FITNESS AND BODY COMPOSITION IN FEMALE BRITISH BASKETBALL

Hi all,

I hope you are well.

As some of you already know, in the past I have worked as an S&C Coach in the UK for Manchester Mystics, Leeds Carnegie, the North West U17 Female Squad and the Great Britain U20 Female Team.

I have also been trying to find a way to finish my PhD here in the UK since I left Spain back in September 2008 but, to be honest, it has been impossible. I tried to collaborate with several UK Universities to no avail, so finally decided to make use of my previous experience in basketball and write a Thesis by compilation of published papers on English and British Female Basketball, which is made of 5 papers (probably 6 in the end). The Thesis will be defended at the University of Castilla-La Mancha (Spain). Since it is entirely written in English, it will be eligible for the European PhD qualification.



U20 GB Team for the European Championships in Macedonia 2009.

 This new post is just to let you know that my first PhD paper has already been published in the Journal of Sports Therapy, with ISSN 2044-0707. Its whole reference is as follows:

-         Berdejo-del-Fresno, D. and González-Ravé, J.M. Anthropometric and fitness development of British elite female basketball players: from grassroots to high level. Journal of Sports Therapy. 2011; 4(1):10-18.

Since I thought it may be of interest to some of you, here you can see the abstract:

Basketball is one of the most practised sports in the world. There is a large amount of articles analysing and studying the basketball player’s anthropometry, the basketball parameters, the physiological demands, and the fitness level of the team. However, the vast majority of these studies have focused on male basketball, as opposed to female. There are only a few studies working on British high level female basketball teams. To compare and evaluate the body composition and fitness characteristics of British female basketball players from grassroots to high level against the studies which are available in the literature. Seventy eight female basketball players from some top-4 teams that compete in the England Basketball League and 1 Great Britain National Team voluntarily participated in this study. The anthropometry tests were: weight, height, arm span, and BMI; and the fitness tests were: Flexibility (sit and reach), Agility (4x10-meter shuttle run), Lower Body Power (Standing Broad Jump), and 20-meter shuttle run Tests. Statistical differences were found between groups in the Agility and Standing Broad Jump Tests. Cardiorespiratory fitness showed a slight tendency to improve as the team’s level increased, although statistical differences were not observed. British female basketball players had fitness level and body composition values lower than high-level female basketball teams from countries where basketball is more popular and better developed. The S&C coach role within the technical staff is necessary and highly recommended to achieve high level competition.

Please feel free to share it with anyone who could be interested too.

Let's develop basketball in this country!!