court. Overtraining is a continuum of negative adaptions to training (Hoffman and Kaminsky 2000, 54).

The monitors measuring heart rate may not to use in official games, however. Today, there are multiple tools to measure internal response and external loads. Both subjective and objective measurements are in use, and the technology has become cheaper and efficient for everybody. For example, an optical player tracking technology is one of the most important ones in training nowadays. Sports-specific activities such as the type, frequency, and intensity can be tracked. Sweat composition, hydration level, glucose and lactate levels, etc. can be also measured during the practice with today’s technology. (Laursen and Buchheit 2019, 433-435.)

Cardiovascular endurance can be measured for example by a 12-minute run test, a beep- test, VO2 testing, and The Bruce treadmill test protocol. To calculate the athlete’s estimated VO2 Max results (in ml/kg/min) the following formula can be used. (Reuter 2012, 27-44.):

VO2max = (22.351 x kilometers) - 11.288 A beep test formula would be: VO2max = (Velocity in km/h x 6.55-35.8 The Bruce treadmill test protocol uses the following formulas in their system; For men: VO2 max = 14.8 - (1.379 x T) + (0.451 x T²) - (0.012 x T³) For women: VO2 max = 4.38 x T - 3.9. (Reuter 2012, 27-44.)

With these formulas, people can advance the numbers for their investigation of the capacity of the athletes. There are many exercising versions that coaches can use to develop their players such as long-, slow distance-, pace/tempo-, interval-, circuit-, fartlek- , and strength training. Other tests include cycling tests, such as outdoor test: 10-Mile Time Trial or 30- Minute Time Trial. Running Three-Mile Time Trial and Swimming 500-Yard Time Trial. (Reuter 2012, 27-44.) Laboratory tests might also include a submaximal treadmill test in which the speed gets faster after every four minutes (Galbraith et al. 2014., 1020).

Figure 12 Perceived and performance fatigue influencers (Edwards et al. 2018, 2)

Figure (Figure 12) shows the qualities of fatigue by dividing them into perceived- and performance fatigue. The perceived fatigue affects can be noticed psychologically by questionnaires for instance. Homeostasis is developed by testosterone for example. Performance fatigue is building by the contractile function and muscle activation. Force capacity is in an important role in the contractile function along with blood flow and the muscle activation forms by the neuromuscular propagation and voluntary activation. (Edwards et al. 2018, 2.)

4 The aims of the project

The primary aim of the project is that the work is scientifically correct and use-worthy for Lahti Basketball Juniors and possibly other basketball teams as well. Each phase of the program should be comprehended and offer recent information about endurance training. Hopefully, the manual brings additional elements in endurance training way-of-thinking. The program should focus on U19 age athletes and be specifically intended to be a basketball endurance training program. The goal was to offer a good working endurance developing manual that is also used at the practices of the U19 boys’ Lahti Basketball Juniors. Essentially, there was a secondary aim that the thesis also gathers down much information about the endurance building for basketball. Also, which is the ultimate training program for developing endurance for young ball sports individuals, was one question. This factor is very important but often not so emphasized in basketball compared to football, for example (Buha 2019).

The advantages that the team will receive by executing this program will be multiple. During the game, the athlete can perform better in a harder capacity for better endurance capacity. Higher-level players have higher quality endurance attributes. It links maximal endurance performance capacity and VO2max to playing activity in basketball. It associates the basic endurance threshold levels with playing activity. The athlete is known for getting fatigued less. It connects a good VO2max to less fatigued in repeated sprints. It links superior endurance to more efficient creatine phosphate recreation and hydrogen ion removal and buffering working muscles. Athlete makes fewer mistakes and fewer restrictions on playing tactics or skill development. Fewer injuries occur and the recovery from the games gets faster. It emphasizes this in tournaments. The athlete can train better and on preferable quality. The athlete also tolerates the working load better. (Vesterinen and Mikkola 2017.)

5 Project planning

When I was working at Lahti Basketball Juniors, as an assistant coach, I made observations about youth athletes’ endurance capabilities. In the course of the long-term analysis result in the season 2019-2020 the decision was made that the thesis is physically orientated and endurance manual type of thesis. The occasional lack of endurance forced players to uncomfortable game-situations such as fouling, missed shots, and turnovers. The game tempo was not always ideal.

In this work, there was an aim to produce a program for training endurance for Lahti Basketball Juniors U19 boys. Programs for preseason, in-season, end of the season, and off-season are included. There was an aim that the programs are as sports-specific as possible and targeted to the U19 boys’ age group specifically. The programs and the last report should be ready by March 2021, and the entire project should be done by then as well.

The project started properly in August 2020, when the thesis literature review and timetable were created. The thesis plan was produced earlier, in March 2020. A lot of literature and research was read when in the planning phase. Naturally, the idea was developing more when I was coaching the same team of Lahti U19 in the season 2020- 2021. I also held conversations with the head coach of the team, Mike Oppland, about the thesis. A starting discussion with teacher from Haaga-Helia, Vierumäki was arranged before the writing of the thesis. The checkpoints of the thesis reviewed by the thesis director, were eventually set in November and January. The last review of the thesis was done in March 2021 (Figure 13).

Figure 13 Planning phases of the project

6 Project implementation

When the thesis is done and accepted by Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences, it will be represented to the Lahti Basketball Juniors executive director and the head coach of the U19 boys’ team. As the result of the thesis, almost a year-long sports-specific endurance supporting program is put into service for the basketball season 2021-2022, therefore the program will be executed as a support of the practical training in May 2021.

This naturally makes the program’s quality, results, and influence reviewing more difficult that are in usage entirely only in the season’s 2021-2022 ending. Because of that, the made product will remain actually untested in practice first, but the outcome will be seen in season 2021-2022 with the starting level tests in May and the second tests in August plus the ending of the season. Also, the effect on endurance development can be seen in in- game situations resulting in better decisions, higher tempo, and prolong running effort, etc. This lengthy manner causing problem, of scheduling, is from an academic point of view some sort of issue.

7 The description and results of the thesis

The result of the thesis was the manual for the U19 boys’ Lahti Basketball Juniors aiming to develop endurance for sports performance. Factually, the entire annual calendar is found at the appendix and six example weeks and the testing pattern in the end. The tests are scheduled to be arranged in May, August, and March. Games schedule is considered, also scrimmages, and the individual training phases. Also, the RPEs (Rate of perceived exertion) are described within each week. Likewise, a quite comprehensive information ensemble was produced.

Because the results are quite hard to get when waiting a season for the final concrete results, the starting level test of endurance is included in the program at the beginning, in May. After the starting level test, there is another test performed in the same way after three months in August. This way, the sample of the outcome will be seen for the coaches and players in the team already on quite a short-term testing. Naturally, the real outcome will come at the end of the season when the tough fourth quarters are played. The last test will be executed in the end of the season. Ideally, better decision-making and better shooting percentages occur in the last minutes when the endurance has developed with a certain amount of players.

The results show also that the role of a Strength and Conditioning (S&C) coach as part of the technical staff is essential and highly recommended if the aim of a team is to reach high-level competition (Berdejo-del-Fresno, Lara-Sánchez and González-Ravé 2012, 20). This is something that the team was lacking in the 2020-2021 season, partially because the S&C coach was only working online with the team.

8 Discussion

The manual for developing endurance for sports performance was created as a thesis for Lahti Basketball and Haaga-Helia. The program offers a sample week of each season phase which are Basic Endurance 1, Basic Endurance 2, Competition Preparatory, Competition 1, Competition 2, and Competition 3 along with the REPs of all the example weeks and the annual weeks as well. The weeks that are chosen are 19, 22, 35, 41, 50, and 13. Also, the tests appendices are found in the thesis. The test used is the beep test which is highly relevant for the sport of basketball. Similar movements of up and down running intervals occur during a basketball game. (Standeven.)

The purpose of the thesis was to make a program for developing endurance for sports performance in a basketball team. The scope was to focus only on the endurance part leaving strength training, speed and agility, plyometrics, mobility, and the technical and tactical side of the game out. Sports analysis, research, expert interviews, and literature were used to support the manual building process. The results were interesting on the research level and scientific supporting endurance training. The results matter because the scientific background is used to gather the information down.

The manual was created in the season 2020-2021 and the actual practical effectiveness and testing of endurance results will be done during the next season. Developing the capacity of an athlete requires adequate time because long-time static or dynamic contractions of various muscles are applied in this process (Fps). It would be recommended that the practical actions should, therefore, be the testing of the program with U19 age group athletes in the following season including the starting level test in May 2021 and the second test in August after three months and in the end of the season to get a sample of the results as soon as possible. The last tests and will be done at the end of the season to get a sample of the results as soon as possible. Development of endurance capabilities requires time and thus actual effectiveness of the training program is possible to show during the season 2021-2022 with tests and by team’s competition performance. However, the pure impact of improved endurance as possible increased winning rates is always quite challenging to prove because of many other variable impacts on teams’ winning rates.

Both aerobic and anaerobic metabolic systems appear in a basketball game (Narazaki, Berg, Stergiou, Chen 2009, 11-12). Therefore, it is recommended to train those attributes

41 in basketball practices. “Train like you play” is a quotation that applies to basketball practices. According to the Youth Physical Development Model ages, 16 to 18 are the training spots for endurance, so that is convenient to train this trait for these ages efficiently (Lloyd and Oliver 2012, 63).

Also, the endurance capacity is a basic feature that enables other attributes to better making use of it (Vesterinen and Mikkola 2017). That is why a very technical basketball game requires many endurance qualities as well.

The off-season is seemingly a more efficient time to practice endurance for a basketball team than a competitive season. There have been suggested that sports-specific basketball practices are alone enough to develop endurance during the competitive season. Precisely, maintaining the endurance suffices to train basketball practice alone during the competitive season. This way the manual found in the appendix the competitive season is dedicated to maintaining part of the training. (Oja 2014, 14.)

Past Finnish studies at The University of Jyväskylä by Oja (Oja 2014, 8-13), Sakselin (Sakselin 2019, 2-6), and Forssell (Forssell 2016, 53-56) about the sport analysis of basketball and programming were more comprehend than this thesis in terms of complexity of basketball. In addition to sport analysis also strength, speed, and tactical sides were often concluded. Also, in many studies the example year practice plan and week practice samples were often included similar to this thesis.

Chapters Basketball as a sport, Physiological and metabolic demands, and Physical requirements of basketball players were comprehensive in my point of view. The compact game analysis together with broader player analyses offer a good information package for the reader. The Aerobic conditioning for team sport athletes chapter was versatile and handled the major part of the thesis. This gives a solid base for the program found as an appendix.

Periodization is one of the most important parts of the annual training plan. The aim is to produce the best possible result for the individual or a team in the competition phase by training. (High North Performance.) The manual found as an appendix, therefore, uses the periodization tactic.

This thesis was made by the base of the past works, the literature, and the conversations with the colleague coaches. Also, the support from Haaga-Helia’s teacher was useful

42 when starting the project. The idea was developed more when writing the thesis and coaching at the same time.

The season partition of the program, Basic Endurance 1, Basic Endurance 2, Competition Preparatory, Competition 1, Competition 2, and Competition 3 is based on the thoughts of Suhonen J., Tapiolan Honka women’s team, former head coach with minor forming so the partition is as sports-specific as possible. (Suhonen 2004, 55-66.)

The training focus points, Aerobic, HIIT (High-intensity interval training), GBHIIT (Game- based high-intensity interval training), and SSG (Small-sided games) are based on the ideas of Laursen P. and Buchheit M. in the chapter that covers basketball in the HIIT point of view (Laursen and Buchheit 2019, 433-438) with little modifications. The first training phase is Aerobic because Stone and Kilding stated that traditional aerobic conditioning is sometimes efficient (Stone and Kilding 2009, 619). Maintain and Recovery parts at the end of the season represent the ideology of Oja T. who investigated the annual practices of basketball (Oja 2014, 14). The focus on training the same trait four weeks a row comes from the source of Forsman et al. that states that the endurance building is most optimal to train four to eight weeks the same feature (Forsman et al. 2018, 35-36).

Basic Endurance 1 is focused on Aerobic and its drills are based on the thoughts of Reuter B. of 10 k starting program with slight adjustments. The basic endurance 2 is focused on HIIT and also the principles of Reuter B. (Reuter 2012, 202.) Competition Preparatory phase is centralized to GBHIIT, and the drills are based on the ideas of Laursen P. and Buchheit M. (Laursen and Buchheit 2019, 433). There is the same case with Competition stage. Competition 2 uses the ideology of Vaquera A. and Radu A. in their book The Science of Basketball. The drills are focused on Maintain practice parts. (Vaquera and Radu 2019, 28-31.)

To include tests in the pattern are easy to justify. The evaluation of the athlete’s strengths and weaknesses can be measured by the test which must be sports-specific, valid, reliable, accurate, and sensitive to changes in fitness. Suitable training loads can be counted with the fitness tests as well as monitoring the successfulness of training. Short- term fitness goals are easy to set when done relevant cardiovascular testing with the athletes. (Kent Sports.)

Based on the results of this project, there is an option that Finnish junior basketball teams should focus more on the endurance side of training in the future. The game tempo has been rising for the last few years in Finland and internationally. Injury prevention is also an

43 important concept that the solid basic endurance base builds. There has been suggested that the basketball players’ VO2max is relatively lower than other team ball sports athletes’ because of their bodies larger size compared to other team sports such as football and ice-hockey. (Vesterinen and Mikkola 2018.)

As a conclusion, this type of project can be designed for other basketball teams as well and it is highly recommendable for the all ages of youth from early childhood to adolescence with certain adjustments (Lloyd and Oliver 2012, 63).

I am happy with the results of the project. The program showed to be efficient to build with the examples of the past programs and literature. Hopefully, the manual brings new missing aspects and brings results to the practices all season long at the Lahti Basketball U19 team. I learned more about the theme of endurance in basketball for sure during the preparation and writing of the thesis. Therefore, this was a fruitful project to execute.

I want to thank all the people taking part in this project, mainly the thesis director Mika Vähälumukka and the head coach of Lahti Basketball Juniors U19 Boys’ Mike Oppland. A big thanks to the Lahti Basketball Juniors organization as well for having me for seasons 2019-2021 as an assistant coach and making it possible for me to execute this thesis.

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Appendices

Appendix 1. Annual Calendar, main phases, and RPEs

Annual Calendar, main phases and RPEs

May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr

Games Scrimmages SCRIMMAGES Regular season REGULAR SEASON Practise phases Basic Endurance 1 AEROBIC Basic Endurance 2 HIIT Individual training Competition Comp. preparatory 1 GBHIIT Competition 1 SSG Competition 2 MAINTAIN Competition 3 RECOVERY

RPE 100 % 75 % 50 % 25 % Tests Starting level test Second test Last test

AEROBIC = Basic endurance training, low intensity HIIT = high-intensity interval training GBHIIT = game based high-intensity interval training SSG = small-sided games Maintain = lighter exercises Recovery = rest

Appendix 2. A weekly program for basic endurance 1 phase, week 19

WEEK 19 RPE 50% Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun

Warm-up Warm-up Warm-up Warm-up Warm-up

Run 35-40 mins Run 35-40 min Long run (10-12 k) Run 35-40 min Long run light intensity light intensity light intensity light intensity (10-12 k) light intensity

Cooldown Cooldown Cooldown Cooldown Cooldown

In accordance with (Reuter 2012, 202)

Appendix 3. A weekly program for basic endurance 2 phase, week 22

WEEK 23 RPE 75% Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun

Warm-up Warm-up Warm-up Warm-up Warm-up Warm-up

4-5 x: 4-6 x 1km Fartlek run 4-5 x: 4-6 x 1km Fartlek run 2 x 200m (200m (1-2 min recovery 2 min (1 min 2 x 200m (200m (1-2 min recovery 2 min (1 min recovery jog) jog) recovery jog) recovery jog) jog) recovery jog) 1x 400m (400m Medium intensity 1 min (30 s 1x 400m (400m Medium intensity 1 min (30 s recovery jog) recovery jog) recovery jog) recovery jog) Medium intensity 30 s (30 s recovery Medium intensity 30 s (30 s recovery run) run) Up to 7 km Up to 7 km Hard intensity Hard intensity

Cooldown Cooldown Cooldown Cooldown Cooldown Cooldown

In accordance with (Reuter 2012, 202)

Appendix 4. A weekly program for competition preparatory 1 phase, week 35

WEEK 35 RPE 75% Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun

2 v 2 Fast Break 3 v 3 Fast Break 4 v 4/4 v 4/4 v 4 5 v 5 (Half-Court) 5 v 5/5 v 5/5 v 5 5 v 5 Scrimmage 15-20 s 20-30 s 30-40 s 10-24 s 30-40 s Rest 1:2 Rest: 1:1 Rest: 2:1 Rest: Optional Rest: Optional

This Endurance training is in week 35 as a part basketball training session

In accordance with (Laursen and Buchheit 2019, 433)

Appendix 5. A weekly program for Competition 1 phase, week 41

WEEK 41 RPE 75 % Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun 2 v 2 2 v X 3 v 3 3 v X 4 v X 15-20 s 20-25 s 15-20 s 20-25 s 20-25 s Rest: 1:1 Rest: 1:1 Rest: 1:1 Rest: 1:1 Rest: 1:1

This Endurance training is in week 41 as a part basketball training session

In accordance with (Laursen and Buchheit 2019, 433)

Appendix 6. A weekly program for Competition 2 phase, week 50

W E E K 50 RPE 25% Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun The goal is to complete all the cones at both ends of the court by scoring two made baskets in a row from every five cones. Shooting drill at After every miss, one basket. the player has to run and go to the After every made other basket. The goal is to basket the player make two made has to go on the When all the baskets in a row. closest cone. cones at one basket are A passing player After every finished, the is needed to pass misses the player player has to only the ball. has to go to the go to the half- farthest one. court after a Five sets of two miss. shots for each 5-7 jumps shots player. in a row. Time: 5 to 7 mins. Intensity: Intensity: sub- Submaximal 50 to 60%. maximal. intensity.

(Vaquera and Radu 2019, 28-31)

Appendix 7. A weekly program for Competition 3 phase, week 13

W E E K 13 RPE 25% Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Only regular basketball practice during the recovery period Low intensity and work load

Appendix 8. Test plan

Tests

1. Starting level test in May - Beep test - For weakests extra individual development programs

2. Second test in August - Beep test - Target to improve at team level in average by 5% - For weakests extra individual programs

3. Last test - Beep test in March - Target to improve at team level by 10% in average compared to starting level